Help setting up a Macro Algae/Pod tank

[wonderz]

You have to train your mandarin to eat oyster eggs, fish roe, etc. You might be one of the lucky one that got one that is already trained. But usually they only go for live food. If you can see your mandarin pecking at your glass or rock and you can see pods crawling around, you should be okay. As someone mentioned, mandarin eats 1000s of pod A DAY. So you need tons of pods.

If you are keeping one in a small tank, you definitely want to train your mandrain to eat prepared food. A lot of people them while it is in QT. You feed them both live pods and prepared food like nutramar ova. Then slowly completely transition them to prepared food.

 

[drej424]

Thanks, wonderz. My mandarin is picking at things constantly. I have it in a 10G with pods, sand, and a variety of macro. But I haven't noticed any diminishing population of pods in the tank. I picked up the nutramar today. I've also been adding phycopure to the tank to feed the pods.

I have an established 150 mixed reef tank that will be the home to my mandarin after it's fat and healthy. Is it necessary to train it to eat other foods? Is there anything else I should be doing for this macro/pod tank?

 

[wonderz]

Thanks, wonderz. My mandarin is picking at things constantly. I have it in a 10G with pods, sand, and a variety of macro. But I haven't noticed any diminishing population of pods in the tank. I picked up the nutramar today. I've also been adding phycopure to the tank to feed the pods.

I have an established 150 mixed reef tank that will be the home to my mandarin after it's fat and healthy. Is it necessary to train it to eat other foods? Is there anything else I should be doing for this macro/pod tank?

Sounds like you have a great start. Once you have your mandarin trained in your 10G, you can move it to your 150G. The key is make sure it eats at least one type of prepared food so it does not starve. It will learn to eat other food once its in the bigger tank and see other fish pick on other type of food. mandarin are pretty hardy other than their food requirement.

I think some people might suggest you put your mandarin to your 150G right away since it might have more pods than your 10G. But imo it is better that you train it first at the 10G since it will be harder to train in the bigger tank. But it is up to you.

 

[drej424]

Thanks for the input. I think I will move him as soon as he looks round, like the pix above. Then I'll keep the 10g strictly for macro & pods.