Mandarin Primer
- Thread starter BrianD
- Start date
noobofthereef
New member
Can a spotted and a regular green get along peacefully?
I'm fortunate to be able to train both my dragonets to eat prepared foods.
I initially tried to get ORA ones but was told they no longer have any so I decided to try my luck in training.
I went to my LFS and they had 2 that came in on separate shipment (not a pair) but one was male the other female. Got them for $29 each and took them home. Drip acclimate for about 1 1/2 hr then I placed them in my tank. First week they kept hiding, but I would use a large syringe, a hard plastic straw from Starbucks and a piece of air line to try and spot feed them daily with nutramar ova, cyclopeez, brine shrimp and mini pellets. The female came around first and started picking from the tube, then after about a week of doing this both would come around the tube and feed. Eventually as soon as I placed the tube in the tank they come swimming. (NOTE turn all water movement devices off) Also, try to spot feed them in the same spot each time so they get accustom to feeding there.
After about a mth I now just "shoot a load" LOL on the sand where I usually feed and they come and eat.
had them 2 months and loving them, only need them to pair up now and start dancing.
My set up is a 55G up for 2 yrs and fishless for about 8mths....100lbs live rock and full of pods, also my refugium is full of pods.
link below is of my 2 beauties.
any question feel free to ask
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mNHY1sprss&feature=youtu.be
I initially tried to get ORA ones but was told they no longer have any so I decided to try my luck in training.
I went to my LFS and they had 2 that came in on separate shipment (not a pair) but one was male the other female. Got them for $29 each and took them home. Drip acclimate for about 1 1/2 hr then I placed them in my tank. First week they kept hiding, but I would use a large syringe, a hard plastic straw from Starbucks and a piece of air line to try and spot feed them daily with nutramar ova, cyclopeez, brine shrimp and mini pellets. The female came around first and started picking from the tube, then after about a week of doing this both would come around the tube and feed. Eventually as soon as I placed the tube in the tank they come swimming. (NOTE turn all water movement devices off) Also, try to spot feed them in the same spot each time so they get accustom to feeding there.
After about a mth I now just "shoot a load" LOL on the sand where I usually feed and they come and eat.
had them 2 months and loving them, only need them to pair up now and start dancing.
My set up is a 55G up for 2 yrs and fishless for about 8mths....100lbs live rock and full of pods, also my refugium is full of pods.
link below is of my 2 beauties.
any question feel free to ask
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mNHY1sprss&feature=youtu.be
Fishypapa
New member
I've heard both sides. Some say yes and some say no. Needless to say they shouldn't both be males though.
If anyone has read an Article from Matt Peterson on dragonets, he stated that he was successful in keeping 3 different pairs of different species in the same tank. I wouldn't try this because of the difficulty of feeding 1 much less multiple pairs. Otherwise the article stated as long as they are different species.
FunInFloridaSun
New member
I can only assume in this instance SIZE DOES MATTER. Of coarse I'm talking about the tank.
What an awesome thread!
I have a question about feeding a mandarin. I lucky got one from LFS that already taking frozen. He like bloodworm the most, not quite interested to brine shrimp. I have been feeding him 1/8 of a cube of frozen bloodworm twice a day, for two weeks now, but he still looks thin. Is it too little for him? How much I should feed him? I am afraid of overfeeding. I don't think there are much pods in the tank, so I would count on that.
I have a question about feeding a mandarin. I lucky got one from LFS that already taking frozen. He like bloodworm the most, not quite interested to brine shrimp. I have been feeding him 1/8 of a cube of frozen bloodworm twice a day, for two weeks now, but he still looks thin. Is it too little for him? How much I should feed him? I am afraid of overfeeding. I don't think there are much pods in the tank, so I would count on that.
Marshall O
New member
What size tank is it in? Note that even if you have one that eats prepared foods, that is only a supplement. Pods should still be their main source of food.
It's a 18 gallon AIO, won't be enough to support pods as main food source.
Is it possible to make prepared food as main and pods as supplement? Setting up a 5 gallon bucket pods culture too. Hope that would go well.
RossTheReefer
New member
I believe he had those three pairs in a 25 gallon. He must have been culturing pods though.
35galSaltwater
New member
YeahhhRight... I belief that it is important to feed pods but come on...:spin1:
Last edited:
MondoBongo
Obligate Feeder Obsessed
yeah. that is right.
they graze constantly.
if you observe them for any period of time they are 100% always on the hunt for food.
Fish_King_25
Reef Addict
I'll toss my experiences in here, probably get roasted a bit but what the heck, right?
I've had my mandarin in my 29g mixed reef for approx 8 months now..I've had a refugium up and running about 3 months before I got him, and had a nice pod population when he started..I used to have my glass COVERED all the time with pods..in the 6 months of keeping him, he is still extremely fat, very healthy, and continuously (no joke 100% of the time) is hunting for pods.
Recently I've seen less pods on my glass and in my fuge, so I am going to add a batch of 250-500 to my fuge this week (haven't decided where to buy them from yet so any suggestions on that would be awesome!)
Also an important note is that my mandarin (like most) doesn't touch anything I feed the tank with
I know people will say success with a Mandarin isn't until you've kept one a year, which is understandable..but with the size of mine and it being the first time that I've noticed a reduction in pods (not even a depletion completely) I'm confident that I'm doing okay so far...just my 2 cents!! Good luck!
Sense of nature
New member
I recently aquired a target mandarin &its not the typical green color ive seen before,
Its kinda redish/pink.
Anyone else seen this before?
Its kinda redish/pink.
Anyone else seen this before?
Damayn
New member
I've been lurking around RC for a long time and finally decided to make an account, so this is my first post (sorry if I end up breaking some weird forum etiquettes or something)
I've had my mandarin for 4(or 5, lost count :rollface
years on frozen only(there aren't that many pods in the tank), and he is easily one of the fattest little buggers I've ever seen.
Disclaimer: Now I am NOT recommending everyone that reads this to go buy a mandy and keep it in a nano. This was just my experience, and I have heard very few cases of this being successful. I don't know if my success is just a lucky outlier, but for those with mandarins feeding heartily on frozen, I believe a smaller tank with slow or small tank mates is best to ensure that the fish gets a sufficient amount of food.
Here is how I did it:
Selecting:
When selecting at the store, you have to pick a mandarin that has NO SIGN, whatsoever, of skinniness. It also has to be interested in whatever small particles pass by it in the tank i.e, if something small passes by it, the mandarin actively chases it.
My training experience:
For training, I took a 10 gallon tank, hooked up a simple tetra hang-on-back filter, and made sure there was sufficient flow as well as a few dead spots in the tank. It already had an actively eating cardinal or chromis(can't remember lol), which may have helped the mandarin figure out what food was. I bought hikari baby brine nauplii(frozen), and tossed in a cube every morning and evening, the assumption being that nauplii look almost the same as pods. I made sure the mandarin was pecking at it and actively eating it. I then added a few frozen spirulina brine shrimp to the feeding every day. It eventually took interest and occasionally pecked at the shrimp. After about 3 days, it was heartily taking frozen and I stopped feeding nauplii. I tried to also get it onto mysis, but it hated mysis with a passion, and I was never really successful.
The tank:
I actually left the mandarin in the 10 gal for a year. Then upgraded to a 20 long for another year. Now it is currently in a 36 bow front, but soon will likely be going into a 15 gal. The important part of the tank is to make sure there are dead zones in regards to flow in easily accessed areas in the tank. This will give you a place to put food and give the mandarin time to eat.
Tankmates and Feeding:
currently, the mandarin lives with two garden eels and a yellow clown goby. Essentially, the tank mates must not move a lot and be able to steal food from the mandarin, or they must not eat a lot during feedings. For feeding, I squirt a generous amount of spiraling brine into one of the dead zones and just let it sit. The mandarin does not eat all of it at once, in fact, sometimes it takes half an hour or more to eat his fill. The thing is, I don't remove the extra food. I understand that it can foul the water a bit, but that is easily remedied with either water changes or a good skimmer/filter. I also have one nassarius snail (just one small one, big ones or multiple ones can sometimes beat the mandarin to the food) to take care of any extras.
other notes:
I have tried and tried again and again to get the mandarin to eat frozen mysids. He only began somewhat taking them this year. for the last 4 years, he had been living off generous amounts of spiraling brine shrimp. He absolutely refused other foods. I chose the spiraling brine over regular because at least I knew he was getting some extra nutrition, in contrast to the relatively nutrition empty regular brine. The main thing is to make sure he has enough in the tank, and that you don't manually remove extra food.
Anyway, I know its long, but this was my experience.
I've had my mandarin for 4(or 5, lost count :rollface
years on frozen only(there aren't that many pods in the tank), and he is easily one of the fattest little buggers I've ever seen. Disclaimer: Now I am NOT recommending everyone that reads this to go buy a mandy and keep it in a nano. This was just my experience, and I have heard very few cases of this being successful. I don't know if my success is just a lucky outlier, but for those with mandarins feeding heartily on frozen, I believe a smaller tank with slow or small tank mates is best to ensure that the fish gets a sufficient amount of food.
Here is how I did it:
Selecting:
When selecting at the store, you have to pick a mandarin that has NO SIGN, whatsoever, of skinniness. It also has to be interested in whatever small particles pass by it in the tank i.e, if something small passes by it, the mandarin actively chases it.
My training experience:
For training, I took a 10 gallon tank, hooked up a simple tetra hang-on-back filter, and made sure there was sufficient flow as well as a few dead spots in the tank. It already had an actively eating cardinal or chromis(can't remember lol), which may have helped the mandarin figure out what food was. I bought hikari baby brine nauplii(frozen), and tossed in a cube every morning and evening, the assumption being that nauplii look almost the same as pods. I made sure the mandarin was pecking at it and actively eating it. I then added a few frozen spirulina brine shrimp to the feeding every day. It eventually took interest and occasionally pecked at the shrimp. After about 3 days, it was heartily taking frozen and I stopped feeding nauplii. I tried to also get it onto mysis, but it hated mysis with a passion, and I was never really successful.
The tank:
I actually left the mandarin in the 10 gal for a year. Then upgraded to a 20 long for another year. Now it is currently in a 36 bow front, but soon will likely be going into a 15 gal. The important part of the tank is to make sure there are dead zones in regards to flow in easily accessed areas in the tank. This will give you a place to put food and give the mandarin time to eat.
Tankmates and Feeding:
currently, the mandarin lives with two garden eels and a yellow clown goby. Essentially, the tank mates must not move a lot and be able to steal food from the mandarin, or they must not eat a lot during feedings. For feeding, I squirt a generous amount of spiraling brine into one of the dead zones and just let it sit. The mandarin does not eat all of it at once, in fact, sometimes it takes half an hour or more to eat his fill. The thing is, I don't remove the extra food. I understand that it can foul the water a bit, but that is easily remedied with either water changes or a good skimmer/filter. I also have one nassarius snail (just one small one, big ones or multiple ones can sometimes beat the mandarin to the food) to take care of any extras.
other notes:
I have tried and tried again and again to get the mandarin to eat frozen mysids. He only began somewhat taking them this year. for the last 4 years, he had been living off generous amounts of spiraling brine shrimp. He absolutely refused other foods. I chose the spiraling brine over regular because at least I knew he was getting some extra nutrition, in contrast to the relatively nutrition empty regular brine. The main thing is to make sure he has enough in the tank, and that you don't manually remove extra food.
Anyway, I know its long, but this was my experience.
