mandarin goby
- Thread starter snake1
- Start date
aguila88psi
Zoa Addict
You can try frozen rotifers, take him out and put him in a different 5-10g tank and dump a cube or two in the tank to see if he eats them, good luck.
aguila88psi
Zoa Addict
No problem, you can also try nutrimar ova but its hard to come by online and no one carries it locally
BlueCoast
New member
They are visual hunters, they like to see their food moving to trigger the feeding response. See if you can find some live brine shrimp and soak them in a little selcon or phyto to gut load them(more nutritious for mandarin). Mine also eat live black worms.
I had problems with other fish eating them too quick, the solution was a gatorade bottle with the top cut off that had a tube coming to the surface. I shot food down the tube and the mandarin would pig out. It helped to keep all the food in one spot, in the tank it would float away before they could eat it, even with the circ pumps off.
I had problems with other fish eating them too quick, the solution was a gatorade bottle with the top cut off that had a tube coming to the surface. I shot food down the tube and the mandarin would pig out. It helped to keep all the food in one spot, in the tank it would float away before they could eat it, even with the circ pumps off.
aguila88psi
Zoa Addict
I trained a female spotted mandarin to eat pellets. It would watch the sinking pellets but not bite or eat them. Then it got curiuos enough or hungry enough that it ate one of the pellets as it was falling, my guess is that she liked it or was super hungry one of the two. I would then put pellets in front of her and she would eat them no problem. It got to the point where she was hunting for the pellets. Had her for three days, the third day she ate pellets, the next morning she jumped out 
. From my experience, female mandarins take to prepared foods faster or more readily than male mandarins.
. From my experience, female mandarins take to prepared foods faster or more readily than male mandarins.
Lauracooks
New member
Ive been hatching brine shrimp for my scooter blenny and he eats them. He is very small and I have been putting them in at 2 days old.
listen2bob
- David
I noticed the other day mine eats frozen brine and mysis
BlueCoast
New member
In the wild they eat benthic copepods, little pods that live on surfaces. They do not eat pelagic copepods, like rotifers, that live in the water column.
I have never seen a mandarin go after amphipods, although I'd guess they occasionally do.
I had good luck with tisbe biminiensis pods. I ordered a batch online and was culturing them to replenish the tank regularly. I also used live or frozen brine to supplement.
In home tanks they usually take a little training to go after frozen food or pellets. There are posts about using a breeder net to help train them.
The best way to gauge the thinness of a mandarin is to try to catch a look at their underside. The belly is hard to see from the top or side, but from below it should NOT suck in, it should be plump and at the least flat along the body.
