Bought a Spotted Mandarin

[pallidamors]

He is only about 1 inch long and I just couldnt pass him up at the lfs. I knew for sure that he would surely die of starvation while waiting to be sold or be sold to somebody that knows nothing about their special needs. Here is the thing, he is in a 20l now and I have been buying pods monthly from oceanpods to keep the population up. Would reefbugs be a good addition to his diet as well?

 

[snorvich]

Your odds of survival are not good in this size tank. That fish is an obligate grazer. While some will eat mysis, that would not be enough to sustain him in the long run.

 

[BangkokMatt]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11683144#post11683144 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Your odds of survival are not good in this size tank. That fish is an obligate grazer. While some will eat mysis, that would not be enough to sustain him in the long run.

I agree I'm afraid. Your tank size is minimum the size the refugium should be to keep a mandarin.

 

[cardiffgiant]

They are picky eaters that have extremely high metabolism. Pretty much if they are awake, they are hunting and eating. The ideal set up should have room for tons of live rock and an established refugium.

IMO, your best bet will be to try to find someone in your local reef club with a suitable tank.

 

[adtravels]

you have a slim chance with selcon enriched live brine shrimp, mine loves them, however if the pickings are slim so will your mandarin. And there is nothing more upsetting than a starving mandarin

 

[sean1]

You can keep some mandarins with cyclops and/or mysis but most won't and a twenty is way too small. He may survive for a while on the copepods and amphipods in the tank until he over eats them and starves. I agree with cardiffgiant. The best thing to do would be to give him up to someone with a suitable tank.

 

[tcmfish]

Ok I so I know its not the norm, but not that I stated that... My little spotted mandarin is doing great in my ten gallon dorm tank. It eats brine shrimp. Mysis is too large for it now at this stage. It also made it three weeks over christmas break with no food being added and the salinity went way up because water evaporated. The tank consists of about ten pounds of live rock on one side and a big ball of cheato on the other half. The only water movement used to be a little mini-jet and now I upgraded it to a Penguin 350 power filter. Hopefully yours eats brine but if it doesn't I would try live then mix live and frozen and hopefully ween it off live food. IMO mysis will be to large for your little guy if it is like mine. GL.

 

[cardiffgiant]

tcm, how long have you had your mandarin in that tank?

 

[snorvich]

You cannot wean a mandarin off of live food and have them survive long term.

 

[tcmfish]

I have had it 5 months so far and still have it. I have no plans of getttin rid of it and may move it to the lab eventually at the end of the year and try to breed it maybe next year.

 

[NiTr0x911]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11689002#post11689002 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
You cannot wean a mandarin off of live food and have them survive long term.

If you get a Mandarin to accept frozen Mysis and other assorted non live foods it will not survive ?

 

[650-IS350]

Ive had my mandarin for over 1 1/2 or so.. I feed him cyclopeeze granuals and HBH super soft sinking krill pellets... he mainly eats those and still goes around picking off pods here and there but relies mostly on the pellets... everyone trips out on how fat it is and healthy...

 

[BangkokMatt]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11690291#post11690291 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by delsol650
Ive had my mandarin for over 1 1/2 or so.. I feed him cyclopeeze granuals and HBH super soft sinking krill pellets... he mainly eats those and still goes around picking off pods here and there but relies mostly on the pellets... everyone trips out on how fat it is and healthy...

How do you know he 'relies mostly on the pellets'. Mandarins are constant pod grazers.

 

[pallidamors]

I add pods monthly...why wont that sustain the population? I know that tank is small, but he would have died in the fish store anyways....I bought him to try and save him

 

[650-IS350]

I watch him a lot... he moves around the rocks.. roaming but don't see him eating up pods like he used too prior to getting him to eat cyclopeeze granuals and krill pellets exclusively. He dosn't touch mysis nor brine shrimp.

 

[Cantonesefish]

Try looking up "mandarin diner." It's a technique for feeding mandarins in small aquariums. I've heard that sushi roe can be a good nutritional source of protein for mandarins.

 

[650-IS350]

the mandarin diner trick was done by melev. I'll search for the link, I had it saved somewhere.

Charles-

 

[pallidamors]

bump

 

[650-IS350]

http://melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

 

[cardiffgiant]

If you can find a place that could give you enough pods to feed him constantly, it might be worth trying. They are literally constant feeders, so they do starve if there isn't food present 100% of the time.

I honestly have not heard of people having long term success keeping one of these creatures in a system as small as yours. For the record, I don't consider 5 months to be long term success, I would consider 3-4 years long term success.

I know that you don't want to hear it, but your best guarantee for a long lived and healthy specimen is to move it to a larger system. Other than that, you'll be in uncharted territory if you get it to live for more than a few months to a year. At which point the community might be able to benefit from you and TCM telling us how you were able to sustain one of these specialized eaters for so long in small tanks with minimal live rock, and no refugium.