Mandarin Eating Pellets!!!!

[liquidPentium]

Guys, just wanted to share. I have had a mandarin for a couple months and have have had varied success getting him to eat mysis or brine. Least night I was feeding the tank Hikari Marine S pellets and noticed that he went crazy for them. Normally during feeding time, I turn off the pumps and powerhead, and let the fish just munch away but noticed something interesting. If I leave just the powerhead running, and drop the Marine S pellets in, some pellets stay at the surface at get eaten by my clown, but some fall to the bottom. I noticed that because of the flow from the powerhead, that it would move the pellets at the bottom just enough to look like they were alive and it drove the mandarin crazy. He was hunting down every pellet as long as it moved slightly. If it did not move, he wasn't interested but with a little flow he became an eating machine. Just thought I would share in case anyone wants to try it out with their mandarin. It was pretty cool to watch too! I love my little mandarin hummingbird.

 

[Chris155hp]

cool thanks for the info

 

[peasofme]

how big are marine s pellets? 1mm like nls and ocean nutrition small? or much smaller like nls small fish pellet? which of these pellets is it most like and what is the difference? anyone else have a similar story?

 

[layer3switchguy]

Congrats on that! Wish mine would eat pellets. I've been feeding him Nutramar, which thankfully he seems to like...

 

[liquidPentium]

how big are marine s pellets? 1mm like nls and ocean nutrition small? or much smaller like nls small fish pellet? which of these pellets is it most like and what is the difference? anyone else have a similar story?

They are about the size of a pinhead. Maybe even slightly smaller.

 

[liquidPentium]

Congrats on that! Wish mine would eat pellets. I've been feeding him Nutramar, which thankfully he seems to like...

The key to the whole thing is the slight amount of flow that will just make the pellets move every so often. If there is no flow he is less than interested. He just needs to hunt his food. Hope that this helps someone else out.

 

[peasofme]

is your mandarin a baby or adult?

 

[RobE]

I have an adult male mandarin and he loves the marine s. Mine almost exclusively eats marine s and pe mysis. It doesn't matter if its moving or not he glides around the rocks and bottom picks them up. For some reason all of my picky fish the marine s was the first pellet they would eat.

 

[peasofme]

the product details say Porous pellet immediately becomes soft & sponge-like. is this true? it immediately becomes soft when it hits the water? how much is this at petco?

 

[small alien]

That's cool. Thanks for the report. This is only tangentially related, but my Scooters recently started eating pellets for the very first time. I've had Scooters for 3 years and it wasn't until just a couple weeks ago when I got some Sustainable Aquatics pellets. I soak them in water so they sink and the little dragonets go ga-ga for them. My male and my two females. They're these little tiny orange jobs. I don't know if its the size, the flavor, the color or what. They would never take NLS pellets. I am pleased by the development. :beer:

 

[peasofme]

any other place that carries sustainable aquatics pellets besides blue zoo? they want $8 just for shipping!

 

[RobE]

I have nls pellets but none of my fish like them, except my clown but she will eat anything.

 

[peasofme]

i used nls till i discovered ocean nutrition pellets are soft and red. i still use the "nls for small fish" for small fish though. ocean nutrition prime reef flakes for the rest (they're red too). i've noticed blennies like these flakes. probably reminds them of algae. and if u crush them they're good for small fish too.

 

[MonsterTankMan]

Thats awesome i will have to try that my 3 red scooters go nuts over mini mysis.

 

[small alien]

Just had to report since I mentioned the sustainable aquatics pellets. In 3 years and about 10 pipefish of 4 different species, I saw my banded pipe eat about 4 separate pellets today. That's the first time I've ever seen any pipe eat anything other than frozen formerly live foods. Fantastique!