Feeding Mandarins Fish Roe
- Thread starter rayr18
- Start date
How do you feed it to them..dropper and what about other fish do they eat it before Mandarin gets to it?
Thanks for your response
You can target feed them, but you're right the other fish still get it. To solve that problem I got one of these (they ship to the USA). It took a little while to "train" my Mandarins to visit it. But now they go in it all the time, and I shoot some nutramar ova in there at least once a day.
So helpful. this will help a lot.. I like the Dragonet Den website also.. Thanks so much
Thanks for the response
Since you seem so nice & polite, I searched for and found Paul B's "feeding station" thread. This is another DIY option for feeding Mandys: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2113800
Thanks...Does yours happen to eat brine shrimp at all b/c my Mandarin shows no interest? I think I did see her picking at som Roe that I dropped on the sandbed. I happened to find the one you recommeded at the LFS. She seems to be looking a little healthier than when I first brought her home from the LFS almost 3 weeks ago.
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Neither one eats brine as far as I can tell. The male started eating roe while in QT; and then the female started after watching him do it. In the many years I've kept Mandys; I've found you have to "train them" to eat anything other than pods. For example, once they start eating something (i.e. roe) you can start mixing other things in with it in the hopes they'll start eating that too. Some have even gotten theirs to eat small pellets this way (I'm still trying). So, if you want yours to eat frozen brine; start mixing it in when you feed roe. Keep in mind only large Mandys will usually eat brine/mysis because of the size of their mouths. And training them is a slow, painstaking process... it takes lots of patience. I think sometimes they just mistakenly eat something you mix in, find they actually like it, and will eat it from then on in.
Interesting. A mandarin is not a fish that I would normally buy given their feeding habits, but I bought a tank breakdown on Craigslist back in March and it 'came with' a pair. One was thin and pale; the other chubby and colorful. The former passed quite quickly, but the latter remains chubby even though I have never actually seen it eat any of the foods I add. It picks at the rocks all day, and I suppose after almost 5 months it must be getting adequate food to survive? There is a decent, though not excessive, population of good sized pods.
What size tank? Do you have a refugium?..I would add pods every few months to replenish the population.
Mine does not seem to eat the pods. Some of them jump on her! So far, she's doing best with newly hatched baby brine. I got a hatchery dish from brine shrimp direct and it comes with eggs. You don't need a heater or an air pump. You just put saltwater in the dish, add the eggs, and the next day, you can start harvesting! It's so easy. I find that I can harvest baby brine for three days and then, I clean everything and make a new batch.
Hi Denise,
Where do you buy those brine shrimp eggs online or at the LFS? I appreciate your input.
Thanks,
Ray
That's great, Ray! I get the brine shrimp eggs from www.brineshrimpdirect.com. I tried their frozen food, too, and it's really clean. There's not much water in it and my fish love it. I got the frozen rotifer cubes, but the mandarin doesn't eat it. Good job getting yours to eat frozen! I understand that that is really important for their long term survival.
H.reidi.MN
New member
I'm gonna have to pick up some goodies pretty soon. My Mandy is living of pods just fine in my 120.. When I move the tank at the end of the month my male is going into a 10 gal to train him on other foods easier and with less competition. I plan on adding a female in with him as well to train them both..
For long term survival I think that is smart to trainyour Mandarin to eat frozen food..I have mine in a 20 g and she will stay there until she is eating frozen foods consistently.
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