feeding mandarins and cultivating pods

[ctopal]

I bought a mandarin fish almost two weeks ago for my 90 gallon which has been running for 2 years and has a lot of live rock, no refugium. I have not seen him eat the food I feed my regular fish and corals. He is pecking at the rocks, when he does this he often squirts cloudy liquid from behind his head, any idea what this is? He is not using the "mandarin diner" either. I was wondering if there were any other ideas for feeding him, he also shied away from direct feeding with a baster.

I want to supplement my tank with pods so he doesn't starve, I don't have any other mandarin type fish who would also rely on my pods. How often should I buy some to be safe? I was looking at oceanpods.com which also has articles on cultivating pods. I haven't read this fully yet, was wondering if anyone had experience with this and what the level of difficulty is.

 

[Julio]

just make sure to feed phyto to your tank to keep up the copepod population, this is what they mainly feed on and if you do it consistently you will see a dramatic increase in your pods.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Julio, would you believe that if a proper regiment is established, a mandarinfish could be kept in a smaller than recommended size tank? I think it's more of the amount of rock, than the tank. But you know what I mean.

 

[ctopal]

Is my tank too small? I do feed phyto once a week for my corals.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

ctopal, I would believe that your tank is fine. I think the general consensus is about 75lbs+ of liverock and/or a tank about 75g+. I don't plan on getting one until I get a bigger tank anyways, I was just curious if dosing phyto is actually that large of a benefit, or if it was just an insurance policy for your mandarin to have enough pods.

 

[Julio]

i used to keep a pair in a 30 gallon tank, but that had a lot of clams so the tank was constantly being fed phyto and the pods were really out of control.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Basically, it's possible to keep mandarins in the less than recommended "space". But should be done in special situations or under extreme care and advanced experience?

 

[pisomojado]

I have a mandarin in my 55,about 100lbs LR. What I ended up doing was getting some macro that was dense and clings to the rock. I basically let one of the back corners grow really dense and jsut keep it trimmed to prevent spreading. Tons of pods and other critters in there are safe to breed, as my mandarin cant get inside the dense algae.

 

[ctopal]

I'm currently looking into building a sump/refugium. If I don't get it up and running soon, I'll probably order some pods as a precautionary measure, don't want my tank to run out of them.

Thanks!

 

[goby1]

Perhaps not a long term solution, but you might look into the zooplankton products from reed mariculture. If anything, it would be another attempt at feeding a more varied diet.

G1

 

[ChemE]

I've got a 6" DSB in my 55 as well as a 5 gallon fuge filled with dense chaeto. My wife doses phyto once a week to feed the corals. Between the detritus just under the sand layer and the chaeto, the pod population is very healthy. Our mandarin goby hasn't made the slightest dent in the pod population after 2 months.

The cloudy liquid squirting out the back of your mandarin's head is detritus the fish is sucking up from the rock and substrate. They are filter feeders and that is the reject. Pretty cool huh? I love watching my mandarin eat.

 

[jimbo045]

I say the Striped one is way harder than the Spotted one.

 

[peecook]

try looking at the tank at night with the lights off. if you see a lot of small and i mean small eyeballs swimming around, you should be fine. i also kept a mandarin in a sump/fugeless tank and on top of that i ggot him 3 months into starting the tank. he is still going strong 2 yrs later, but now he has a fuge that delivers plenty of pods.

btw- he also has never eaten any flake, pellet, cyclopeeze, frozen, or anything else i have thrown in the tank. good luck.

 

[rustybucket145]

I didn't realize what a healthy pod population I had in my tank until I invested $5 in an 8x stamp/diamond magnifying glass. You can really see them!!!

I also have mandarin (spotted) and I created an 'in tank' mini refuge/ feeding area for the mandarin. I just got a couple of handfuls of shells and piled them against an overflow corner. Then I let an area of glass around the rocks go uncleaned. In no time a thin film of algae grew over the glass and the pod population exploded in this area. Because of the shells the pods can escape and hide and then feed/breed on the glass. Around dark (tank time) every night it is like a pod orgy around the shells and on that portion of glass.

 

[rustybucket145]

Oh, I almost forgot. After a month or two in my tank, and after doubling in size. The mandarin began feeding on frozen brine shrimp soaked in Sea Chem Reef Plus. I only feed this concotion once a week and that is the only time the mandarin will eat the brine shrimp. Guess it adds that special mandarin flavor.

 

[The Reefer91]

where do you order pods? just curious

 

[rnelson]

I ordered some from these guys when I was starting my fuge on my 240 reef:

www .floridapets. com

They also have cleaner crews and one of the best selections of macro I've found.



HTH

 

[Chad-Man]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6675936#post6675936 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jimbo045
I say the Striped one is way harder than the Spotted one.

I have the S. splendidus (the striped one) and the S. Picturatus ( the spotted one) in my tank and there isn't any difference in behavior between the two, just a difference in pattern and coloration.

 

[Sever0n]

I found that my Mandarine has taken well to Formula 1 Pellet and Hikari Brine Shrimp, Eats them both as readily as my other fish do. I probably just lucked out but it's something to try.

 

[angelsil]

The cloudy liquid squirting out the back of your mandarin's head is detritus the fish is sucking up from the rock and substrate.

We joke that they are sending up 'smoke signals'. My mandarins are the stars of the tank and my favorite fish by far. My female is extremely shy and took 6 months to take to any prepared food and now only eats pods and bloodworms. The male is more outgoing and will also accept mysis.

Both of mine are spotted and have been healthy as can be since introduced a year ago. I call 'shenanigans' on the notion there is some difference in hardiness.

The common advice in the hobby is that mandarins need a huge tank (I've heard as high as 100 gallons per fish) which isn't exactly the case. The issue is feeding them. They *do* need a lot of live rock to have an ideal population of pods and other little things to much on. This can be fulfilled with a large population of live rock. a dedicated pod-growing area (a fuge) or even an entirely seperate pod-farm (which is what I currently have going in my 20).

If your fish is eating and fat then you're fine. It's quite easy to see if a mandarin is getting thin and to take action way before it becomes a serious problem. Once you get them eating a healthy diet, mandarins are some of the easiest fish to keep in a quiet, non-aggressive tank.