Mandarin Primer

thanks to all that have contributed to this thread. I picked up a blue mandarin today. He has been in the tank for 4 hours and the lights went out about 1 hour ago. I took a flash light to the tank to find him hunting for copepods. I took some frozen brine from the freezer and offered it to him with a pipette from an old test kit. I held it about 1" from his mouth and very gently gave very small squirts. After the 3rd squirt he was chomping away and even had to compete with a hungy cleaner shrimp. He ate atleast 20 frozen brine!!!!


I'm one happy reefer tonight!

Also; to add to it I got a pistol shrimp and wheeler goby today and its looking like they have already been introduced to each other. I added them to the tank through a funnel right into the same little pre-made cave. Worked great so far but I will have to see if they endup staying together!
 
Would dosing my fuge with something like Phyto Feast be a good idea to help boost my pod population? I see tons of pods in there already but I could always have more.
 
I trained mine in an indirect method.

Empty salsa jar

it had a wide mouth then a narrower tube and then a larger chamber.

Each night for a week I woudl put a small ammount of food in the jar and set it on its side on the sand bed.

Once the mandarin figured out how to get inside I started trying diffrent foods.

My male took to cyclops pretty quickly, once he was eating cyclops easily i started adding enriched brine shrimp to the jar with cyclops, then eventually just brine, then i started slowly adding mysis to the mix. Now whatever is in the jar he ends up in thier munching away. i have a 3 day rotation going where he gets cyclops one day, enriched brine the next and mysis the third. He is fattening up nicely, he had gotten pretty skinny before adcepting the food.

He was eating prepared food before I bought him, but as some people seem to have experienced he went off prepared food for a while and had to be "retrained"
 
I am preparing to get a 85g display tank (3'x2'x2') soon with a 20 or 30g sump/refugium. The whole purpose of this tank initially will be a collection of relatively easy corals and one or two mandarins.

However, I do not like the idea of having to feed them multiple times per day, as I read that some people do. I would be prepared to feed it supplemental food once a day, but only of the frozen variety or pellets assuming it eats them.

So the question is, would a mandarin survive and grow plump in a mature(1 year old) 110g system,35 pounds of LR, free of competitors, and hopefully a never ending supply of pods from a refugium?
 
Consider looking at the ORA Mandarins... they will eat Mysis shrimp "right out of the bag"...

LL
 
Scott4879 said:
Sadly as I live in Australia ORA fish are not available here.
Click to expand...



No need to be sad...but of course you know that. Many envy your proximity to beautiful oceans, reefs and corals!

As for the mandarin, I think your fish will do fine if there are no wrasses competing for the pod population. You tank should offer sufficient live rock for pod developement and replenishment.

JMO.

LL
 
I need to move my fish from my DT to QT to address an ich outbreak in my DT. I think my mandarin will be very difficult to catch and I worry that it would be impossible to keep him well feed in the QT tank.

While we generally do not worry about ich with our mandarins, will he serve as an ich host while all my other fish are in QT? I.e. does the DT have to be fallow of even mandarins to get rid of ich?
 
I have to say I got lucky. Was at the LFS and the guy was showing me how he fed his corals. Out pops a spotted mandarin and starts chowing down. fat little bugger. I asked him about it, he tells me he's had it in there about 8 months and it always eats like crazy.

Woot, picked it up right there along with some frozen coral food. Wasn't feeding my corals at all before that. Now I have a mandarin and the corals seem to be really enjoying the feedings, lots of tentacles and noticeable growth improvement.

I didn't think I would be getting a mandarin for another 6-8 months. I also have a good population of copepods/small shrimp(not sure which they are) in my sump/fuge so I think it will last a long time.
 
I have a few questions regarding mandarins as I set up my 125. I got to thinking about the fact that my copepod population before tear down was very low, but my amphipod population was through the roof. Do mandarins eat amphipods? If they don't would it be possible to rid the tank of the amphipods and add live copepods? I will be adding copepods either way, but without removing the amphipods I worry most will get eaten before they are able to reproduce. I will have a 36 gallon fuge in my 55 gallon sump with chaeto, ulva(heard pods love it), and flame algae to get a balance of pod population growth and nutrient removal. My final question is, is it necissary to get your pods to eat prepared foods, or will a 125 gallon tank with a fuge be sufficient?
 
I would think that the 125 and the 'fuge would be plenty to support a mandarin. My only suggestion would be to wait at least six months, but probably more like a year before adding it and keep other 'pod eating fish to a minimun (ie some wrasses). If necessary, you could supplement.
 
Thanks lcs! I plan on keeping three exquisite fairy wrasses, but I don't think they are pod eaters like most of the flasher wrasses are.
 
I've heard of people putting pictures of clownfish hosting anemones so it would influence their clownfish to host, I was thinking that people could do the same with mandarins(getting a picture of a mandarin eating prepared foods).
 
I'm planning to upgrade to a 120 gallon tank and would eventually (maybe in a year when well established) add a Mandarin. I'm thinking about the aquascaping right now and am wondering if there is any advantage to a big rubble pile where copepods can hide compared to standard, larger live rock. Any thoughts or hints on what might work best ?

Thanks.
 
Well on a 120 as long as you have 75+lbs of live rock it doesn't matter. But to answer the question more porous and more crevices is better for pods but may be hager for coral placement . So yes a lot of smaller rock rather than a few large ones is better. Are you going to have a refugium? That will also help.
 
You should be fine with what you are planning on. Try and stay away from known pod predators like leopard wrasses and flasher wrasses. In a year's time your tank should be full of pods and ready to handle a mandarin.
 
Waited 2 years ..... But I did not have space until last week and I've only known about them less than a year. But have little or no other pod eaters.chromis eat pods but not as much as a wrasse so you may be safe if you have something that eats pods but not very much.
 
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