Mandarin Weaning Advice

[encideought]

Hi All,

So, I never thought I would, but I ended up getting a mandarin dragonette a little over a week ago. I got it from a guy who had it in his 34 gallon tank (no sump) for ~ a year. I assumed he was feeding it live/frozen food, but he told me that he never fed it anything! It seems healthy and doesn't look like it's wasting away at all. He had quite a bit of live rock in his tank, and some macro in the back chamber, but nothing special.

 

I have a 24 gallon tank with a 10 gallon sump/refugium that has a good amount of LR and macro. The mandarin still doesn't like me and hides pretty much anytime I come near the tank, but it's getting more adventurous in my tank and I've seen it scooting around when I peer from across the room. It picks at rocks (eating pods I'm assuming) and I've been putting "fresh" macro from the refug. into the main tank every 3-4 days to try and keep it's food supply up. It doesn't appear to be wasting at all, but it certainly doesn't look fat (looks about the same as when I picked it up).

 

I really want to wean it onto frozen foods, not only to make it easier for feeding, but just to make sure that I can see it eat and that's it's well taken care of. I bought some live adult brine shrimp recently and I've been squirting some into the tank, but the mandarin couldn't care less, which surprised me. So, I'm thinking in another week or so I'd like to put it into a breeder net and try to force it to eat live brine, then switch to live brine/frozen mysis, culminating in all frozen mysis. This seems like the best way to wean a mandarin onto frozen foods from what I've read, but I figured I would query the board and see if anyone has any thoughts.

 

I worry a little about isolating the mandarin from the pods and trying to force it onto brine, but I don't see how else to get it to start eating what I want it to eat. Any thoughts? Oh, and I have read quite a bit about caring for these beautiful fish, so please don't respond if your feeding advice is to "give it someone with a bigger tank"...

 

Thanks,

Nick

[gmubeach]

Mine used to eat mirco pellets and brine and black worms I used to feed it twice a week all of the above in my nano he lived until my ex stuck a scooter blenny in the tank and it crashed the pods.... I think they will always need pods to survive but I did get it to take the mirco pellets and I'm assuming it ate the brine shrimp and black worms.. I would wait until I saw him and dump the pellets right on his head.. and he would suck them up!

[ctenophore]

They really only eat copepods, so I wouldn't worry about trying to get it to eat frozen food. As long as your tank is well-established, you shouldn't have much to worry about. 24 gal is a little on the small side, but since you have a productive fuge that should offset the size issue. You might consider buying some "reef pods" of various brands and pouring them into the fuge to boost the population every now and then. These are harpacticoid copepods (bottom dwellers) that are easy to culture. If you notice the mandarin getting thin, you might try culturing them in a 10g tank and pouring them in more often.

[El Camaron]

you can definitely get him to it frozen, mine used to love mysis and flakes as well as the ocacional pod. just feed it witha turkey baster and blow some mysis close to him, they are very slow so if you have other faster fish he will benefit from the personalized turkey baster feeding. Mine knew when feeding time was, he would come up to the baster and start picking on the pieces.

[encideought]

Wow you guys are fast, thanks for the quick replies. She (I think) is the only fish in the tank, so there shouldn't be any competition. I was thinking maybe she didn't want the live brine shrimp because she was good on the pods, or she just didn't like me, yet. I have a version of a turkey baster for feeding, so I'll keep using that and hopefully she'll learn it's not so scary eventually.

[gmubeach]

I got mine to eat pellets for what its worth!

[BrendanG]

Try feeding sushi roe, (Typically flounder or salmon) I've generally had very good luck with that. Highly nutritious, and you'll get some weight on that mandarin quite quickly. You'll be able to find it most Asian markets. Be sure to get it in water, not vinegar. Ovamar which I think is Oystereggs, is also taken readily.

 

if your worried about other fish, use a small baby jar, empty the food in there, and scoot that mandarin in there...Eventually they'll associate it with food, and you'll be set! Melev has had great success with this method, and it's worked for me

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I had one in a tank for several years that basically didn't have any copepods. He was fat. The most important thing to success with a mandarin is getting them on normal food.

 

 

I found PE mysis was the key. At first, I would squirt it near him with a turkey baster. Later, after he got a taste for it, he would swim out and actively compete with fish at feeding time for the PE mysis.

 

 

[bshriver]

Mine is in a 110 with lots if live rock a fuge and frag tank wih more LR.

 

It is almost obese

 

It definitely has always taken live black worms. I have seen it eat them. I fed them at the same time as I fed my home made frozen mash. I eventually saw him start eating small pieces of table shrimp and other meaty foods from my frozen mash.

 

What did your friend feed his tank? Try those food for sure.

 

People have also had success with cyclopeze in a feeding station like a submersed jar. I would try lots of different food in a feeding station along with target feeding live black worms.

 

Oyster eggs (DTs) stimulate feeding responses. You might try them right before you add another food source.

 

Good luck!

[encideought]

Thank you all for the really helpful advice! I'll keep some live food on hand to make sure she doesn't go hungry, but I'll just keep trying the different foods you suggested until I find something she likes. My wife always loves going to the asian markets, so this will be a fun excuse for the trip. My wife is actually pregnant, so hopefully both my wife and the mandarin will have nice big bellies soon!

 

Thanks!

[sen5241b]

They really only eat copepods, so I wouldn't worry about trying to get it to eat frozen food.

.

.

.

 

I do not agree with that.

 

I've had a lot of luck fattening Mandarins. I have a decent pod population. But I've had two of these fish and both times they will chow on two foods:

 

Ocean Nutrition Marine Formula 1 Small pellets

 

Orange Sushi Roe (I get this additive-free at the Asian super market at 7-corners)

 

I turn off flow sometimes and then drop the roe or pellets right over the Mandarin and she immediately chows on them. I keep my Sushi Roe frozen for long term use.

 

 

You can also soak your live brine shrimp in Selcon and feed them that.

Edited March 26, 2010 by sen5241b

[davelin315]

I have never seen mine eat anything other than picking at the rocks. It does not eat the pelleted food, nor does it eat mysis. In fact, I don't think that I can see anything that it's actually eating. Most people who see the male mandarin in my tank cannot believe how big and fat it is. There's a recent thread posted by BrendanG about how ORA is breeding these and will release the first wave of them this summer that are eating pelleted and frozen food. In my own experience, the food they eat is incredibly small so if it's not already eating stuff, you may struggle with weaning it over, but the cyclopeez is probably the size of what my two eat naturally in the tank.

 

As far as the brine shrimp, I wouldn't get it used to eating that as it's nutritionally just filler. If you gut load it, then it can work, otherwise it's not worth the time.

[ctenophore]

I do not agree with that.

 

I've had a lot of luck fattening Mandarins. I have a decent pod population. But I've had two of these fish and both times they will chow on two foods:

 

Ocean Nutrition Marine Formula 1 Small pellets

 

Orange Sushi Roe (I get this additive-free at the Asian super market at 7-corners)

 

I turn off flow sometimes and then drop the roe or pellets right over the Mandarin and she immediately chows on them. I keep my Sushi Roe frozen for long term use.

 

 

You can also soak your live brine shrimp in Selcon and feed them that.

Sorry, you are right, I will qualify that: They only eat copepods in the wild. Sure you can wean them on to other foods which is more convenient for the aquarist and likely just fine for the fish (as ORA has obviously shown) but my point is if they can thrive in captivity with only a suitable supply of copepods, why bother trying to wean them onto a different diet? My pair does not eat anything but copepods as Dave mentioned above, and they spawn regularly.

[luceneck]

If you can get it to eat pellets here is a neat way of providing a buffet:

http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

 

But make sure to note that his comment was that his mandarin was already eating prepared foods.

Edited March 27, 2010 by luceneck