Previous experience with mandarins?

C

corals4life

New member
I found a mandarin at a local fish store that ate frozen food.

He has a good appetite for frozen food. My questions is: in your experience, if I put some live copepods in the tank for him - is there a good chance he will lose his appetite for frozen food?

On the one hand, it seems as though if a fish is hungry, he will eat.
On the other hand, with this particular fish - it's not uncommon for them to starve to death in captivity from what I have read.

Also, just curious - what is the correct term for these fish.
Mandarin goby? Mandarin dragonet?


TIA
 
You can add pods to the tank, but depending on tank size and maturity you probably already have a decent population in the tank. As for whether or not the fish will stop eating frozen with pods present probably not, but it'll definitely help to keep him fat and healthy being able to eat throughout the day whilst your not able to feed him. That being said still feed a coupe times a day. Generally when you see a mandarin starve to death it's because there is no pods really present in the tank(such as at fish stores) and the fish either isn't getting enough food, or just refuses to eat prepared foods altogether.
 
From what i've read it's getting them to eat other foods that is the problem. I think if it's already eating other food it should be alright. I'm not an expert though.
 
I've never had or read about an experience like this. After they change tanks from the local fish store or online shipper a lot of people claim they stop eating frozen. If yours is still eating frozen and pods that would be great. If you have an established tank of about a year or so with a fuge and have added pods I'd say go for it.
 
Thank you for all the helpful comments!

My 60 gallon tank has been up and running for ~ 15 months.
I don't have a sump. I bought a small tank to try to keep live copepods on hand to feed the mandarin as I only remember seeing a few pods in the display tank recently. I'm waiting for that tank to cycle before I add a pack of AlgaGen ReefPods Tisbe Live Aquacultured Copepods.

I always appreciate the help!!
 
They definitely graze all day long due to how their stomachs work, so it would stand to reason pods are necessary even if they're eating prepared foods a couple times a day. A pod every 5 seconds all day long is a lot of pods.

Make sure to keep us informed on your pod farm!
 
I had an established tank with a ton of pods or so I thought. At night I could count thousands of pods. But at night my mandarin was inactive. During the day he foraged around and pecked all day but eventually he starved. I felt horrible about the whole thing. I spent around $60 in live pods I thought would help but no luck. All this for a $15 fish.
 
I seeded my tank with copepods I bought online. Came with instructions on how to breed your own, so i got two bottles, dumped one in the tank and used the other to breed more. Just need glass jars and air pump with tubing to keep water moving and oxygenated. I used two jars at once, when they were full of new pods, I dumped one jar in the tank, split the other jar between the two jars and used tank water to fill up the jars for the new batch. Pretty easy and kind of fun. Of course, if I had a refugium, etc, it might of been easier, but this worked. My mandarin was fat and happy. I lost him but I think it was due to stress from tankmates. I never saw him thin out.
 
With a large enough tank, enough rock in the DT as well as a fuge you'll be fine. I have a Mandarin in our 150 which is only about 3 months old (He came from our 2yr old 60 cube) and he's just as fat as he was when he was in the 60 cube... The 60 cube had a lot of rock, a tiny fuge, and he lived happily for almost the entire two years we had the tank..

Moral of the story is, they can live in all kinds of conditions but to thrive they need a lot of pods.. Ours eats frozen every so often but primarily pods. Good luck!
 
corals4life said:
xtlosx - thanks for sharing!!
Click to expand...

No problem... I have huge pods crawling in my overflows, all over the fuge, so I'm guessing while my tank is new, they are spreading like crazy. If I move my caulerpa pile in my fuge they scatter like roaches.
 
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