Tips for Frozen Food Trained Mandarin Success in 28 g. Nano??

[duganderson]

A couple LFS in my area say they occasionally train Mandarins to eat frozen foods before selling. I would love to get a Mandarin and I'm trying to identify the easiest way (I know it is not easy) and least expensive way to be successful. I had a bunch of questions....

1. Tips on where to buy them from and what to look for when buying? Is one color easier (I love Green Mandarins the best).

2. If the Mandarin will eat frozen in the store, is it realistic to think they don't need to be fed additional supplemental pods in the aquarium?

3. Do they always need to be spot fed or can the be fed like others? If they need to be spot fed, what do you do if you're on vacation for a week?

4. Could I keep one with a flameback angel or sixline wrasse or are they way too aggressive? I'm assuming I'd want to add the Madarin first, right?

I have a 28 g. nano cube with stock CF lights with 24 lbs nice live rock, 2 oc. clowns, one firefish, one cleaner shrimp, snail clean up crew, 2 rbta and softies, 2 LpS and one pink birdnest. I have owned the tank for over a year but it has been set up for 3 years. I don't have a refugium. I have an upflow algae scrubber and filter floss. I currently temporarily have purigen and chemipure too.

 

[rssjsb]

Don't know about your first question, but I can't recommend trying to keep these fish in a 28 gallon tank.

Mandarins eat pods constantly all day long - like one every 8 seconds. It's their metabolism. Without a refugium, a mandarin will wipe out the pod population in a 28 gallon tank in about a day. The fish can't change its metabolic needs to fit your feeding schedule, and you can't match that consumption rate with frozen foods. Even if a mandarin accepts frozen foods (and many never do), feeding once or twice a day won't be enough to sustain it.

About tankmates: Sixlines are known to get very nasty once they are acclimated (and would probably pick on your firefish). But that's not the biggest problem for you. Sixlines eat pods, making it even less likely that a mandarin would survive.

A flameback angel or any other angels in the argi family also get pretty territorial, especially in a small tank. I would worry about your firefish getting bullied.

Sorry to be such a downer, but I would avoid a mandarin or any other dragonette until you've got a bigger tank with a refugium. They're beautiful interesting fish, but they have very specific needs.

 

[symon_say]

This might help, i'm building one for myself, i'll try to tain then to eat pellets a hook up an auto feeder so they have food constantly if they ever eat pellets.

http://www.dragonetsden.co.uk/