Feeding a Mandarin

[The Langs]

My mandarin is all the sudden not looking very well. I was hoping to get a bottle of copepods this past weekend, but no one had any in stock. I have tried feeding him some mysis shrimp, but he doesn't seem interested in them. Gerwin said he would have some tigger pods in this Thursday.

What else do mandarins eat? I really think he needs something to eat before Thursday..

[bluwtr]

If the one you bought was farm raised they will generally eat pellets, but not always. That is one reason to have a well established tank that has a healthy copepods before adding a mandarin. Given the mouth they have they can't eat large items such as mysis. Their mouth is specialized for sucking up pods out of rock crevices. Hopefully you can find some soon.

[Scott Allen]

Mandarins also have voracious appetites. They are kind of like the hummingbird of aquaria. They can eat a bottle of pods very quickly. They spend the entire day moving and eating. Make sure you have somewhere in the tank the pods can reproduce that the dragonet can't get to them.

[bluwtr]

+1 with Scott's advice. A refugium is the way to go, but not sure if you have a sump or not. If you don't, Gerwin and help you get some thing set up, like a HOB version.

[The Langs]

Thanks for the info. I am interested in this HOB deal even though I don't have a clue what that is. As far as the mandarin being farm raised or not I don't know, I bought it from Gerwin. And about the tank needing enough rock and being established, I was told I could put a mandarin in the tank being it is seven months old and it's only a 30 gallon tank with 40lbs of live rock.

What is this HOB deal??

[Scott Allen]

Thanks for the info. I am interested in this HOB deal even though I don't have a clue what that is. As far as the mandarin being farm raised or not I don't know, I bought it from Gerwin. And about the tank needing enough rock and being established, I was told I could put a mandarin in the tank being it is seven months old and it's only a 30 gallon tank with 40lbs of live rock.

What is this HOB deal??

HOB simply means Hang On Back.

In this case he was referring to a hang on the back refugium to allow the copepods and amphipods reproduce in safety. With a tank your size, it's very difficult to maintain a population of them adequate to support a mandarin for a long period of time. They tend to wipe out the population then slowly starve to death over the period of 4 months or so. If you can't swing a refugium, you can try to crush up some live rock and put it in a net where the pods can get in and out but the fish can't. But really... without a a fuge on that size tank. The mandarin is going to wipe the population out faster than it can reproduce.

You can always view it as a rent-a-fish. Because they are inexpensive... Just keep buying them till you find one that will eat prepared foods.

[bluwtr]

Thanks for clarifying what I said Scott! I couldn't have said it better myself (obviously!!!) LOL!