Poll for owners of ORA mandarins

[Swolek]

I'm desperately trying to get an ORA Spotted Mandarin to eat prepared foods before she runs out of pods to eat. She was supposedly eating in the vendor's tank and I will be e-mailing them for ideas, too.

I know that these fish can be hit or miss but figured I'd give it a try since the Spotteds are supposed to be easier and also because I can technically move her to an old, not totally drained set-up that has thousands of pods in it. Obviously it won't be ideal long-term but it means she won't starve.

I've tried many of the options on the poll but still listed them since I'll keep trying. A couple of the options are things I need to order and have shipped but I'm hoping to get a little feedback first .

 

[JaneG]

I'm desperately trying to get an ORA Spotted Mandarin to eat prepared foods before she runs out of pods to eat. She was supposedly eating in the vendor's tank and I will be e-mailing them for ideas, too.

I know that these fish can be hit or miss but figured I'd give it a try since the Spotteds are supposed to be easier and also because I can technically move her to an old, not totally drained set-up that has thousands of pods in it. Obviously it won't be ideal long-term but it means she won't starve.

I've tried many of the options on the poll but still listed them since I'll keep trying. A couple of the options are things I need to order and have shipped but I'm hoping to get a little feedback first .

Male: Nutramar Ova, Bloodworms, Capelin Roe, Cyclopeeze
Female: Nutramar Ova, Pellet

I'm trying to move them both onto mysis. They LOVE Ova - both ate it while in a bowl during acclimation.
I've also heard from ORA that 80% of their diet is pellet+ova. Supposedly adults prefer pellet. I think a lot of the bad success with ORA Mandarins could partially be due to
1. Keeping pumps on and aggressive feeders
2. The fish being sold as juveniles. ORA is shipping them out at larger sizes now though.
Give them a call - they have some of the best customer service out there! Good luck!

 

[klepto]

I was working at a LFS that ordered at least 6 ORA mandarins. Both the spotted (S. picturatus) and blue (S. splendidus).

I had trouble getting them to eat anything. I tried frozen; Cylopeeze, Hikari Brine, Hikari mysis, PE mysis, NLS small fish formula, and Reef Nutrition's Top Dressed Otohime with hardly any successful feeding responses.
If I remember correctly, I had success on a handful of occasions with hikari mysis. That was about it. It seemed that the S. splendidus responded to target feedings more readily and exhibited better health. Strangely everything else in the LFS was accepting food. It was probably a water quality issue or they weren't acclimated properly.

This is not meant to discourage people from ORA's mandarins. My experience was (hopefully) different from others. There are plenty of content ORA mandarin owners out there!


I would recommend purchasing some Nutramar Ova. It encourages a very good feeding response and I believe that ORA uses it to feed their juvenile mandarins. Everything else seems to love it too (corals, fishes).

 

[snorvich]

My wild caught eat pretty much everything but primarily copepods. My ORA pair never ate and perished in a 350 gallon tank that was decades old.

 

[alex gonzales]

Wow, I would think it would have been the opposite, the wild caught woudn't have eaten, and the ORA's would have eaten everything.

 

[snorvich]

Wow, I would think it would have been the opposite, the wild caught woudn't have eaten, and the ORA's would have eaten everything.

I have been keeping healthy (not cyanide captured) wild caught mandarins for many, many years. I tried a pair of ORA mandarins and was terribly disappointed.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Wow, I would think it would have been the opposite, the wild caught woudn't have eaten, and the ORA's would have eaten everything.

I know little about tank-bred Mandarins. But, I've bred many fish in my lifetime and do know that almost all tank-bred fish are going to have some quirks. Any tank-bred SW fish is going to be missing (or gaining) something that occurs when they breed naturally, on the reef. Who can predict how these tiny changes can affect adults? Tank-breeding has come a long way, but there is still much mystery in the process. From what I've read, it just seems that captive-bred mandarins simply don't ship and/or acclimate well to new surroundings for some reason. I know this seems obvious, but I've seen similar quirks.

 

[Dashiki]

I have tried four (2 at a time). First ones would not eat anything prepared no matter what. Second time started them in a 10 gallon for a week. Feeding nutrimar ova and spectrum. Both ate well in the 10. Four days later in my 94 gal DT both were eaten by my cleaner shrimp. The second batch was really tiny. IMO they need to grow them out a little more the spotted mandarins from Ora that came in at the same time were twice the size at 1.5" the blue/red mandarins were both sub 1".

 

[wdt2000]

I have an ORA female and wild caught male that both eat mysis.

 

[Swolek]

Thanks guys. I ordered capelin roe, nutramar ova, and daphnia (ORA said some of them eat that) since I've pretty much tried everything else. Nutramar Ova seems like a hit for a lot of mandarins so I hope that works. I couldn't find it locally so I had to order it online...hopefully it gets here quickly. In the meantime, I'll catch some pods and seed the main tank with them.

She's not tiny like some people report ORA mandarins to be, I'd actually say she's close to full grown . So I'm hoping that helps.

I'll keep this thread updated, I really hope she takes to frozen soon.

It's not a great photo but here she is (by an ugly algae patch, unfortunately...I have several in the tank for the Rainford's Goby).

 

[Swolek]

I just wanted to give an update in case future mandarin owners come across this thread.

A few days after I posted the poll, I purchased several new foods and I'm happy to report that the mandarin is eating both Nutramar Ova and capelin roe (I think the package called it "Reef Caviar"). She still won't touch other foods, like NLS pellets, but I decided to stop giving pellets/flakes to the display tank anyway so it works out.

Unfortunately, she's still rather skinny. Her weight is constant now, not steadily dropping, but I hope she puts on more weight soon.

I would not recommend this fish unless your tank can deal with HEAVY feeding. Since she'll only eat food she comes across sitting on rocks/in the sand, I have to add ridiculous amounts of food to the tank to make sure she gets some. The other fish aren't the problem, the cleaning crew is. The nassarius snails instantly notice any food placed in the tank and actively eat it all. I don't mind feeding a ton (and doing more water changes to make up for it) but you'll definitely need a good skimmer and/or a strict maintenance schedule. My skimmer recently broke and I'm already seeing cyano patches.

 

[crankbait]

I got an ora 8 days ago. I have not seen it eat anything.

 

[Dashiki]

You could spOt feed it. That might get the waste food out of the dt

 

[Tabasco]

Have you tried a mandarin diner? You can make one that your cuc can't get into but your mandarin can. That way you don't have to feed so heavily.

I just got a blue mandarin... he is gorgeous. I have a ton of pods, but plan on training him to a diner... hopefully that will be fairly easy. Thank you for posting the poll, I have NSL pellets and misis, but will probably get Nutramar ova as well since it seems like there is positive response.

Great poll! I'll update with my results

 

[Tabasco]

Just thought I'd update and voted. My mandarin (not ORA) is eating Nutramar Ova eggs in the diner now fairly regularly. I have seen him eat a few mysis shrimp too. Hopefully he will develop more of a taste for them. I am also hoping he will start eating the NSP pellets. I am adding a few in with his Ova mix. I soak in Selcon before serving.

 

[GSMguy]

I have been keeping healthy (not cyanide captured) wild caught mandarins for many, many years. I tried a pair of ORA mandarins and was terribly disappointed.

There are two at my LFS that are in a tank infested with pods and they are starving and look skinner every visit.