My hungry mandarin

[matthew jackson]

so i have a mandarin, and yes he is hungry. i know he eats copepods but i am having a hard time finding some at a price that i can afford. i have found some for 14.99 which sounds good untill the shipping 25.99 for 3 day ouch if anyone could help my mandarin would be greatful....

 

[Toddrtrex]

[welcome]

Is this for your 12 gallon? Long term I don't think that will work out.

Not to be harsh, but the best bet is to return it/sell it. There are some that will eat prepared foods, but they still will require a large pod population, which is very had to achieve in a 12 gallon.

 

[matthew jackson]

i know the tank is small but i have plans one building a bigger tank soon.... but my rock i have in my tank has lots of tine hiding places for them to grow i think i just need to get the population up..... if not im not to worried if i have to buy some more pods until i get the bigger tank up and running.....

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

well how soon are you talking about having this new tank setup??

most likely he's going to eat every pod in there within a very short amount of time ( couple weeks but definately within the month)

even when you do setup the new tank it's going to be several months till you have it's cycled and you have a large population of pods.

basically you have no choice but to purchase pods.

i see that you work at a aquarium store, why not just tell your boss to order some for you?

imo your choices are to either buy pods or take the mandarin back

 

[matthew jackson]

yeah i know me and my boss have been looking for some but i have only found some online where the shipping is really high and my boss has been looking but with no luck... thats my problem i dont mind buying them every month or so im just seeing if anyone knows where soem good priced ones can be found im looking to spend under 25 but up to 30 if i really have too....

 

[knot-hard]

all seas marine carrys copepods in a bottle. they are located in torrance. Wholesale Only

 

[Doris M]

Try reef nutrition red tigger pods they are awesome. I buy them at every frag swap I go too. and my local fish store carries them. I add a bottle to my tank and a bottle to my sump every 2 or 3 months. And my mandarin is a fatty.

 

[snorvich]

Yes, Doris, but not in a 12 gallon tank. The original poster does not want to hear that his mandarin is going to starve to death quickly in that tank.

 

[s ruppa]

i kept a mandarin in my 29g for 2 years......however, i had 65lbs of live rock. a hang on back refugium that i kept dark ( pods seem to like the dark) and a 10 gallon sump with a 5 gallon refugium section. on top of all that my mandarin would eat frozen mysis shrimp. and this was pushing it.

unfortunatley the mandarin will not survive in a 12g even with stocked pods. you will see all your pods disappear with in a month.

steve

 

[SeeDemTails]

By hungry I assume you mean starving?

You do need a larger tank.

No, it wont eat every pod in the system, it isnt a six line wrasse. People who assume they are this voracious have not kept them that long.

I would stop wasting your money on pods as a sole source of food and teach it to eat mysis.

I have personally helped train dozens of mandarins. Spotted and Greens. Big and small. Male and female.

It is very simple, all you need is a syringe, some rigid air hose, some live brine shrimp and some frozen mysis.

Start with the live brine, the fish will show immediate interest in them. These are not nutritious enough for the fish, but their movement is key to teaching the mandarin the tube means food.

After a few timesusually less than 5 feedings of live brine, the fish will start to learn the food comes from the tube. Then you can start mixing mysis with the brine.

Once the fish is eating the mysis, try switching to just mysis. It has never taken me longer than a week to train a fish, and I have helped many people on the internet succed too. All of them have had similar results.

This still doesnt solve the matter that you need a bigger tank. I would no keep a mandarin in less than a 30 gal system with 45lbs of rock.

Even though you will be feeding it regularly, it will still eat pods obviously. A larger tank will allow you to maintain your pod population on its own.

I never get why people buy bottle of pods time and time again, using it as a disposable source of food. Those bottles are meant to seed your system with a type of pod, not as a weekely food source.

I work at a Reef shop, peraps a little different than a aquarium store depending on your definition, but if you sell these fish then its YOUR responsabilty to train them first and teach customers how to feed the fish. If your shop sells them to just anyone without making sure they understand, which I couldnt see since you yourself dont understand, then you are doing the fish an inustice and should stop ordering them.

Get on your game do your part as a LFS employee to make this hobby better, I do my best everyday.

 

[andyk187]

you actually work at a fish store and you're keeping a Mandarin in a 12gallone tank?!?! Scared to see what else is going on in that store

 

[matthew jackson]

well everyone should get off there high horse.... i have learned over time that there that there is no real rules to any fish tank... i have seen many things that should not happen work so really im not looking for your opinion about which size tank a fish should be in i just wanted to know where i could get some copepods at a good price..... that is it i have done my research and decided on the mandarin for tank and future tanks.... so please lay off..... please if you don't have any thing on where to get some good copepods please no lectures..... i have read them all....

 

[BrianD]

This is pointless. Troll elsewhere.