Mandarin Primer

Reef Pods

Reef Pods

OK, I was at LFS the other day (well, last week) and saw a bag of live 'Reef Pods' by alga glen for sale. Well, I grabbed it up, took it home and dumped it into my tank.

Being frugally minded as I am I noticed that the live algae meant to keep the pods alive was still in the bag with a few pods that stuck to the sides. A little light bulb went off in my head......

I grabbed my turkey baster and squirted until I had refilled the bag with water from my tank. I recapped it and set the bag in my kitchen window where it would receive some decent lighting. Every morning, I would give the bag a gentle shake and uncap it to purge any stale air. The shaking also let me check on the pods. After a few days, I added a few drops of DT's Phyto. A few more days later, I added a few more drops till I had reached a nice green color. Tonight, I added a fresh batch of my own home grown pods to my tank!

Now, I'm not saying you should run out to buy a bag of this stuff. Nor am I promoting it over other types of food, but...... If an idiot like me can figure this out, I'm sure you guys can take it one step further!
 
Iceemn360

It's a bit late on this reply but I'd just like to say I think your Mandarins are absolutely beautiful! I've never see any in better condition that the pair you highlight above. Nice!!
 
The way I've trained my mandarin fish (One psychedelic mandarinfish lasted about a year (tank crash), while the black scooter is about a year and a half old now.) is by using a turkey baster to spray the frozen brine by the live rock so the other fish cannot get to it. At first the scooter would ignore it, but then after a few tries he would try one as it drifted past and would then after always chase after them.

My mandarin was a bit more touchy. I had him alone in my 30 gallon tank for a month before the copepod populationd died out and he switched to prepared foods.

Both HATE pellet food.
 
Is this sufficient enough for one Green Mandarin?

55 Gallon tank.
57 LBS live rock. (will Add More)
2 Established Pod Piles.
No refugium.
Tank Has been Running for 8 mo.
 
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if you see plenty of copeopods AND mysis shrimp swimming aroudn the back/ nooks and crannies around the tank then I think you should be fine with just one. But dont rely on just that. I would highly reccomend intensive training with live worms/ brine/mysis. Its a pain but its worth it in the end!
 
okay. thank you so much. my plan was to get mysis in my automatic feeder for the entire tank as well as 4 other types of foods all given at the same time. But i guess until he takes something else I'll keep giving him special attention.
 
Maybe I just got lucky, but when I purchased my Mandarin we had a large basis of copods & he of course started out munching on those. However, within the next couple of weeks, as he adjusted more and we began to see him about and about in the tank more, he just willingly started eating frozen Mysis. I always try to put some food in the tank in another area so he doesn't have to fight so hard for food, but other than that he just went right after it once he had adjusted.
 
what kind do you have. psych or spotted? and do you all think they will eat dried mysis or just frozen mysis?
 
i have found the best pellet food for my mandarins is the formula 1 small soft pellets. my male immediately started eating them, my female is a little more picky though.
 
I've had my psychedelic mandarin for about 18 months now in my 75g with 29g sump. The sump has a big ball of chaeto and about 10 pounds of LR rubble in it. My display has about 90 pounds of established LR. I bought it from someone that had their tank set up for 3+ years. I don't know if the rock was used before that. I waited approximately 3 months after I set my tank up to get the mandarin. Pods, mysis, and other food was ALL over the tank.

My mandarin (male) loves formula 1 and 2 pellets. When I am feeding the other tank mates (2 ocellaris clowns, powder blue tang, flame angel, firefish) I make sure to drop 6 or 7 pellets near the mandarin. He immediately swims over to them and gobbles them up.

I did not do anything special to train him to eat pellets. I have not tried feeding him anything else really. Maybe I will someday. In the near future I plan on getting a small glass jar and loading it up with pellets to see if he'll go in and dine. If he does do this, I may try to add a female spotted mandarin. I believe that there is enough food in the tank for another, because I still see pods everywhere, but want to make sure.
 
pretty much how my situation is now adays. they sustain themselves for the most part but extra pellets just to be sure
 
great thread

great thread

What a great thread for Mandarins. As an intermediate reef tanker I wanted to jump to get a Mandarin as soon as I set up my tank, but I understood the idea of extreme patience in reef keeping. Somehow this did kick me in the bottom. I got a bengai cardinal pair. They both ate great in the store and in tank. I left space for my mandarin and once I thought my copepod population was thriving I added a mandarin. everything was great but then one of the bengais died and the other one got really picky about eating. When i had to restock my tank with copepods for the goby the bengai went crazy and ate all of the copepods (even though the lights were out he had a keen eye for them). Now it is as if I have two mandarin's in my tank because all the bengai will eat are copepods or brine. I will definitely have to try the techniques of weening mandarins to frozen foods. Bookmarked for sure.
 
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