A paper clip sharpened with sandpaper and tied to a bamboo shaft... :sad2:
See here: http://coralmorphologic.com/b/mandarinfishpart2
ORA Mandarin Dragonets!!!!!
- Thread starter Jordani
- Start date
A paper clip sharpened with sandpaper and tied to a bamboo shaft... :sad2:
See here: http://coralmorphologic.com/b/mandarinfishpart2
Cerebral Fish
New member
I think this is a bad way to approach the situation. It's not dead so it's probably eating something. It has been noted, several times, that they favor live foods over prepared, if they are available.
Dumping more prepared food in there isn't going to make him eat it if he's finding something in your tank he prefers more. But dumping more food in will grow more hair algae. Since copepods eat algae you will just be keeping the 'pod population up and give him less reason to try your food.
I'd suggest that you scale your feedings back to normal levels. The rest of your tank will do better and he might decide to try some prepared foods again once copepod populations fall and he gets hungry.
I think ORA just underestimated the ability of the presence of live foods to break weaning. How many people have actually had an ORA mandarin die from starvation? I haven't heard of any.Aquacultured are definitely the way to go, but if they're not eating prepared foods the chances of them lasting in most people's tanks are still slim
Truly disappointing as mandis are so suited for hobbyist tanks if we can just get them healthy on frozen/pellet food.
Agreed on the food preference...
I noticed this phenomenon even before my ORA Mandi moved in. I was hoping to get some help with controlling hair algae from a new yellow tang I added 1 month ago. It ignored the algae and just ate the pellets, flakes, and frozen food that I fed my other fish. When I held back on the feedings, the tang started to pick on the hair algae. I also had a similar problem with my dog, who was spoiled by my wife's feedings of wet food. When my wife was away for a few weeks, I fed the dog what I think is healthier -- dry food! After acting like the Mandis complained of in this thread and not touching the dry food for days, she finally got hungry and ate the dry food.
Agreed. ORA could have done a better job managing customer expectations. It seems like common sense that this issue would arise. If a human is presented with two choices (1) a beef or salmon steak just off the grille (equivalent to live pods) or (2) beef jerky (pellet food). It is clear that #2 will be ignored nearly if not all the time. However, I do remember how good beef jerky tasted 4 days into a backpacking trip without cooked meals.
And good point about no reports yet on ORA Mandi starvation. It's simply premature at this point to declare mass Mandi aquaculture a failure.
I have heard of one dying soon after purchase from an LFS (but that is most likely due to shipping/acclimation stress and not starvation).
velvetelvis
Active member
Hang in there...I was afraid I'd lost my mandarin, but he showed up this morning at the front of the tank. Didn't eat the Spectrum pellets that I promptly showered him with, but he looks a bit less skinny, so he must be getting something. Still crossing my fingers that he settles in and starts eating normally. I really, really want this venture (commercial-scale breeding of mandarins) to succeed. Maybe succeeding generations--F2 and onward--will be even better adapted to captivity.
Originally when I purchased it I planned to put it in my 150. After seeing how small he was and reading they eat prepared food I felt he would be out competed in my big tank so I put him in the Fluval Edge on my desk to make sure he was eating ok. As you can imagine there isn't exactly an abundance of pods in the Edge and he was getting skinny. He kept refusing any form of prepared food so I broke down and bought pods so the little guy wouldn't starve. Now I'm waiting for him to plump up before I put him in my big tank.
I don't have a problem with the aquaculture and think it's a great thing they can breed them in captivity. My issue is the eating prepared foods part. In 10 pages of posts I think only 1 person has seen theirs eat pellets? I think ORA should remove that selling point from their marketing and just say they are aquacultured.
I don't have a problem with the aquaculture and think it's a great thing they can breed them in captivity. My issue is the eating prepared foods part. In 10 pages of posts I think only 1 person has seen theirs eat pellets? I think ORA should remove that selling point from their marketing and just say they are aquacultured.
Cerebral Fish
New member
Are you still adding 'pods now? He may not eat anything prepared as long as there are enough live foods present. Harpacticoid copepods (mandarin's wild food) will reproduce readily when they have algae and detritus to feed on. Overfeeding the tank contributes to both. It may not be readily apparent how big the 'pod population is because they hide really well during the day. Shining a flashlight in the tank at night might give you a better idea of the 'pod population present.
Are there any other fish in the same tank? Seeing another fish eat the pellets might help, as long as it's not an aggressive eater. Also not every fish will have the same tastes. Have you tried any other types of pellets?
Are there any other fish in the same tank? Seeing another fish eat the pellets might help, as long as it's not an aggressive eater. Also not every fish will have the same tastes. Have you tried any other types of pellets?
I just added the pods one time. About half a bottle or so of tigger pods. The rest went in the sump of my big tank. There is a purple firefish, a pipefish and a small CUC in the tank. They all eat frozen mysis. I mostly feed frozen and only keep pellets around incase I run out of frozen.
I tried three different brands of pellet food and none seemed to get him excited. One is the NLS .5mm and the other is Formula One which I heard in another thread that their WC mandarin would eat. For the fun of it I tried some freshwater betta pellets I have for my freshwater tank.
I tried three different brands of pellet food and none seemed to get him excited. One is the NLS .5mm and the other is Formula One which I heard in another thread that their WC mandarin would eat. For the fun of it I tried some freshwater betta pellets I have for my freshwater tank.
I have a pair of Scooter Dragonets that love to nibble on the 0.5mm Spectrum pellets, so my ORA Mandi might have followed their lead.
poppafish29
New member
Man that is cruel. I'm thanking ORA for selling aquacultured Mandi's
velvetelvis
Active member
Me too. Poor bitties! :sad2:
Handofdume
New member
i have had my mandarin for a little over 2 weeks. the first 5 days i saw him eat nothing. On day 6 he started eating Ova and since then will eat the .5mm pellets, ova, and some of the smaller things in rods food. I have also added the melev bottle but i have yet to see him go in it.
Mine will be 2 weeks tomorrow. It is more active at night, but I have seen it swim all the way to the surface close to my Koralia. I have seen it buzzing around the rock work a couple of times. It's definitely more active than any WC have had in the past (but then again, my first WC died within a couple of days and the second WC within 1 week).
velvetelvis
Active member
There were two of the ORA mandarins at the store where I bought mine: one that barely moved at all (although he looked well-fed) and mine, who was more active. I've had him almost a week. He stayed hidden until yesterday morning (to the point where I thought I'd lost him). He's getting more and more active, though he does seem to favor a particular spot in the back where the current is slower. I've seen him flutter up to the live rock and the back wall of the tank.
One thing I've noticed is that he's pretty skittish. If I approach his side of the tank, he freezes or moves away. Naturally, this makes it frustrating when I'm trying to monitor his food intake, as he's too small to see easily from a distance when he's hopping around on the sandbed (I have hedge-like clumps of halimeda growing everywhere on the substrate). When I saw him this morning, I went through the familiar ritual of throwing a buffet of small foods in his general direction. He wouldn't eat while I was there, but I checked a few minutes later and it looked like a few Spectrum pellets were missing--unless the bristleworms got them.
Needless to say, the other animals in my tank are loving this regimen and getting quite fat. The mandarin looks like he might be a little fatter, but not enough to satisfy me--he should look like a little cigar.
It seems to me that, captive-bred or not, mandarins are just very sensitive little fish that take quite a while to acclimate. I guess if you're tiny, slow-moving, and armed with no defenses other than tasting bad and hiding, it benefits you to be extra-cautious.
One thing I've noticed is that he's pretty skittish. If I approach his side of the tank, he freezes or moves away. Naturally, this makes it frustrating when I'm trying to monitor his food intake, as he's too small to see easily from a distance when he's hopping around on the sandbed (I have hedge-like clumps of halimeda growing everywhere on the substrate). When I saw him this morning, I went through the familiar ritual of throwing a buffet of small foods in his general direction. He wouldn't eat while I was there, but I checked a few minutes later and it looked like a few Spectrum pellets were missing--unless the bristleworms got them.
Needless to say, the other animals in my tank are loving this regimen and getting quite fat. The mandarin looks like he might be a little fatter, but not enough to satisfy me--he should look like a little cigar.
It seems to me that, captive-bred or not, mandarins are just very sensitive little fish that take quite a while to acclimate. I guess if you're tiny, slow-moving, and armed with no defenses other than tasting bad and hiding, it benefits you to be extra-cautious.
Maybe people should try the frozen food training that is usually done for WC mandarins. They are still the same picky fish. Captive breeding doesn't really change their genetics.
I trained my WC spotted mandarin on frozen by keeping it in a breeder net, feeding it live brine and then frozen mysis. ORA mandarins should have the same success
I trained my WC spotted mandarin on frozen by keeping it in a breeder net, feeding it live brine and then frozen mysis. ORA mandarins should have the same success
Similar threads
