Mandarin

[bfoleyiii]

I have a 90g tank and the wife would like a mandarin. We understand that we are still months away from making that purchase but I am wondering about what they eat. I have read they eat a variety of pods so I have been checking out the system after lights out to see what all is crawling around.

I have seen little tiny ones on the glass (copepods I think, they look like the ones my LFS has in a bottle but mine are not red) and some larger (small like 1/8 of an inch up to 3/8 or 1/2 and inch) some of these larger ones seem to curl their tail up under them.

Which of these is a mandarin going to be eating. While I dont expect a healthy fish to every turn down a meal I dont see a fish eating these bigger pods all day non stop so I am guessing it would be the smaller vaiety (also leaning this way as that is what I found at the LFS).

I am currently looking at my stand/sump for a way to add an ATS as I hear they will drasticly increase your pod population.

So to lean out the jibber jabber, which pods will should I expect a mandarin to eat.

Thanks,

 

[namxas]

Mandies will indeed eat larger pods (amphipods, isopods).

However, Tigriopus californicus (the red "tigger" pods you typically see for sale) aren't demersal...they're a swimming species, and mandies have a hard time catching swimming critters. Additionally, tiggers are a cool water species that doesn't reproduce well at warmer temps (above 68*F). They produce an inordinate number of male offspring at warmer temps, so the culture pretty much just burns out.

You can get demersal pods such as Tisbe sp., which will reproduce nicely and are demersal, which are perfect for mandies.

Finally, feed your tank a good quality live phytoplankton product (I prefer Phyto 2 Isochrysis and/or Tetraselmis). Rhodomonas is also a great species with a good nutritional profile, but has a short shelf life. This live phyto will feed and enrich your pod population as well as any other filter feeders you may keep.

Mandies also love live blackworms, but be careful as these die quickly in SW, so feed them out sparingly, a little at a time.

HTH

 

[Lynnmw1208]

Get some cheato macro algae and you will most definitely get pods. After I added this to my sump I started seeing all kinds of varieties of pods everywhere. makes sure you have TONS of pods for them. It's hard to get them to eat frozen foods. Mine picks at it, but would rather have phytoplankton enriched live brine shrimp. might make it easier if the mandarin is eating live brine in the store like mine was. I also got a sea squirt made by kent to target feed mine. works like a charm