Adding a baby biota mandarin question

[bec1750]

We are wanting to get a mandarin from biota. I’ve heard from people and seen some pictures that when you get them from biota they are extremely small. Like the size of a dime small. We have a 130 display currently stocked with one yellow tang, one purple tang, one sail fin, one fox face, 2 oscellaris clowns, two blue chromis and a lawn mower blenny. For cuc we have a ton of snails and one cleaner shrimp. Because of how small they are I guess I’m a little worried about the display being big and it being so small. We’ve never had a fish that small. Plus how do I make sure they are being fed when that small? Those of you that have baby mandarins from biota do you spot feed? Have you put them in a larger display when so small? Any advice is welcomed! I’d love to hear how other people have successfully feed and kept them when they were teeny tiny. It will be from biota so it’s been raised in frozen and pellets.
Thanks from a future mandarin mama
Ps we do have a huge pod population that they can snack on in between feedings.

 

[Frostblitz20]

We are wanting to get a mandarin from biota. I’ve heard from people and seen some pictures that when you get them from biota they are extremely small. Like the size of a dime small. We have a 130 display currently stocked with one yellow tang, one purple tang, one sail fin, one fox face, 2 oscellaris clowns, two blue chromis and a lawn mower blenny. For cuc we have a ton of snails and one cleaner shrimp. Because of how small they are I guess I’m a little worried about the display being big and it being so small. We’ve never had a fish that small. Plus how do I make sure they are being fed when that small? Those of you that have baby mandarins from biota do you spot feed? Have you put them in a larger display when so small? Any advice is welcomed! I’d love to hear how other people have successfully feed and kept them when they were teeny tiny. It will be from biota so it’s been raised in frozen and pellets.
Thanks from a future mandarin mama
Ps we do have a huge pod population that they can snack on in between feedings.

if your worried about them being fed if your pod populate is like you said then your be fine. You could test the water with a Scooter or red dragon first as they are friendly non aggressive and feed in a very similar way to a mandarin.

 

[littlebeard]

It's been 1 week since my pair of baby mandarin's arrived. I have a 125 gallon, with a two spot bristletooth tang, algae blenny, midas blenny, 2 clowns, and a red lined wrasse. It's been running about a year. I brought them down to the rockwork and for the first few days they did not leave the underside of that rock. The big one has since moved to an adjoining rock. I currently feed them b2, however it has been a big challenge. I need to stop ALL pumps or it gets blown around(stopped for 10 minutes). They don't really come out of the rockwork so I pipette in between the rocks and I hope they are eating it but I don't really know. My other fish have taken a liking to the b2 as if it's powdered heorin, so the rest of the tank must be fed a few minutes before feeding the mandarin's, and even then the rest of the tank still eats the b2. I do this 3-4 times a day.

They really don't show themselves much and they are tiny. I didn't even see the larger of the pair yesterday even though I looked for about an hour. (He's about 1.5 inches long, the female is 1 inch long)

I'm wondering if I should have made them a separate tank to verify they were eating pellets, however knowing this species lives on pods, setting up a qt tank doesn't guarantee an ample supply of pods that my 125 with a fuge that runs 24/7 does... )

Not sure that helps you, but that has been my experience thus far.

 

[emilybell1]

Hey @bec1750! We got a biota mandarin from tsm and added it directly to our 150. As soon as he was in there I instantly regretted it and spent several weeks worrying if he was getting enough to eat. Ours does eat LRS reef frenzy and cyclopeeze but was really shy and tiny at first so I couldn’t really feed him. We’ve had him now for 8 months and he’s tripled in size and super active and not shy anymore. I don’t worry at all and I’m sure he’s mainly chomping on pods but does come out at feeding time. If you’re confident in your pod population I think you can just put him in, no harm in using an acclimation box or putting him in a smaller tank to make sure he’s eating though. If I were going to do it again, I would just add him directly again.

 

[Highgrade]

I picked up a couple on two separate occasions from Algae Barn when they previously had them in house. Those two never made it past 24 hours. Now they drop ship direct from Biota. I picked up a couple more- one male from TSM and a female direct from Biota. Both are doing great and eat Dragon roe, PE Calanus, Cyclopeze, baby brine, PE .5mm mysis pellets and TDO Chroma Boost B2 pellets.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

My pair from biota learned to use a mandarin feeder. I held them in a ten gallon observation tank, till I could get them to eat prepared foods like oyster feast, callanus, cyclops, baby brine. Then I added the feeder for a few days to familiarize them with there feeding area. Paul B posted a picture of his that he used for feeding white worms to his mandarin, so I got the design and idea from him. Thanks again @Paul B

They lived for 2 years in my 60 gallon then a few months in my 120 till my tank was wiped due to velvet.

 

[Theulli]

We are wanting to get a mandarin from biota. I’ve heard from people and seen some pictures that when you get them from biota they are extremely small. Like the size of a dime small. We have a 130 display currently stocked with one yellow tang, one purple tang, one sail fin, one fox face, 2 oscellaris clowns, two blue chromis and a lawn mower blenny. For cuc we have a ton of snails and one cleaner shrimp. Because of how small they are I guess I’m a little worried about the display being big and it being so small. We’ve never had a fish that small. Plus how do I make sure they are being fed when that small? Those of you that have baby mandarins from biota do you spot feed? Have you put them in a larger display when so small? Any advice is welcomed! I’d love to hear how other people have successfully feed and kept them when they were teeny tiny. It will be from biota so it’s been raised in frozen and pellets.
Thanks from a future mandarin mama
Ps we do have a huge pod population that they can snack on in between feedings.

I got one, that miraculously survived being delayed for 24 hours in the middle of winter. The water was painfully cold to the touch when I got it, and it took a loooooong time of warning it up slowly to get it up and moving. Unfortunately the little guy didn't live more than a few months, probably due to that stress.

You are correct that they are extremely small when you get them. I have never had an issue though with any fish in my tanks bothering Mandarins, including this one. They just seem to float under other fishes' radars. One benefit to the small size is that mine was able to live off of the copepod population in the tank pretty easily, even though the tank would've been a bit undersized for a full grown mandarin. I got some TDO B2 that I would dust in there for it, which it would occasionally peck at but it seemed happier finding its own food. There are two big challenges from my experience: they seem to prefer to eat copepods if they're available, and they are way too small for some of the other foods recommended (even the B2, I ended up ordering the next smallest grain size), and the challenge is that the mandarin is such a tiny and slow eater that, for example, a cleaner shrimp is just going to elbow it out of the way unless you find a way to distract it.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I agree with @Theulli
Mandarin are very slow eaters, it’s like they basically eat all day, just nibbling.
I would refill my feeder 4-6 times a day as opposed to the other fish that ate 1-3 times a day. When I would broadcast feed and turn pumps off for the mandarin to even have a chance at catching the food, the mandarin would only take about 2-3 bites of food in the 15 minutes that the pumps were off, soon as the pumps turned back on, the mandarin would swim away.
They wouldn’t even attempt to chase the food farther then an inch away.