I don't recall ever starting a thread on Reef Central but I have been a member of the Reef Central Community for quite some time, so here goes.
I have been an aquarium keeper for about fifty-five years starting my first fresh water aquarium at about six or seven years of age. I have successfully kept reef aquariums for about twenty years now.
One of my favorite reef fish has always been the Mandarin Goby; they are such beautiful and graceful fish. Until the last couple of years they have proven themselves as on of the most difficult fish for me to keep, mainly due to their feeding requirements. Form every thing I have been told and personally read, the Mandarin Goby requires a diet of live food such as Copepods, Amphipods, Mysis Shrimp, etc. that are normally found in a well established reef aquarium.
For the past three years I have had a pair of Mandarin Goby's in my 180 gallon mixed reef aquarium (mostly SPS). A couple of years ago, as a part of my fishes diet I began feeding HIKARI MARINE S PELLETS. Over this time span I noticed my Mandarins paying particular attention to these small pellets as they sank and moved across the bottom with the current flow.
Now the pair of Mandarins come out of the rock work and eagerly eat these little pellets like they were candy. They have grown very well on these pellets along with other prey they catch and are fat as pigs. I feel these Mandarins would do well on these pellets exclusively if they had too and were feed them two or three times a day.
SO; My main reason for writing this thread is to encourage anyone who is keeping Mandarins to try the HIKARI MARINE S PELLETS, give it a couple of weeks and maybe you will find your Mandarins take to this food they way they did for me and several fellow reef keepers in the Daytona Beach area.
Current systems include: 180 Gal. reef and a propagation system which includes two 75 Gal., one 55 Gal. custom propagation tank, one 110 Gal. sump which holds several large colonies as well as some frags and one 44 gallon hex which houses my protein skimmer for the system as well as the hundreds of small rocks, discs and plugs used for my propagation.
I have been an aquarium keeper for about fifty-five years starting my first fresh water aquarium at about six or seven years of age. I have successfully kept reef aquariums for about twenty years now.
One of my favorite reef fish has always been the Mandarin Goby; they are such beautiful and graceful fish. Until the last couple of years they have proven themselves as on of the most difficult fish for me to keep, mainly due to their feeding requirements. Form every thing I have been told and personally read, the Mandarin Goby requires a diet of live food such as Copepods, Amphipods, Mysis Shrimp, etc. that are normally found in a well established reef aquarium.
For the past three years I have had a pair of Mandarin Goby's in my 180 gallon mixed reef aquarium (mostly SPS). A couple of years ago, as a part of my fishes diet I began feeding HIKARI MARINE S PELLETS. Over this time span I noticed my Mandarins paying particular attention to these small pellets as they sank and moved across the bottom with the current flow.
Now the pair of Mandarins come out of the rock work and eagerly eat these little pellets like they were candy. They have grown very well on these pellets along with other prey they catch and are fat as pigs. I feel these Mandarins would do well on these pellets exclusively if they had too and were feed them two or three times a day.
SO; My main reason for writing this thread is to encourage anyone who is keeping Mandarins to try the HIKARI MARINE S PELLETS, give it a couple of weeks and maybe you will find your Mandarins take to this food they way they did for me and several fellow reef keepers in the Daytona Beach area.
Current systems include: 180 Gal. reef and a propagation system which includes two 75 Gal., one 55 Gal. custom propagation tank, one 110 Gal. sump which holds several large colonies as well as some frags and one 44 gallon hex which houses my protein skimmer for the system as well as the hundreds of small rocks, discs and plugs used for my propagation.
