Only fellow reefers will understand this joy.

[Banff]

My green target mandarin (I've had him for about 6 months and despite having him in a mature 180 with a refugium, I'm always paranoid about my pod population keeping up with him) ate a good-sized PE mysis last night. In 3 bites!

Now I can stop shrieking "nope, can't have one of those, they're pod-eaters!" every time my husband or kids want a new fish.

I shall sleep very well tonight.

Only you fellow reefers can understand this particular victory

 

[Scorpius]

Mine eats Rods food, LRS, flake food, and pellets. All of a sudden one day as well. Congrats.

 

[lionfish300]

My green target mandarin (I've had him for about 6 months and despite having him in a mature 180 with a refugium, I'm always paranoid about my pod population keeping up with him) ate a good-sized PE mysis last night. In 3 bites!

Now I can stop shrieking "nope, can't have one of those, they're pod-eaters!" every time my husband or kids want a new fish.

I shall sleep very well tonight.

Only you fellow reefers can understand this particular victory

Congrat

 

[Banff]

Mine eats Rods food, LRS, flake food, and pellets. All of a sudden one day as well. Congrats.

Thanks! The funny thing is that he was an impulse buy and only because the guy at the LFS showed me that this fish ate mysis. Despite me buying the same (crappy) brand of mysis cubes they had, that damn fish looked at me like I was insane when I tried to feed him that.

And now, 6 months later he eats one as big as his head. And he stole it back from a nem that grabbed it after his first bite!

 

[VoiceInTheDeser]

I had a target mandarin that I painfully trained onto frozen and it was the best. Once trained, it was super fun to target feed him and watch him "sneak" up on it. A good feeling, indeed.

 

[Banff]

I had a target mandarin that I painfully trained onto frozen and it was the best. Once trained, it was super fun to target feed him and watch him "sneak" up on it. A good feeling, indeed.

I find that quite entertaining too. The careful stalking and the pounce onto the completely inanimate object crack me up. Do they eventually figure out that it's not a live thing and stop hunting it?

 

[VoiceInTheDeser]

I find that quite entertaining too. The careful stalking and the pounce onto the completely inanimate object crack me up. Do they eventually figure out that it's not a live thing and stop hunting it?

Mine never did. He learned that his "prey" came out of the feeding baster and would buzz up to it when I brought it near the tank. Good times.

 

[ThRoewer]

My mandarins are actively hunting after frozen mysis. The problem is only that they are usually too slow to get to them even when the flow is nearly off. But they pick up all that lay still on the ground.
The fastest fish on the mysis are my pipefish.

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[Mek84]

That awesome I wish I could get my read mandrian to eat feed food. Is there a way to intice this behavior

 

[VoiceInTheDeser]

That awesome I wish I could get my read mandrian to eat feed food. Is there a way to intice this behavior

I did it by getting the Mysis to dance with my feeding baster. I'd put a little bit on the sand and then blow it with the baster to get it to move and he eventually took enough interest to take a bite. Took a lot of tries. You also need to turn off your flow (or the food will move too fast) and make sure your other fish are distracted enough to not come steal it.

I'm sure there are other methods, but that's what did it for me.

 

[ThRoewer]

I introduced live reef mysis into my tanks. You find those often in LFS invert systems or on really fresh live rock.
I'm not sure if that was really the key, but it surely helped.

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[Rakie]

I did it by getting the Mysis to dance with my feeding baster. I'd put a little bit on the sand and then blow it with the baster to get it to move and he eventually took enough interest to take a bite. Took a lot of tries. You also need to turn off your flow (or the food will move too fast) and make sure your other fish are distracted enough to not come steal it.

I'm sure there are other methods, but that's what did it for me.

Literally the same theory behind fishing, that's pretty cool and kinda funny. I've read that people have slowly trained their mandarin to go to specific area's to be fed. Feed at the same place every day, and just like ducks at a park they'll start waiting for you. (Or so they said!)

I introduced live reef mysis into my tanks. You find those often in LFS invert systems or on really fresh live rock.
I'm not sure if that was really the key, but it surely helped.

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Thats pretty cool. I'd love to get some live mysis.

 

[ThRoewer]

...
Thats pretty cool. I'd love to get some live mysis.

My refugium is full with them, amphipods and some free swimming copepods.
The mysis are also in the tanks, but there usually only out at night and then very active. I see them more as a teaser since they are very active swimmers and hard to catch for mandarins. But their shape is the same as frozen mysis so the mandarins will be enticed to go after frozen mysis as well.

BTW, there are some online stores that sell live mysis. But those are different ones that won't be able to live or propagate in a reef tank.

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[Banff]

Yes, this was mysis laying on a piece of live rock where it had come to rest, there is no way my mandarin could out-compete my other fish. My tank is 6 feet long so I generally put my pumps in feed mode and create a feeding frenzy on one end while zipping to the other end and squirting some food where some of my slower moving and shy fish usually hang out.