Green Mandarin care

[Jason604]

Just got myself a mandarin two days ago n tossed it right into my DT 75g reef tank 8months old. Since then its been hiding in rocks and won't come out. I squirted a bunch if frozen mysis shrimp into the caves and I saw him pecking around but couldn't tell if he was actually eating it or not. Is this normal that he won't come out of the caves? I have 6 other fishes in my tank

 

[reefgoddess808]

I would give him a few more days. Also try feeding brine shrimp as well. I have had mine for almost 8 months now. He has always been pretty social though.

 

[Jason604]

I bought the dried brine shrimp eggs. It doesn't seem like they hatching. I just put It in a bottle with an air pump and left the floating bottle in my sump for a day now and all the eggs just an the bottom of the bottle.

 

[Jason604]

Got them to hatch. What's the best way of keeping them alive in my tank so I don't have to keep turkey blasting them at my mandarin? Can I just squirt a bunch into my chaeto?

 

[snorvich]

What other fish are in the tank?

 

[Biotopes]

Got them to hatch. What's the best way of keeping them alive in my tank so I don't have to keep turkey blasting them at my mandarin? Can I just squirt a bunch into my chaeto?

Run a full time culture in some 2 liter soda bottles! :thumbsup: They probably won't survive in any significant numbers in your DT or sump. Corals will snatch them, feather dusters will too, some anemones, almost all your fish etc

 

[Jason604]

What other fish are in the tank?

A bi-coloured blenny 2.5", banded sifter goby 3", yellow tang 4", 2 adult clown fishes, a half pink and yellow fish I forgot the name I that's pretty aggressive 2" and then there's the mandarin all in my 75. I notice he came out of the rocks today but just chills on sand Ben. I never rly seen him swim around but more like crawl/float around on surfaces. Is this normal?

Run a full time culture in some 2 liter soda bottles! :thumbsup: They probably won't survive in any significant numbers in your DT or sump. Corals will snatch them, feather dusters will too, some anemones, almost all your fish etc

I don't mind things eating them since it will
Make everything healthier "I think" as long as the mandarin gets some since brine shrimp eggs are sooo cheap. So should I just float my pop bottle on my sump and just take some out and squirt into my DT every so often? Or is there a better more efficient way?

 

[snorvich]

It sounds as if your mandarin was captured using cyanide. If it were not intimidated and "normal", it would be pecking the rocks for its natural food which is copepods. My initial question was about intimidation but it is not obviously the case.

 

[Biotopes]

I don't mind things eating them since it will
Make everything healthier "I think" as long as the mandarin gets some since brine shrimp eggs are sooo cheap. So should I just float my pop bottle on my sump and just take some out and squirt into my DT every so often? Or is there a better more efficient way?

I meant if you squirt some into your chaeto, there won't ever really be a significant population because they aren't like 'pods. Brine Shrimp are constantly moving. You can float a 2 Liter if you'd like, but I would get 5 or 6 bottles, start a brine shrimp culture and enrich them. When you're ready to feed the tank, you can dump some of the brine-shrimp-filled water into the tank. Or you can take the tiny plastic kids water bottles and do the same thing. I used to have about 20 of those ready at a time, and then I'd pour an entire bottle into the DT and there would be a mini feeding frenzy. I probably poured a good 200 brine shrimp in with each bottle. :dance: Live food is the best for fish IMO

 

[MondoBongo]

here are some of my posts about my experiences with my mandy:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367532
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2374330

 

[Jason604]

I meant if you squirt some into your chaeto, there won't ever really be a significant population because they aren't like 'pods. Brine Shrimp are constantly moving. You can float a 2 Liter if you'd like, but I would get 5 or 6 bottles, start a brine shrimp culture and enrich them. When you're ready to feed the tank, you can dump some of the brine-shrimp-filled water into the tank. Or you can take the tiny plastic kids water bottles and do the same thing. I used to have about 20 of those ready at a time, and then I'd pour an entire bottle into the DT and there would be a mini feeding frenzy. I probably poured a good 200 brine shrimp in with each bottle. :dance: Live food is the best for fish IMO

Wouldn't the water in the bottle contaminate my tank?

 

[Biotopes]

I emptied the bottles and added waste water from my nano to them. You can reuse saltwater several times I've found! Reef water to FOWLR to mysis cultures to brine shrimp cultures to evaporating the water so that you have clean, reusable salt again! And if you wanted you could even catch the evaporating water and run it to a collection container and reuse ALL the water!

 

[lilyep125]

I thaw a tiny cube of brine shrimp in an empty snail shell then place it in the sand where my mandarin camps out and most of the time he will come and eat it from there

 

[snorvich]

Well, it has been a month (almost), is the mandarin hunting?