ORA Mandarin Dragonets!!!!!

[jfouch]

mines not eating either.

 

[velvetelvis]

If you haven't seen your mandarin in a while, don't completely give up hope. Mine finally appeared last night after being invisible for about a week.

Per the advice of some other posters here, I caught him and put him in a breeder net. I put some pellets in with him this morning and left. Here goes...

 

[dpdp225]

So Thursday afternoon I picked up a pair of ORA blue mandarins. They never left their original bag... got there in time as they were being unpacked from the box and took them straight home. I acclimated them to the tank they would go in, but I set up a critter cage in the sump with some live rock. I was nervous when they didn't jump on the food the first day...or the second day. They are not raised on copepods or fed them at all, I learned, but instinctively when they saw them on the rock the went right into eating them FIRST. I set up a small jar in the container to train them to go in there for their food. They went in and out but only nibbled on the Nutramar. But late yesterday afternoon the female I guess was really hungry and went in and ate all the Nutramar, came out lookiing like a very fat little Mandarin. The male however seems to be more fond of the Instan Baby Brine shrimp that comes in a jar. While they're in their holding tank I will try a variety of new foods as well as the ones they're used to. Being in the sump pods are making their way into their tiny home and they can snack on them as well. Once I'm comfortable that they relate the jar with food I'll put them in the main tank. Hope this helps some of you that have gotten new mandarins, too.

 

[EllieSuz]

Debbie, I think your strategy is well thought out; very smart precautions to take to give them a good start. The only drawback is that we spend all this money trying to make our reef tanks look natural and then we put a glass jar on the bottom. We'd love an update when they get moved to your DT.

 

[dpdp225]

Debbie, I think your strategy is well thought out; very smart precautions to take to give them a good start. The only drawback is that we spend all this money trying to make our reef tanks look natural and then we put a glass jar on the bottom. We'd love an update when they get moved to your DT.

Thank you. I do want my tank to look as natural as possible, yes, but I'm just as interested in the welfare of the animals that live in it. My 60 is a DSA rimless, but I have a flasher wrasse and jawfish... so I have an acrylic top. Totally ruins the look of a rimless, but I sleep better knowing my fish are safe. I'll probably set up a different jar with some shells or something on the outside. I'm finding the female gets super frustrated once inside trying to get out, even though I glued shells to the mouth of the jar marking the entrance/exit.

 

[davocean]

I believe that most mandarin fish are speared too. Here is a link of the detailed process to make the speargun.

http://coralmorphologic.com/b/mandarinfishpart2

Pretty interesting link(Holy cow, carving that gun w/ a kitchen knife!LOL)
Can't say I like that method, must be some killed doing this.
I've often wondered about those dots on tails...
FWIW I totally wouldn't mind paying a lil extra for ORA tank bred, especially if they don't have dots on the tail!

 

[Reef Keeper 14]

So Thursday afternoon I picked up a pair of ORA blue mandarins. They never left their original bag... got there in time as they were being unpacked from the box and took them straight home. I acclimated them to the tank they would go in, but I set up a critter cage in the sump with some live rock. I was nervous when they didn't jump on the food the first day...or the second day. They are not raised on copepods or fed them at all, I learned, but instinctively when they saw them on the rock the went right into eating them FIRST. I set up a small jar in the container to train them to go in there for their food. They went in and out but only nibbled on the Nutramar. But late yesterday afternoon the female I guess was really hungry and went in and ate all the Nutramar, came out lookiing like a very fat little Mandarin. The male however seems to be more fond of the Instan Baby Brine shrimp that comes in a jar. While they're in their holding tank I will try a variety of new foods as well as the ones they're used to. Being in the sump pods are making their way into their tiny home and they can snack on them as well. Once I'm comfortable that they relate the jar with food I'll put them in the main tank. Hope this helps some of you that have gotten new mandarins, too.

Where did you get your ORA blue mandarins from?

 

[dpdp225]

Where did you get your ORA blue mandarins from?

Fish Gallery

 

[iceemn360]

our LFS just got some in! so cute/ awesome!

 

[pweissma]

Debbie, glad to hear that your blues are doing well. You might want to try spectrum small fish formula. ORA has written in various places that the blues in general prefer the pellets.

 

[Reef Keeper 14]

our LFS just got some in! so cute/ awesome!

Hey are those ORA blue mandarins?, if so are they still for sale? Whats your LFS phone number and where are they located? thanks.

 

[Reef Keeper 14]

mines not eating either.

Did you just get your mandarin? It took mine a couple of days to start eating. He doesnt like pellets tho at all.

 

[velvetelvis]

Does it seem like the blues are more willing to take prepared foods than the spotteds?

Still keeping mine in a breeder net...put some thawed mysis in with him last night and it looks like some of it's missing. All the same, I'm planning to give him to a friend of mine who manages a coral farm in exchange for a couple of monti frags. Even a stubborn mandarin should be able to find plenty to eat in an 800G polyp and leather tank.

 

[olemiss reb]

Does it seem like the blues are more willing to take prepared foods than the spotteds?

The blues that I got behave completely different than the target I had. While the target never ate frozen or pellets it also rarely moved throughout the tank. It tended to pick a spot and just sit there all day. The blues are constantly on the move throughout the rocks picking off pods. The blues also seemed to figure out that the turkey baster equals food. When the baster goes into the tank the male comes straight to it, followed shortly thereafter by the female, where they sit beneath it and wait for the pellets to fall out. Mine ignore frozen mysis but devour NLS small fish pellets with vigor. No idea if this is the norm for the blues, but this is the behavior I was hoping for when I first heard that ORA was going to release these.

 

[velvetelvis]

Thanks, olemiss reb, that's good to know. Maybe I'll try again with a pair of the ORA blues once I upgrade my system and get it established.

 

[Ethan_W]

i picked up a spotted mandarin last week. not sure if its and ORA one or not, i didnt ask. but he has been eating tons of pods and frozen brine shrimp.

i wanted to ask if there was an easy way to tell the gender of your mandarin

 

[Reef Keeper 14]

i picked up a spotted mandarin last week. not sure if its and ORA one or not, i didnt ask. but he has been eating tons of pods and frozen brine shrimp.

i wanted to ask if there was an easy way to tell the gender of your mandarin

If it has a high fin it is a male short flat fin is a female

 

[pendraig]

look up gullible in the dictionary.

No thanks. But I did look up "ad hominem" = "marked by or being an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to the contentions made"

 

[Reef Keeper 14]

i picked up a spotted mandarin last week. not sure if its and ORA one or not, i didnt ask. but he has been eating tons of pods and frozen brine shrimp.

i wanted to ask if there was an easy way to tell the gender of your mandarin

 

[TheHotOne]

After reading this thread I went from excited to extremely upset. I would not invest in this mandarin until Ora fixes these problems. Its a shame that a few of you have lost your Mandarin's from Ora.