Mandarin Primer

[eaglesrx]

Has anyone ever seen an LFS or online vendor sell mandarin's that are "up to 0.75"? One particular vendor was selling all kinds of sizes. They have got to be selling aquacultured mandarin's rather than wild-caught?? If they're aquacultured, then my bet is they're on prepared foods. What do you guys/girls think?

Thanks,

 

[apayan]

Has anyone ever seen an LFS or online vendor sell mandarin's that are "up to 0.75"? One particular vendor was selling all kinds of sizes. They have got to be selling aquacultured mandarin's rather than wild-caught?? If they're aquacultured, then my bet is they're on prepared foods. What do you guys/girls think?

Thanks,

I have a small mandarin goby that is for sure aquacultured because it is pretty small. No luck with him eating prepared foods. It seems like I have to train him the same way people have to train the larger ones.

 

[euromomtx]

I really don't think there are any aquacultured dragonets available yet. Go to the marine breeder site MOFIB and see how involved it is to raise them. Way more difficult than clownfish. It would take special foods to raise them (A Tonsa copepods rather than simply rotifers, etc.) and it would take months to even get them to that tiny size.
With expenses like that I would expect an aquacultured dragonet to cost at least 3 times as much as a wild caught one.

 

[JTL]

I just received a mandarin that I purchased online from a place that has been very reliable in the past. The fish looks emanciated, has clamped fins, is stressed and will not move from one spot. I have it in my QT and of course it will not eat even if I squirt copepods into his/her face. I have a DT with pod and a fuge with pods and I thought about putting it in there but I am concerned about contaminating my DT with ich or something else. Any thoughts?

 

[eaglesrx]

I really don't think there are any aquacultured dragonets available yet. Go to the marine breeder site MOFIB and see how involved it is to raise them. Way more difficult than clownfish. It would take special foods to raise them (A Tonsa copepods rather than simply rotifers, etc.) and it would take months to even get them to that tiny size.
With expenses like that I would expect an aquacultured dragonet to cost at least 3 times as much as a wild caught one.

Yeah, I just confirmed with the vendor. They're wild caught.

I've heard of the difficulty with breeding mandarin's. Matt on the breeder forum really spent a lot of work into getting them to breed. It was very interesting. I think he had 1 or 2 pairs or something similar in a nanocube?? craziness.

Thanks!

 

[eaglesrx]

just curious: which fish do you think is more difficult to keep: mandarin or leopard wrasse? I know both are tough, but wanted to get everyone's thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[kenchen77]

just curious: which fish do you think is more difficult to keep: mandarin or leopard wrasse? I know both are tough, but wanted to get everyone's thoughts.

Thanks!

If you were to ask me, personally for me it would be a mandarin. I have tried one mandarin and just could not get it to eat. Wheras the leopard wrasse that i have started eating frozen food from the second day. Maybe my luck with leopard wrasse, have got another mandarin but this time around I have got an adult hoping that I am successful with this one. If i were to fail I will give up trying with mandarins, cannot bear to see fish die due to my experimentation

 

[shluffer]

How do I know if I have enough pods for a pair of mandarins?

I have a 120 gallon tank with a 40 gallon sump, and a seperate tank with about 18 gallons of water and a skimmer. My sum is theoreticaly a fuge, but I'm not sure. I have about 90 pounds of live rock. I'm thinking that if I pick up a pair of mandarins, I will add a bottle of copepods to the sump at the same time. I'm not sure if this will work though. I have in the past seen some larger "bugs in the water (amphipods?) but haven't seen any in a while.

Any advice?

 

[KeysGeezer]

I am planning on getting a green Mandarin and have set up an HOB refugium with chaeto and started to breed store-bought copepods to feed my 90 gal dp. The first Mandarin I had died after about 10 days. I have anguished over whether or not he cleaned the tank and 120 pounds of lr of all the pods. I would see the pods on the sides of the tank and then they became fewer and fewer. He did not look particularly shrunken or underfed but the lack of visible pods make me think maybe the problem was lack thereof. He did not look abused or injured. Hence I got the HOB fuge to feed my next one.
My question is does the tank have competitors for the pods? Here is what else is in the tank:
2 ocellaris clowns
2 yel watchman gobies
1 yel tang
2 yel tail blue damsels
2 bangai cardinals
1 emeral crab
1 scarlet cleaner crab
1 coral banded shrimp
1 sally lightfoot crab
cuc of snails and hermits

Hope these guys are not competing for the pods because I surely want to add a Mandarin.

Marty

 

[apayan]

The only foreseeable competitor would be the watchman goby. It would just compete for the pods that have inhibited the sand bed though. That size tank with that much live rock and a refugium should be just fine. Just wait as long as you possibly can and let that pod population THRIVE. The longer you wait the better chance you will have.

 

[homeagain]

I feed mine in a jar, once they find they can eat in the in peice they go back for more ,have done this for over year now and most of my fish try to get in and eat my yellow tang back uup to the jar and fans him some of the food out to eat try it looks kinda dumb but it works

 

[Lightsluvr]

Mandarins and flatworms

Mandarins and flatworms

I know there are some real mandarin experts who monitor this thread. There is discussion going on in another RC forum about mandarins eating flatworms...

There is a lot of the "I heard" and I read" responses over there, so I hope there is someone here who has kept mandarins more than a year and have actually seen them eating flatowrms...

I have kept them for three years, including my current breeding pair, and have never seen such a thing... Can anybody chime in?

Please, no more "I heard" or "I read" responses...

Thanks.

LL

 

[snorvich]

Mine do not eat flatworms.

 

[Lightsluvr]

Mine do not eat flatworms.

Thanks Steve...

LL

 

[snorvich]

As a footnote, mine will eat mysis, but that is only supplemental as I only feed two to three times daily.

 

[surferboi2113]

Hi All, I'm Kind of a newbie to Mandarins, but I've had mine for a month or so. Now he eats frozen very well, but he only eats brine and bloodworms. as for pods in my tank, I do have a fuge with Calupera Taxfolia and LR rubble, but i honestly dont think i have any pods or anything.

Now my question is, I received him from the LFS with a sunken stomach and though i feed him 2x a day on the weekdays and 3x a day on the weekends, he is not getting any fatter.

Now i see all your beautiful, fat mandarins on this thread and am wondering if i'm doing something wrong or is something wrong with him. AWESOME THREAD AND THANKS GUYS!!!

 

[Nemo Niblets]

I found a female mandarin at my LFS. I have a large 3-4 in male in my BC 29 eating frozen right now, and the female is no bigger than 2 inches. There is at least a 1.5 inch difference between them, the male being much larger. Would it be safe to just toss the female in the tank?

 

[flameangel88]

I was over at the lfs two days ago getting my pinwheel repaired and saw this Mandarin in the old frag tank where the owner moved all the corals over to the new tank but left this fish behind. I know he'd this one in that tank for a long time so I took it home with me. So far I haven't seen him eat prepared food yet but but been nipping off the rocks. He's in a AP 24g that's been up since 2006 with about 40-50lbs of LR. There's only one other fish in there along with a pair of Peppermint shrimps.

Here are some pictures I just took

 

[TNTFISHY]

I've had a Mandarin for a year now in my Biocube 29(I know people say the tank is too small). The tank has been established for 2-3 years now. Plenty of coralline covered live rock. It spends its days picking at stuff, and it will eat frozen mysis and pellets. He's not as fat and cute, like the little guy in the picture. I'm going to go feed him now!

 

[JTL]

I am going to get a mandarin but I am really concerned about the need to quarantine. I can certainly quarantine but I hear that it is much better to go straight to the DT. My DT is pod rich as is my fuge, in fact I have too many pods at the moment. My concern is ich or some other disease getting into my DT. I put all my fish in QT for 6-8 weeks but is this an exception?