Mandarin! Mandarin!

[Nanz]

Teach it to eat formula 1 small pellets in QT. My Mandarins have been eating pellets for 2 years now. I only feed them once a day and they are so healthy. You don't need to feed them constantly. I was told this exact same thing when I purchased my mandarins.

 

[Nanz]

The real issue is they have a very high metabolism rate.
A mandarin eats about 1-3 pods per minute, non stop.
Even if they eat prep'd food, it's pretty hard to replicate that.
I personally would not depend on prep'd food as it's sole source, most will just slowly starve out over a long period of time, and alot of people will think they are having success in the meantime.

This is not true. Both of my mandarins are fat and healthy from eating formula 1 pellets once/day. They are both almost 3 years old.

 

[jcolletteiii]

I've just seen the first ORA target mandarins this past weekend here in SoCal - so if you want one already trained onto pellet, they should be widely available soon. They were 70 bucks (YOUCH!), compared with 15 for a much larger wild caught. The ORA mandys were all around 1.25 to 1.5 inches - quite small. Something you might want to look into if you want a mandy that will take pellet right away, and don't have the time or want to take the risk of trying to train one yourself.

 

[Guitarmasta37]

Teach it to eat formula 1 small pellets in QT. My Mandarins have been eating pellets for 2 years now. I only feed them once a day and they are so healthy. You don't need to feed them constantly. I was told this exact same thing when I purchased my mandarins.

What would be the best method of getting them to eat the pellets? Just QT him and plop the pellets in? Or is there some special trick to it? It almost seems like it's too easy haha

 

[davocean]

Nanz,
The fact that yours are still alive does not make my statement false.
Most of the exp reefers on here will agree.
I see alot of people fairly new that just don't want to agree w/ this.
Not calling you new, just saying that in your sig it says 75g plus a 30g sump, and the fact yours are eating prep'd food may help aid in your success, but they are probably sustained greatly or mainly by pods.

 

[strike2867]

The real issue is they have a very high metabolism rate.
A mandarin eats about 1-3 pods per minute, non stop.
Even if they eat prep'd food, it's pretty hard to replicate that.
I personally would not depend on prep'd food as it's sole source, most will just slowly starve out over a long period of time, and alot of people will think they are having success in the meantime.

I put a small Mandarin into my 90 with a 30 gallon sump. The only fish that might be competition for him is a Copperband I got a week ago, but the Butterfly is eating normally during feedings). He looks fat, but is there something I should be looking for specifically.

 

[L98-Z]

Mine won't touch pellets, but he'll frozen brine and mysis. He picked up eating them on his own. I'm glad he did too, because he went from a 180 gallon to a 70 gallon.

 

[davocean]

I put a small Mandarin into my 90 with a 30 gallon sump. The only fish that might be competition for him is a Copperband I got a week ago, but the Butterfly is eating normally during feedings). He looks fat, but is there something I should be looking for specifically.

I would think that is fine, and as long as it looks fat and happy...
What often happens is people just one day notice them being skinny, and often times it's too late to recover once they begin to starve.
Some methods like the Melevs diner trick can remedy that, and I have seen some come back from that, but it does take dedication and dilligence to feed as much as they need.
If you observe mandarins, their pec fins move constant, much like a humming bird, and similar to a humming bird in that they are constantly burning energy, thus the high metabolism rate, or this is what most exp reefers have come to terms w/ as true from my reading, as well as personal exp.

 

[Nanz]

A mandarin eats about 1-3 pods per minute, non stop

This statement seems false in my experience with Mandarins. But every nigth my mandarins come to the front of the tank to eat F1 pellets. They are not nipping at the rocks or the sand they are just waiting in the front of the tank. As soon as I release the pellets they go into a snapping frenzy trying to eat the pellets before my Tang does. My tang is such a pig, hehe. I am sorry if my post came across as negative because I respect all of the reefers on this site. I just have experienced the opposite of what was posted.

I got my mandarins to eat pellets by accident. I had QT the fish as I always do and during that time I could not put any pods in the tank. So I fed them pellets and frozen mysis. They were QT with a small yellow tang, bleny and a watchman goby in 20 gallon. They did not eat for the first couple of days and then they began to eat the pellets. I was afraid during this time they would die since they were not eating. After they started eating pellets there was no turning back. One thing I did that might have helped was feeding the fish exactly at the same time every day. Maybe I just got lucky with the mandarins but if mine can eat pellets then so can yours.

I have been sustaining these mandarins for over two years with pellets alone. They won't breed but I suspect that is because they need a private tank.

 

[davocean]

Understand totally, it's all learning through discussion and peeps personal exp, and often we have different exp, there will always be exceptions to the rules.
Melevs diner illustrates the fact that they can be trained to eat prep'd food, and can even recover from that method.
But I would suspect yours are probably eating pods as well, though you may not see it.
Mine in my 180g were spawning pretty frequently in a mixed reef w/ other fish, so they can do this in mixed company from my exp.
And mine also did eat amphipods as well as copepods, in fact it was pretty cool to see them wrestle them down!

 

[Guitarmasta37]

Sweet, there's a ton of good info here. Thanks much guys!

Anybody have any pics of your mandarins? It'd be cool to see what environments you keep them in

 

[ludnix]

ah dang, that's disappointing to hear. I was hoping they'd just be a whole ton easier to care for. how long ago did you get yours?

I've had my two captive raised mandarins for 2 weeks, the wild caught for a year. In the store we've had them for about 4 weeks. I have not see any pellets that will accept at the store or at home. The tiny fish eggs were the only thing I've seen them eat and they are not always available.

 

[davocean]

You wanna see pics eh?LOL
That's easy to get around here.

The spawning dance begins later at night, so usually difficult to get good pics, but you can see female fat w/ eggs here.

 

[Guitarmasta37]

dang, those are such pretty fish. it's really amazing how detailed they are

 

[cbadrik]

Make sure you get the mandarin that you want!!!! I started with a female target mandarin and then decided to put in a male blue mandarin and the target tossed him around like a dag doll. He never made it :sad2:

 

[Kates]

personally, I wouldn't do it. I had a huge copepod/amphipod population in my 20G, and thought a mandarin would be a good idea. He decimated the pod population in about a day and half, and now I feed him frozen mysis/brine and am constantly worried about him. He eats the frozen foods but unless I feed him literally 4 or 5 times a day he does not look plump and healthy. Putting some piled rocks in a corner for a pod breeding area might help. All in all, I am spending a LOT of time, energy, and money feeding this fish, which I am happy to do because he is beautiful and I'm the one who decided to buy him in the first place. I think its my responsibility to keep him in the best health I possibly can, with as natural and varied a diet as possible, and doing this is proving to be a lot of work. So if you do get one and the pod population cant support it, are you willing to bend over backward to make sure he's fed and happy? If so, go for it

 

[davocean]

I think Kates is spot on.
Years ago I had a 90g w/out fuge and a single mandy decimated pod population and starved.
So can it be done in a small tank, I can't say no, but what lengths are you willing to go to in order to keep it healthy.

 

[Nanz]

I think for a small tank you could get a mandarin as long as your sure you can convert it to eating pellets. Some LFS will sell mandarins already trained to eat pellets. If you can't convert the mandarin to eating pellets/Frozen Mysis then I would take it back to the store you bought it from.

@Davocean, Have you breed your mandarins? Do they lay eggs and you dont collect them? I have been trying to breed mine for a couple years now and they won't. My clownfish and peppermint shrimp have been breeding in my tank but not the mandarins.

 

[davocean]

Breeding them is VERY difficult, hard to collect eggs as they release them only at night.
I just let it become food.
Plus not alot of $$ for them and all the trouble, I'll let ORA handle it!
My Picasso's are another story though, stay tuned...

 

[Nanz]

Breeding them is VERY difficult, hard to collect eggs as they release them only at night.
I just let it become food.
Plus not alot of $$ for them and all the trouble, I'll let ORA handle it!
My Picasso's are another story though, stay tuned...

I use a larva collector for my clownfish. I bet it would work for the mandarins. How often do they lay eggs?