CrayolaViolence
New member
I have heard, read, and studied about how mandarins will only eat copepods. I've also heard people who won't have them because of this. Also, there seems to be a strong belief they need a very large tank to survive. Well, I have three mandarins (one who lives in a 3 gallon nano), and have been managing a copepod tank aside to make sure they have plenty of food at all times. I love these fish. They are the most beautiful and entertaining fish I have ever owned.
Today I learned something very interesting about mandarin fish. They LOVE mysis shrimp.
I kid you not. I had no idea. I hadn't really paid attention to when I put in the mysis to feed the rest of the tank, but today I noticed one of my males eating the mysis shrimp (now this is not because he's hungry, I mean it when I say the rocks and walls of my tank are crawling with copepods), he ate them because he seems to really like them. I have not given any of these to the one on the three gallon, just copepods on a regular basis (again, they are plentiful enough the substrate looks like it has an ant farm in it). I stir the substrate, run the copepods out, and he goes to work. I thought, hmm, if one likes them would the the other? I'll be damned. He does. I dropped in a little piece and he went right to work snatching them up (sometimes too many at a time and would have to spit them out to get them unstuck from each other) but then would eat them right up.
I know the two in the big tank have to have been eating them for some time because I put them in on a regular basis, but the one in the smaller tank has been eating mostly pure copepods. Now that I know he likes the mysis, wow, that will make life soooo much easier.
I thought I would share this for those who may have problems keeping their mandarins fed.
Today I learned something very interesting about mandarin fish. They LOVE mysis shrimp.
I kid you not. I had no idea. I hadn't really paid attention to when I put in the mysis to feed the rest of the tank, but today I noticed one of my males eating the mysis shrimp (now this is not because he's hungry, I mean it when I say the rocks and walls of my tank are crawling with copepods), he ate them because he seems to really like them. I have not given any of these to the one on the three gallon, just copepods on a regular basis (again, they are plentiful enough the substrate looks like it has an ant farm in it). I stir the substrate, run the copepods out, and he goes to work. I thought, hmm, if one likes them would the the other? I'll be damned. He does. I dropped in a little piece and he went right to work snatching them up (sometimes too many at a time and would have to spit them out to get them unstuck from each other) but then would eat them right up.
I know the two in the big tank have to have been eating them for some time because I put them in on a regular basis, but the one in the smaller tank has been eating mostly pure copepods. Now that I know he likes the mysis, wow, that will make life soooo much easier.
I thought I would share this for those who may have problems keeping their mandarins fed.
