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I had a mandarin that I loved...whether it was captive-bred or not, I don't know, but after a few months of buying pods he started eating bloodworms and nls small fish pellets (shocking, I know! - as for mysis, his mouth was still too small). He was fat and healthy and I'm fairly sure I was out of pods pretty quickly, lol, but he just kept growing nicely...I only lost him because of a nasty tank crash that killed all three of my finbabies T.T
That said, I am admittedly a very heavy feeder.
I currently have a rescued scooter that started VERY thin. She attacked the ova I gave her the very first night, and though I've been short of pod cash lately and have not seen one on the glass for months, she appears to be thriving on a mixture of nls small fish, nutramar ova, and frozen rotifers. I don't feed brine shrimp if I can help it and she doesn't appear interested in mysis.
She has definitely fattened up and is active
I want to try keeping a mandarin again too once I get my upgrade together, and I'm saddened to hear that ORA no longer breeds them. I wonder if anyone else on the forums does? Failing that, I'll go back to where I got my first beautiful boy.
I have watched some youtube videos and it appears that they pick up on frozens faster if there's another dragonet in the tank that already regularly eats it.
Edit: I will not purchase a mandarin until I have saved up for a ton of pods. The safety net shall be in place!!!! Then, if it's not going for the frozens or if it starts losing condition on my usual regimen, I can get on it right away.
Great information and relatable story! I think that it's so important to share these types of success stories with other hobbyists...Not just so that others try to keep fish that are challenging- thats a pretty superficial suggestion...Rather, because it shows others just what level of care is required to be successful with a given species.
We are currently playing with some "Wine Red Dragonets" (Sp. not yet confirmed) in one of our display tanks, but we are still not ready to offer them to customers... This is the kind of fish that, if we were to offer them, we'd make sure that they were acclimated to eating prepared foods for some time before offering them for sale. Even then, I think people would have to understand that they still may not eat well or thrive...That's the price of progress...and understanding of what we as hobbyists can expect...
Thanks!
Scott
I looked for 2 or 3 months for a captive bred one after the one we initially got didn't make it. I finally gave up and bought another wild one. 7 months later and well over $100 seeding my tank/fuge a few times to make sure he had enough food and he is thriving.
I would surely pay more for captive bred fish, as after reading a few articles about the methods that are used to capture fish and how many are lost to how many actually make it I have pretty much stopped buying fish all together. =/ This is an expensive hobby to begin with and I think that we owe it to our children, grand-children, etc. to make sure they can enjoy it too.
Regardless of the fact that plenty of people want to buy wild-caught mandarins- I would think there would still be a good market for CB mandarins also. I certainly would pay the extra.
The price of such things is fixed. That is to say that if we get it for a cheap price monetarily the rest of the cost is picked up by the environment or thrid world children. For example you get those madrines for $20 cheaper then normal well that $20 still has to be paid you just end up sticking the coral reef with the bill do this enough and there is no more reef
Has anyone here actually seen ORA's video of their CB Mandarins?
Born & raised in BB tanks. No rock, no corals, no sub straight, no other kinds of fish.
The food is dropped into the tank where it settles nicely on the bottom. No flow pushing it around. They either eat what's given to them or they die.
ORA does not offer these fish Copepods! They are fed NLS pellets and Nutramar Ova. ORA states they have been known to accept Blood Worms.
From personal experience these ORA fish are doomed from the start. Ever try acclimating a fish to a tank with a sandy bottom, LR & corals? To a tank with power heads? I did! Twice! It was heart wrenching to watch. I cried, yes I did. The first died from starvation within 2 days. It arrived totally emaciated. The replacement wasn't much better and after 5-6x daily feedings and a tank full of pod it too died.
These fish were NOT normal! They showed no hunting behavior. They were in shock
IMO price had nothing to do with ORA stopping their CB Mandarin program. More like that the fish failed to survive & thrive in a NORMAL environment.
It's been over a year since my experience and as you can tell it is still a very sensitive subject for me
Has anyone here actually seen ORA's video of their CB Mandarins?
Born & raised in BB tanks. No rock, no corals, no sub straight, no other kinds of fish.
The food is dropped into the tank where it settles nicely on the bottom. No flow pushing it around. They either eat what's given to them or they die.
ORA does not offer these fish Copepods! They are fed NLS pellets and Nutramar Ova. ORA states they have been known to accept Blood Worms.
From personal experience these ORA fish are doomed from the start. Ever try acclimating a fish to a tank with a sandy bottom, LR & corals? To a tank with power heads? I did! Twice! It was heart wrenching to watch. I cried, yes I did. The first died from starvation within 2 days. It arrived totally emaciated. The replacement wasn't much better and after 5-6x daily feedings and a tank full of pod it too died.
These fish were NOT normal! They showed no hunting behavior. They were in shock
IMO price had nothing to do with ORA stopping their CB Mandarin program. More like that the fish failed to survive & thrive in a NORMAL environment.
It's been over a year since my experience and as you can tell it is still a very sensitive subject for me