Some thoughts on Mandarins

[TUT.Bellon]

Paul where are you located? Do you have a small male green mandarin for sale?

 

[Paul B]

I am in Nassau on Long Island NY but I don't sell mandarins. But they are very common in any LFS here.

 

[35galSaltwater]

Same here

Same here

Same here in and around Chicago. They sell them cheap everywhere. You can get one for $10 to 50 last time I checked.

Update on my Mandarin, I never managed the brine shrimp breeding but it doesn't seem to matter. The Mandarin is still happy. I have still not seen her eat anything ever but she must get some food, I had her for 1 1/2 yrs now. I only add pods 2 to 3 times per year. It's an easy fish to care for in my tank :thumbsup:.

 

[FDshoes]

So I have had a female for about a year in my 180. Today I finally bought a larger male do they pair fairly easily or is it more of a hit miss if they actually pair up?

 

[Paul B]

I have never had a pair that did not pair. They don't hang out together or text each other, until it is mating time.

 

[Betta132]

10 years is great for a mandarin. I think I had this guy about 8 years before I killed him along with a 5 year old moorish Idol and an 18 year old cusk eel in an accident while I was out of town.

Cusk eel? Aren't those a really deep-water fish, as in the deepest any fish has ever been found?

 

[TheAngelfish]

Cusk eel? Aren't those a really deep-water fish, as in the deepest any fish has ever been found?

Ok, so I did some research on this. He might be talking about Brotulina fusca or Dinematichthys iluocoeteoides

 

[Paul B]

Yes, many of them are found on shalow reefs. But they hide very well and that one I had for 18 years I only saw at night while searching for him with a flashlight.

 

[Betta132]

Ah, I see. Cool! Where do you get such a thing?
Something like that, I'd keep in a jar of alcohol after it died.

 

[H2Ohio]

Paul - thanks for sharing your invention. Are the baby brine consumed by the mandarin sucking them up through the mesh or are they escaping it slowly and being eaten?

 

[Paul B]

Both, some escape and the pipefish get them but the majority get tangled in the mesh and the fish pull them through. If you use a stocking for the mesh and you stretch it, the shrimp will swim through, but if you put it on there loosly, they get stuck in the mesh. It all depends on the size of the mesh.

Those brotulina are not that rare or expensive. The LFS here had one last week. People don't want them as you never see it. I think they are very cool and I miss mine but I can still imagine I still have it as I see it now about as much as when I actually had it.

 

[Pomacanthus1]

Paul, I really like your brine shrimp feeder idea, looks like it really helps the fish get plenty of food. Do you ever release your brine shrimp into the rest of the tank to feed any of your corals? This AA article from Advanced Aquarist about a larger study says it can be quite beneficial.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blo...rine-shrimp-drastically-increase-their-growth

Another AA article about brine shrimp cultivation and how to enrich them as a food source
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/12/breeder

As for the screen, from what I can find it looks like hatched nauplii are about 450 microns in size.

 

[Paul B]

Pomacanthus1 I release new born brine shrimp into the tank every day, sometimes twice a day and today I already did it 3 times. Some goes into my feederr and the rest goes into the water with a baster thing that I built. I have 5 pipefish but a some of them like to eat from the water column and don't know anything about feeders. The feeder does allow some shrimp to escape and those are also caught by the corals, especially the gorgonians which have been growing wild in my tank for years.
Everything in my tank gets target fed either through my feeders or with one of these. I would never just throw food in the tank.

 

[silverarrow27]

Thanks for sharing your idea and experiences, I owned a Spotted Mandarin for a couple years in my first tank which was a 40 gallon breeder that ate everything. Although my tank was well established at the time and had no refugium, I was fortunate enough that it ate flakes, small pellets, frozen brine and mysis.

I've yet to find a nice small pair for my 85.

 

[Paul B]

Thats amazing, I never saw a mandarin that ate flakes.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Sticky please.

 

[Shawn O]

I like this thing:

It gives me the idea to place one in the return pump section of the sump with the exit hole near my return pump so they get sucked up and sprayed around the tank. Maybe fed eggs by an auto-feeder. Your feeder is something I'm considering replicating, maybe disguised as a rock or something.

 

[Paul B]

This model is not designed for that, but good luck

 

[peasofme]

great info on the whiteworms. they would work for a lot of people. are the whiteworms known by other names? too bad they don't sell them locally or i might try this.