ORA Mandarin Success Rate and Overview

[romsoccer12]

Those of you who have had or hopefully still have an ORA mandarin please post how the fish has been doing, what it now eats, what size tank it is in.

I would love to hear lots of stories from first hand experience!
Thanks, I just purchased mine 6 days ago and cant get him to eat.

 

[snorvich]

In my larger tank, a pair of ORA mandarins was a complete failure. I now have a pair of wild caught that is doing exceptionally well. Do a search and you will find results are mixed.

 

[velvetelvis]

I bought one of the ORA target mandarins last year from a LFS. She never ate, so I gave her to a friend who has a system large enough to support her through hunting alone. As far as we know, she's still doing well (she lives in an enormous frag vat, so she's impossible to see).

In my larger tank, a pair of ORA mandarins was a complete failure. I now have a pair of wild caught that is doing exceptionally well. Do a search and you will find results are mixed.

Just theorizing, but I wonder if part of the problem is that buyers are prepared to do more work feeding WC mandarins, but not with the ORA mandarins? I know that was the case for me. I blame myself, because I jumped at the fact that they were conditioned to eat prepared foods. I'd never kept a mandarin and didn't realize just how slow and deliberate they are when feeding--and the mandarin probably didn't stand much of a chance competing with my very greedy clownfish. I wasn't prepared (or willing, to be honest) to go to extra lengths to target-feed my ORA mandarin...which is why she now lives at a friend's coral farming facility, where she has pods galore to hunt in a 700G frag tank.

I'm still a fan of the ORA mandarins, if only because it means none are being removed from the wild. I do think it's important to actually see them feeding at the store, and also to be prepared to take special care of them. I have to admit that I just didn't have the patience. Lesson learned.

 

[romsoccer12]

In my tank food gets to the mandarin no problem, I overfeed a lot, but the target just wont eat it. Ive seen pellets/frozen float on his face and he didnt even give it a nibble.
He seems fat and healthy though so he must be eating something!
Snorvich, very strange WC did better for you than an ORA!
Any other experience?

 

[snorvich]

Snorvich, very strange WC did better for you than an ORA!

Given ones that are initially healthy, I have had excellent experiences with wild caught over the years. Mine always ate frozen mysis but I am not sure it is really good for them as it may be too high in fat content.

 

[Harriscli]

I tried a WC one and completely underestimated how many pods it would eat. I thought I had enough supply and I clearly didn't. I'm building another tank, and plant to get an ORA one.

 

[Daleo]

I've heard that Nutrimar Ova is the most successful with ORA mandarins, and they should take a variety of food once settled in. The key is to try several foods until you find one that your mandarin likes. You can also try garlic.

 

[iamwrasseman]

the nutrimar ova is pretty much what they are fed at the facility from my conversations with them so it what they prefer .
remember just because they are eating frozen prepared foods does not mean they will eat anything

 

[jgmorr02]

I am tagging along on this one. My lfs has mentioned that they will soon be receiving ORA Mandarins and I would love to hear some feedback from those who have purchased one in the past. What was the outcome (good or bad), and what you think were some of the contributing factors to that outcome.

 

[nikon187]

Every ORA mandarin that has come in to my store has died due to not eating. Including nutrimar ova prawn eggs. I have had more sucess with wild caught than captive raised.

 

[xtlosx]

Interesting, I have a 60 cube, and we added an ORA Mandarin in the first week of October. We saw him eat at the LFS (frozen mysis) so that was the deal sealer. My tank has been running since march, and was started with old mature rock, sand, and everything else.

We brought him home, and he immediately hunted for pods. I feed the tank on an almost daily basis with frozen mysis, bloodworms, and rod's, all in one cocktail. The first couple of weeks he was uninterested and food would sit in front on his face to no avail. Then one day, he started eating mysis. Some time later, he ate bloodworms as well, then rod's and now he devours everything. I even caught him taking the flight into the water column and competing for food with my saddleback! He hunts constantly, and eats frozen daily. He is looking fat, happy, and growing. His colors are getting more vivid and all seems well.

So far so good...... I'm hoping for the best, he is my favorite fish.

 

[sponger0]

I got my ORA Target Mandarin on Labor Day. At first didnt eat much. So I started dropping bottles of pods into the tank. I only have a Biocube 29. I took a baby bottle to use as a diner so that everyone wont eat his food before he gets to. I tried cylops, mysis, ghost shrimp, bloodworms, Nutramar, and bloodworms. He loves the bloodworms and is happy. I dont expect him to live a long lifespan but right now he is doing good and seems to be happy so I cant complain.

 

[jason2459]

Is it me or have the Red ORA mandarins that have been offered on Divers Den look washed out?

 

[xtlosx]

I realize that a Mandarin eating primarily frozen foods (mysis, bloodworms, etc) isn't living his natural lifestyle, so this isn't a permanent dietary solution.... Atleast that is what I have read all over. I'm counting on the fact that my guy can work on my pod population, and take a break once a day to devour the frozen stuff. My hope is that with both parts of the diet he has a much better chance at success. So far he is looking excellent and not destroying my pod population in the least.

 

[angelsil]

I've had my ORA target mandarin since September 2010. He's in a Red Sea Max 34 gallon tank. He eats a fair variety of frozen foods (cyclops and bloodworms are his favorite) and I supplement with pods every couple of months. I think if I wasn't supplementing with pods, he probably wouldn't have made it this long, but I'm OK with doing that. I tried running a pod farm in a 10 gallon, but it was honestly more of a pain than just calling 'my guy'.

The only thing I've noticed is that he isn't growing like one would expect. He isn't my first mandarin (I've kept pairs in larger tanks) and while mandarins are slow growing fish, I would have thought he'd be significantly bigger by now. I'm not entirely sold on the ORA mandarins' health, but mine is coming up on 18 months with us which is - sadly - a decent run for a mandarin.