First time Mandarin Owner

[TMartinez]

First, let me say hello. This is my first post on your forum. I am an avid user of MonsterFishKeepers.com and was referred to this site by those guys.

While that forum is great, the salt community is small and I need some advanced help that I believe this forum would be better suited for.

On Monday I got a Green Mandarin. He is in a 30g tank with 20lbs pf LR and a AC11o refugium. Tankmates are 2 clownfish and a diamond goby.

I understand these guys are tough to care for but i'm looking for tips, advice and sucess stories for keeping these guys. I know i need more LR and a thriving pod population. What else?

Thanks in advance

 

[Liquid Hobby]

How old is your tank? What's in the fuge?

Lots more LR! I would suspect (as I do not have one but I'm researching it now) a madarin would decimate 20lbs of LR pods pretty quickly...

 

[BadSquishy]

I really like these fish...I think there is a whole thread with tips on their care in the fish section...

The biggest challenge is feeding - They're weak competitors for food and while I've not had problems getting them to accept frozen foods, this is the first hurdle...

I've found squirting blood worm into a rubble pile where they are hunting, usually gets them eating...good luck.

 

[stevie-o]

I am going to save you a lot of trouble this is what you do you take the fish back to an lfs or give it to some one with at least a 75g tank a lot of people have tried to keep them in smaller tanks, and everyone who has tried to keep them in a 30g or smaller has failed even with adding pods weekly to your tank, and also feeding frozen foods. sorry to be the bearer of bad news

 

[Lynnmw1208]

Get a Kent sea squirt http://www.marinedepot.com/Kent_Marine_Nautilus_Sea_Squirt_Feeding_Prong_Fish_Food_Tongs_Prongs-Kent_Marine-KM2711-FIFDFETP-vi.html and buy some live brine and some phytoplan (two little fishies) to give nutrition to the brine shrimp. Suck up some brine and squirt one by one at your mandarin. once they get used to the look of the tube, you can start sneaking in some frozen mysis. I did this and got my mandarin to eat frozen foods within a week. She got used to food coming out of the tube and expects it now. they seem to be quick learners. good luck!

 

[BigRedMack]

I had a hard time with mandarins, best advice is to feed them like BadSquishy said, good luck!

 

[Zebodog]

Even if you do get the Mandarin to eat frozen/prepared foods it will not be enough to sustain them long-term.

They hunt...all the time. Your current set up will not be able to generate a pod population capable of feeding the Mandarin. That said, take a couple of pieces of mysis and bury them with rock rubble; this should start to generate pods for you.

 

[chrisv]

i disagree with some of the nay-sayers. I have kept mandarins alive long term in smaller systems. in the end it all depends on the mandarin, but what people tend to forget is that if you can get your mandarin to eat prepared foods, its not ONLY eating prepared foods, its supplementing your feedings with pods from the live rock.

keeping a mandarin in a small space requires significant effort that people with larger tanks dont need to worry about. Thus, they observe that when they try the same strategy normally employed in large tanks on mandarins in small tanks (eg. relying on live rock and a fuge for food) the mandarin quickly starves.

I developed a rather annoying strategy to feed my mandarin: I have a large syringe, that i attached a long rigid piece of airline tubing to... I disolved mysis shrimp in tank water and filled the syringe. I then put the tube in the tank while the rest of the fish were distracted by more accessible food and slowly release the mysis near the mandarin. this typically gets the fishes attention. the mandarin seemed to like picking mysis out of the end of the tube that were half sticking out of the rigid airline tube.

Yes, this is a pain if youre in a rush...but if you can put the time into it and youre lucky enough to have a fish willing to eat mysis, you will do fine.

 

[marc nichols]

These are beautiful fish, but demanding feeders. I've had one in our 75 display (95 gal total) for nearly two years. He went in when the system was a couple years old and cleaned out the pods in a couple weeks. I've worked to cultivate pods and I feed live brine 4 days a week to add to his foraging. He's healthy, but not as roust as I would prefer. I made a feeding station but couldn't get him to enter it. Sad to say, 30 gallons is just insufficient, and it will not survive. Simply not enough habitat.

 

[chrisv]

the best way to get one to live is to go to a store that has many and ask them to feed them all. pick one that eats artificial food. I think its the only chance of keeping one going. otherwise they are a cut flower.

 

[bigdaddystar]

They are a tough one I am struggling with mine and I am currently cultivating pods in a separate bucket.....and trying to coax him on mysis too

Good luck....but yeah try to give him away if he is not looking to full....I will be doing the same

 

[Airwolf75]

4 years ago I purchased a Mandarin, I followed the same proceedure for training a seahorse to switch to frozen food. Now the Mandarin is quite large. The total training took a few months to complete. The end result is a hand fed Mandarin.

 

[Motaz]

I have 3 Mandarins "psychedelic" *1 male 2 female
3 mandarins "green spotted" in a large tank... They love picking off rocks and sand I managed to have them feed on Copods and pallets so far they are healthy for the past 7 or so months... Have to say in my small setup I could not jeep them... I also realized that they love crazing from rocks...

 

[gods child]

thats a tuff one in a tank that size .But for others like marc nichols with afeeding station you can try topico (fish eggs )you can get them at your local susi bar .The little ones not the big eggs .Man mine loved them sucked them down like candy.Had him for years an a fat little thing at that. Gud luck

 

[slicknick1970]

A 75 or bigger and u should have no problem. A well established fuge may help the smaller tanks sustain it tho. Good luck getting it to eat prepared food. Some do some don't. If he eats the prepared stuff u r in good shape.

 

[fightingforfun]

when i first got mine. I had a ten gal made especially for my mandarin. With just a few rocks and a fuzzy plant in there. The power filter was a weak under water whisper, so the current wouldn't be to strong. From there I trained this little sucker how to eat frozen brine and it was the best thing I've ever done from the start.

He now is in my larger 60 gal eating frozen brine and copepodes.

 

[philosophile]

Foods to try feeding your mandarin: Nutramar ova and Rod's food. You'll need to train your mandarin to eat this stuff, like everyone else said. If you can feed it live brine, that is a good way to get it to eat other frozen food. feed it live brine with some frozen brine, in little bits at a time. It'll eventually start pecking at the frozen along with the live.

Consider making a "pod hotel" out of gutter guard. Stick live rock rubble in it, and it'll give pods a place to reproduce without being eaten by the mandarin.

You'll need to dose phyto into your tank every couple of days to make sure the pods have enough to eat.