mandarins accepting prepared foods

R

rgentry123

Member
anyone have any ideas on how to get a mandarin to accept prepared foods? my pod population has gone tocrap since adding one about 2 weeks ago.
 
Even if you get mandarins to eat frozen food, this will not sustain them since they graze virtually all of the day and are very poor hunters. Best solution is to add a refugium with Chaeto or take him back to the LFS.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13181348#post13181348 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Even if you get mandarins to eat frozen food, this will not sustain them since they graze virtually all of the day and are very poor hunters. Best solution is to add a refugium with Chaeto or take him back to the LFS.
Click to expand...

this is good advice ^^


having one eat a few shrimp or bloodworms is nice because its makes the owner feel better. its definetly not enough to sustian the fish.

- to answer your question try blood worms first. next hatch some babybrine shrimp turn off all pumps and slowly puff them infront of the mandarin with a turkey baster. IF it eats them you can slowly start adding more things into the mix and over the weeks he will get the idea and eventually start to respond at feeding time. you will always need to target feed it though since it can not compete with other fish or shrimp or even duncan..

I feed mine Arcti pods, the pink ones that sink a he goes balistic for them. For some reason though just a few drops of that stuff shuts my skimmer down for along time.

good luck and get a fuge asap
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13181348#post13181348 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Even if you get mandarins to eat frozen food, this will not sustain them since they graze virtually all of the day and are very poor hunters. Best solution is to add a refugium with Chaeto or take him back to the LFS.
Click to expand...
+1. Their diet can be supplemented with prepared foods, but they will not survive long-term on anything other than a constant supply of live foods.
 
Getting your pod population to take off isn't that hard. If the first time didn't work you should probably purchase some to feed to your little guy until you can get them started. Also try purchasing and swapping handfuls of chaeto from different sources to establish the pods. Good luck
 
thanks for all the help everybody. i have looked back under my magfloat again today andit seems as though the population has jumped up again becuase they are all under the float like they used to be. dont know if this is normal for it to be up and down like this or maybe it was just an off day for the pods and they didnt like chillin behind the mag float :)--regardless i'll keep a close eye on it and if the population dwindles off again i'll just have to take the little guy back. i would hate for him to starve to death in my tank
 
my mandarin eats pellets and cyclopeeze as well as constantly grazing on the rocks. I think i am just very lucky
 
looking at your magfloat isnt going to determine your pod size.

arent arcti pods just dead pods? look for places locally who culture pods and sell them or start looking for online places that sell them
 
Try MELEV's mandarin diner trick. works well.

I used it almost the same way. will get your mandarin to look like this.

videooftank030.jpg


I know she's slightly obese...
Mine eats most pellets I drop in now, cyclopeeze (frozen) and even cyclopeeze granuals as well.
 
Arctipods are preserved dead pods. Tiggerpods are the live ones.
A fuge about 20g will supply all she needs.
 
I've had my Mandarin for over 3 years now. I setup the tank with a refuge for over 6 months before getting the little guy. When I first setup the tank, you could see the pods in the display and the refuge. After fish started getting introduced, I didn't see any pods in the display. At night I would sometimes see some using a flashlight. But I believe the Mandarin is eatting the copods, which are so tiny that I really can't see them. Mine has never eatten any prepared foods.

I would look to see of he is picking at the LR. If he is, then he is finding pods. I would also avoid adding fish that will compete with him. Six Line, etc. If you don't have a refuge, then like the others have mentioned, you might want to add one. Even if it's a HOB style. Mine is a 20 gal. tank w/a 1" bulkhead that drains into my sump. HTH
 
ok, i dont have fuge setup, want to give me the ins and outs on setting one up or at least direct me to the right place to look for setting one up?
 
Honestly, a fuge is just a separate tank that offers pods a place to breed. Get a rubbermaid, slap a $5 HD shop light on it, and throw a handful of chaetomorpha in it. Plumb it to the main tank and you're done. :)
 
Put the fish in a breeder net, the mesh boxes designed for guppies or livebearers, and then start with live brine. After it accepts that go to frozen brine, then frozen mysis. If you get it to eat mysis I would just stick with that put if you want to fuss with pellets go for it.

I would try to feed it some PE mysis, it is very high in protein and yes they can be sustained from frozen food.

You can definately get them to spawn solely on frozen food.
 
Just something I have heard to take into consideration...
Careful with the livepods as they can raise phosphates a lot.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13208729#post13208729 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tcmfish
Put the fish in a breeder net, the mesh boxes designed for guppies or livebearers, and then start with live brine. After it accepts that go to frozen brine, then frozen mysis. If you get it to eat mysis I would just stick with that put if you want to fuss with pellets go for it.
I would try to feed it some PE mysis, it is very high in protein and yes they can be sustained from frozen food.
You can definately get them to spawn solely on frozen food.
Click to expand...
This

Also, you have 90lbs of live rock? that should be enough to support a mandarin unless he has lots of competition...maybe make some piles of rubble/rocks that he can't get to to provide refuge for the pods too.
 
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