When does a mandarin eat, at night or day?

fasteddie99

New member
The reason I ask is that I just got a mandarin yesterday and he looks a little pinched today like he's not eating. I have thousands of pods that smother the tank at night, but I never see them during the day, so I wonder, do mandarins feed at night? I dont want him to starve to death.

Thanks
 
Mandarins sleep at night.
You might help your Mandarinfish get more food if you keep a nightlight or moonlight on later than normal.
 
All day and night...they are huge grazers...if you watch him for twenty minutes or so you should see him nipping at stuff. You wont be able to see what he is eating. If your having trouble and not seeing him eat I would try some cyclop eeze...I have gotten 4 out of 5 mandarins that either I owned or a buddy owned to start eating once that stuff is intoduced to the tank.......if you see him getting emaciated and never see him eat in 3 or 4 days I would take him back.....

How old is your tank...sump??? fuge???
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15461770#post15461770 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Shane Hoffman
All day and night...they are huge grazers...if you watch him for twenty minutes or so you should see him nipping at stuff. You wont be able to see what he is eating. If your having trouble and not seeing him eat I would try some cyclop eeze...I have gotten 4 out of 5 mandarins that either I owned or a buddy owned to start eating once that stuff is intoduced to the tank.......if you see him getting emaciated and never see him eat in 3 or 4 days I would take him back.....

How old is your tank...sump??? fuge???

The tank is about 14 months old, no fuge, about 50 lbs live rock. Its a 55 with hang-on equipment.

I see him nipping at the rocks but I cant tell if he accually gets anything out of it. Thats why I was hoping they feed at night. I have moon lights built into the hood giving off a nice shimmer on the sand bed if that helps.

thanks for the help
 
Re: When does a mandarin eat, at night or day?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15461747#post15461747 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fasteddie99
The reason I ask is that I just got a mandarin yesterday and he looks a little pinched today like he's not eating. I have thousands of pods that smother the tank at night, but I never see them during the day, so I wonder, do mandarins feed at night? I dont want him to starve to death.

Thanks

My mandarin is no where to be found at night. If he's eating, he's doing it somewhere hidden. I always assumed he was sleeping all night since he is very active during the day.

Btw, mine has taken to eating Formula Two small pellets, so you might try that as a supplement. The pellets have to land right in front of him though, so it's taken me some practice to aim correctly. If a pellet lands less than an inch from his face, it's a 50/50 chance that he'll beat my cleaner shrimp streaking across the tank. Fun to watch. :)
 
Mine sleeps at night. He always sleeps at the same spot so I use that as an opportunity to see how well he's doing food wise. I hardly see it during the day, and when I do, he's usually fluttering in and out of the live rock. Having said that, if you're not running a fuge and only have about 50 pounds of live rock, I would try and see if it would take prepared foods. More than likely, it'll wipe the tank of pods in pretty short order
 
Thats odd...mine is swimming in and out of the rocks and likes to pesk around the front base of my rocks. Almost every night I look at my tank an hour after lights out sometimes two hours after and he is always still on the move. I will try and check on him some night four or 5 hours after lights out and see if he is sleeping or if I can find him. Hopefully hes sleeps in a spot wher I can see him.....
 
My mandarin lodges himself behind an intake pipe at night and sleeps. Scared me half to death the first time I saw him, as he turned ghost white. Does it EVERY night and it still freaks me out! Definately sleeps though. Mine is a huge pig and eats pods, mysis, pellets, whatever floats by. I wish I had a camera, but one day he snagged a whole cube of mysis and was swimming around with it!
 
I have two mandarins in my 90 and i put them both in long before my copepods pop was up to snuff so i had a first hand view of the actions of a hungry mandarin.If your mandarin sleeps at night hes happy and full since this is their normal behavior from what i can tell but when food is low and they are hungry they may stay on the prowl late because this is when the pods are out and an easy time to fill up however in a barren tank they may search night after night with little success.Some will eat prepared foods such as mysis but most wont.The 50 lbs of rock would be ok if it was teaming with pods so buy yourself some tigger pods.Start seeding the tank and feeding him at the same time.in about 3 months your population of pods will be fine also build up areas of rock even small ones were the fish cannot reach the inside and your pods will use this as a breeding ground.they are fast breeders and will multiply quicly if your tank is healthy.Id seed the tank with a half a bottle of reef nutrition pods twice a month and if your not worried about the coin id start by putting a whole bottle or 2 in the tank.A few tricks ive learned, release the pods at night when your fish wont gobble the confused fellars up,they are refrigerated so just float the bottle until they reach the temp of your tank this will help them survive also alternate brands this will add variety and sense some survive better than others this will give you a more diverse population.When you buy these look in the bottle and you should see them swimming all over if not dont buy that bottle get another and check the date good until.in truth they are good after that date but the fresher the better.good luck he will eat your pyramid snails too i believe which is a good thing since they are pests.
 
I agree that if you don't have a fuge, if he is still healthy enough to eat, he can decimate pod population in no time.
 
You need pods, unless you wean it to accept frozen. Even after accepting frozen you will have a huge bioload hazard as mandarins require alot of food to keep up their high metabolism.

Thats why this fish is expert only
 
I checked my mandarin last night 30 min after I normally go to bed. He was zonked out in the rear corner....not moving at all. I am guessing he was prowling before because it wasnt dark enough. My lights go out 1 to 2 hours before I go to bed....I think my dining room light being on every night til bedtime was enough light for him to stay on the move.......it wasnt 30 min after that light was off and he stopped moving.......
 
My Red Scooter Blenny buries himself at night. You can see just his two little eyes sticking out of the sand. Do Mandarins do the same?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15473759#post15473759 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jvdb
My Red Scooter Blenny buries himself at night. You can see just his two little eyes sticking out of the sand. Do Mandarins do the same?

No I'v never seen them do that but my scooter does also.
 
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