Transition Mandarin Food

[jmowbray]

So far I have got the new mandran on BBS. Doing very well in the QT with a red firefish. He has now been moved to frozen BBS however they are not gut loaded. They are freshly hatched that I froze. I know I need him off of BBS soon as they are not really healthy for fish. I have been trying frozen mysis but nothing. Is there something I should do? I just try to feed straight mysis. Should I be mixing the BBS and mysis together and feeding?

 

[Bogue Chitto]

The newly hatched bbs are nutritious at first but after they move from the bottom of the jar they lose a lot of their protein. You may could raise some mysis shrimp as well. I read where some one had them growing in their sump. That's an accomplishment getting the mandarin to eat like that.

 

[urbanrat84]

Do you have access to live black or blood worms? Mandarins love these and they will put on weight from eating them. You can then mix the live with frozen blood worms. Or try adding frozen bloodworms with the live BBS. A bit of movement will help the mandarin get interested in the frozen.

 

[laga77]

Do you have access to live black or blood worms? Mandarins love these and they will put on weight from eating them. You can then mix the live with frozen blood worms. Or try adding frozen bloodworms with the live BBS. A bit of movement will help the mandarin get interested in the frozen.

+1 on the black worms but skip the blood worms. Blood worms are not very nutritious. They are only 6% protein and .5% fat. They are not worms but mosquito larvae. If you can get white worms for your Mandy they are great. They stay alive in salt water overnight so there is a better chance of them being eaten.

 

[MondoBongo]

+1 on the black worms but skip the blood worms. Blood worms are not very nutritious. They are only 6% protein and .5% fat. They are not worms but mosquito larvae. If you can get white worms for your Mandy they are great. They stay alive in salt water overnight so there is a better chance of them being eaten.

+1 on the white worms. my dragons suck them like there's no tomorrow.

you can order cultures for pretty reasonable prices shipped to your door. totally worth it.

i ordered mine from Angels Plus:
http://www.angelsplus.com/

you might also try using something stinky like selcon to soak the food in. nutramar ova or frozen cyclop-eeze (if you can find them) or try a different type of frozen roe.

Piscene Energetics just introduced a new product to replace the frozen cyclop-eeze in their twin pack that might be useful. it looks similar but it is supposed to be a frozen copepod.

http://www.mysis.com/pe_mysis/pe_mysis_frozen/twinpack/

 

[jmowbray]

Thanks for all the help guys. I have tried Dr. G's Caviar Max and frozen cyclops. I have also soaked food in selcon and garlic and no responce. I have freeze dried black worms. Maybe I'll try rehydrating them and see what I can get. I will also look into white worms.