Mandarins

[Gtownguy487]

Hey, I've had 3 Mandarins in my tank for almost a month now, 1 Red, 1 Green, and 1 Spotted... The tank is well established and is a 300 gallon aquarium.. It has a very deep sandbed in the refugium.. Do I ever need to worry about feeding these guys anything? I was told my abundance of copepods would be able to keep them very happy..
I feed my tank phyto, brine, mysis, and emerald entree everyday.. not sure if they eat any of such...

Thanks

 

[b2d2t]

It's always better to try and get them to eat the food you feed your tank #1 for your security of knowing you will never have to worry about them and #2 there may be a lot of Copepods but you have 3 mandarins in there and all they eat is copepods so there could be a chance that they could run out

 

[Paul B]

You can't answer that question as no one knows the level of pods you have. I don't have to feed them but my tank is old. A bigger concern is that they are either all female or only one is a male. Two males will fight to the death as soon as they see each other, even different species.

 

[snorvich]

A bigger concern is that they are either all female or only one is a male. Two males will fight to the death as soon as they see each other, even different species.

That is correct. Based on the OP tank size (210 g), etc, the odds are good if the tank is at least 8 months old that the OP is fine. My tanks are also old, but not as old as Paul's. I keep various copepod eaters including a mating pair of mandarins.

 

[Gtownguy487]

I have been seeing the green go after the red as of late

I wish i could get them to eat frozen food now that i wonder.. I dont know if they get enough coepods.. Kindda a lil skinny to me

 

[davocean]

Frozen food does very little, they need a constant supply of pods, like 1-3 per minute.
Sadly once you notice them looking skinny, it's usually too late to bring them back, but if you get them to a source of pods in the amount they need there is still a chance(I just took in a very skinny female and brought her back, but I have pods a plenty)