Biota mandarins

[TheNative192]

No, actually I'm leaning towards a biota.

My LFS buys ORA Mandarins and before I got mine I would ask if any eat prepared foods and they always said no or they never have seen it. I had them try multiple times and no dice as well since it would have been cheaper to go ORA. There is nothing wrong with them still, its just Biota does a smart thing by training there's by raising them from day one on pellet foods so they are very healthy.

 

[Redbird5]

My LFS buys ORA Mandarins and before I got mine I would ask if any eat prepared foods and they always said no or they never have seen it. I had them try multiple times and no dice as well since it would have been cheaper to go ORA. There is nothing wrong with them still, its just Biota does a smart thing by training there's by raising them from day one on pellet foods so they are very healthy.

That's why I like them. I think I'll have more success with the biota. I want one that success this time.

 

[TheNative192]

That's why I like them. I think I'll have more success with the biota. I want one that success this time.

Key this is do not drip acclimate Biota Mandarins as well. They add some stuff to their water and so just float it for temp and then remove the fish and add it to the tank with pumps off. Its in their acclimation guide but very important to know not to drip.

Mine knows as soon as I turn the water off its feeding time and goes to the spot where I feed him lol. They also train there's to know its feeding time when the pumps are off. It really is something lol

 

[Redbird5]

Key this is do not drip acclimate Biota Mandarins as well. They add some stuff to their water and so just float it for temp and then remove the fish and add it to the tank with pumps off. Its in their acclimation guide but very important to know not to drip.

Mine knows as soon as I turn the water off its feeding time and goes to the spot where I feed him lol. They also train there's to know its feeding time when the pumps are off. It really is something lol

Wow! That's awesome. It'll probably be October before I get one. I can't wait, but I will.

 

[sgdnycct]

I’ve got two in my 80 gallon from Biota and are doing great. I haven’t seen them eat any added foods since going into the DT (they did during observation). I believe mine are living off pods alone. I have a lot of surface area and pod hotels that I glued into my rock structure and in my sump when I built the tank. This was all my planning for keeping Mandarins. It’s not just the size of your tank that determines whether you can keep a dragonette. It’s whether there’s enough overall living space + enough protected living space for Pod reproduction.

Yes Biota mandarins will eat pellets and frozen BUT there is always the chance that once they get a taste for pods they may not go back. In addition, as in my case, my fish are fast eaters and gobble everything down. I haven’t found a trick to getting food to the mandarins. Many other people seem to have found a way but I feel that may be more the exception.

If you go with dragonettes I’d recommend you plan for the worst (ie they won’t get prepared foods) and hope for the best (you’ll be able to supplement their diet with prepared foods). I would think a mature 45 gallon with enough rock and crevices plus a pod hotel should be possible but there’s many variables and IMO it all comes down to making sure you have enough pods for them.

 

[Sam7]

I have always had wild caught with no problems...i like cheaper and they always eat pods and my frozen food. They learned on there own. If your having trouble your tank might just not be ready or adequate for them.

I have a ruby red dragonette and a spotted mandarin in a 40B. To me they are easy and i have one in all my tanks with no trouble.... Of course you have to get a healthy one to start

 

[afboundguy]

I initially bought a male and female pair from Biota but the extremely small female got lost/died and I never saw her after the first few days but the male is nice and big and to this day still eats pellets and frozen like a champ.

I took a chance and got a wild caught female at a LFS and within a few days she was eating frozen and pellets just like the Biota male and I think she learned from seeing him.

45g

I have a pair of breeding mandarins in my 35 DT (65-70 total gallons). I also have several copepod cultures and dose the tank every few days but over the summer I hurt my leg and couldn't get into the basement and didn't feed the tank consistently or have phyto or pod cultures going and the mandarins were still fat and healthy once I healed up!

 

[slingfox]

I have had two Biota mandarins in my 138 gallon system (110g display + 28g sump) for the last 3 months. I did a complete tank reset where I replaced all the rockscape with oceanlive rock one month before I added the mandarins. Including the prior setup the tank has been running for 2 years and 4 months.

I have not fed the mandarin anything—they just scavenge the rockscape (mostly staying on one side of the tank). I don’t believe they can compete directly against the other fish for frozen food or pellets but the mandarins do just fine.

Both mandarin came in very small (one male, one female) but have almost quadrupled in size in three months. I don’t dose pods or phyto currently. I did add some pods to the tank when I did my tank reset 4 months ago.

 

[fandaga]

I have a mated pair of Biota mandarins for about 2 years in a 47 gallon AIO. Great fish. I stopped supplementing pods but still dose phytoplankton daily. I only feed my fish once per day, and they’ll eat frozen mysis, brine shrimp, rods food, and LRS reef frenzy.

If you get the Biota mandarins, I would recommend spending more for the larger size. The normal size comes in super tiny. At the small size, I think Biota has a hard time sexing them. In my case, I first bought the male, which turned out to be female and then got the male, which turned out to be female. The males are quite a bit nicer looking than the females when they’re flashing fins. The mated fish are super interesting to watch doing their mating dance at night.

 

[Ron Popeil]

My LFS buys ORA Mandarins and before I got mine I would ask if any eat prepared foods and they always said no or they never have seen it. I had them try multiple times and no dice as well since it would have been cheaper to go ORA. There is nothing wrong with them still, its just Biota does a smart thing by training there's by raising them from day one on pellet foods so they are very healthy.

ORA Mandarins are raised on prepared foods not copepods. i just don't think ORA overly touts "they eat prepared foods" because too many people associate that with a fish that swims up and eats flakes out of the water column along side your tangs and angels. in an aquarium mandarins just wont eat as fast as dottybacks, wrasses, angels and tangs do and are outcompeted very quickly.
in a species only tank with mandarins and say seahorses, i think you'd find both biota and ORA mandarins eating pellets and frozen foods just fine. but in most peoples home aquariums, with the variety of fish people regularly keep, both mandarins will default to eating mostly copepods and eating prepared foods if they can.

the bigger picture really is the value of selecting captive bred over wild mandarins, regardless of will they/wont they eat prepared foods in an aquarium. wild mandarins typically have a dismal rate of survival coming in from the wild. lots of anecdotes of wild caught eating prepared foods, but the reality is substantially more starving wild caught mandarins perishing in aquariums.

 

[sgdnycct]

My LFS buys ORA Mandarins and before I got mine I would ask if any eat prepared foods and they always said no or they never have seen it. I had them try multiple times and no dice as well since it would have been cheaper to go ORA. There is nothing wrong with them still, its just Biota does a smart thing by training there's by raising them from day one on pellet foods so they are very healthy.

ORA Mandarins are raised on prepared foods not copepods. i just don't think ORA overly touts "they eat prepared foods" because too many people associate that with a fish that swims up and eats flakes out of the water column along side your tangs and angels. in an aquarium mandarins just wont eat as fast as dottybacks, wrasses, angels and tangs do and are outcompeted very quickly.
in a species only tank with mandarins and say seahorses, i think you'd find both biota and ORA mandarins eating pellets and frozen foods just fine. but in most peoples home aquariums, with the variety of fish people regularly keep, both mandarins will default to eating mostly copepods and eating prepared foods if they can.

the bigger picture really is the value of selecting captive bred over wild mandarins, regardless of will they/wont they eat prepared foods in an aquarium. wild mandarins typically have a dismal rate of survival coming in from the wild. lots of anecdotes of wild caught eating prepared foods, but the reality is substantially more starving wild caught mandarins perishing in aquariums.

100%

 

[TheNative192]

ORA Mandarins are raised on prepared foods not copepods. i just don't think ORA overly touts "they eat prepared foods" because too many people associate that with a fish that swims up and eats flakes out of the water column along side your tangs and angels. in an aquarium mandarins just wont eat as fast as dottybacks, wrasses, angels and tangs do and are outcompeted very quickly.
in a species only tank with mandarins and say seahorses, i think you'd find both biota and ORA mandarins eating pellets and frozen foods just fine. but in most peoples home aquariums, with the variety of fish people regularly keep, both mandarins will default to eating mostly copepods and eating prepared foods if they can.

the bigger picture really is the value of selecting captive bred over wild mandarins, regardless of will they/wont they eat prepared foods in an aquarium. wild mandarins typically have a dismal rate of survival coming in from the wild. lots of anecdotes of wild caught eating prepared foods, but the reality is substantially more starving wild caught mandarins perishing in aquariums.

So Biota from Day 1 does not add copepods to their tanks & does not introduce them when raising them while ORA does include copepods in their systems but also feeds prepared foods. ORA does feed frozen foods and some dry foods as well and they say many accept it but from their email & my research they indicated that that do feed their tank raised Dragonettes Nutramar Ova, finely chopped Hikari Frozen Blood Worms, fish roe, frozen or live baby brine shrimp, live copepods, frozen daphnia as well as dry foods.

They also said prepared foods may not be their consistent food going forward. I do think the absolute exclusion of live foods is important to give them the best shot to continue to eat prepared foods but I am not saying they raise them exclusively on copepods & such. Biota outright claims they do not feed any live foods & none of their systems contain copepods though.

 

[sgdnycct]

ORA Mandarins are raised on prepared foods not copepods. i just don't think ORA overly touts "they eat prepared foods" because too many people associate that with a fish that swims up and eats flakes out of the water column along side your tangs and angels. in an aquarium mandarins just wont eat as fast as dottybacks, wrasses, angels and tangs do and are outcompeted very quickly.
in a species only tank with mandarins and say seahorses, i think you'd find both biota and ORA mandarins eating pellets and frozen foods just fine. but in most peoples home aquariums, with the variety of fish people regularly keep, both mandarins will default to eating mostly copepods and eating prepared foods if they can.

the bigger picture really is the value of selecting captive bred over wild mandarins, regardless of will they/wont they eat prepared foods in an aquarium. wild mandarins typically have a dismal rate of survival coming in from the wild. lots of anecdotes of wild caught eating prepared foods, but the reality is substantially more starving wild caught mandarins perishing in aquariums.

So Biota from Day 1 does not add copepods to their tanks & does not introduce them when raising them while ORA does include copepods in their systems but also feeds prepared foods. ORA does feed frozen foods and some dry foods as well and they say many accept it but from their email & my research they indicated that that do feed their tank raised Dragonettes Nutramar Ova, finely chopped Hikari Frozen Blood Worms, fish roe, frozen or live baby brine shrimp, live copepods, frozen daphnia as well as dry foods.

They also said prepared foods may not be their consistent food going forward. I do think the absolute exclusion of live foods is important to give them the best shot to continue to eat prepared foods but I am not saying they raise them exclusively on copepods & such. Biota outright claims they do not feed any live foods & none of their systems contain copepods though.

However they are raised you’ll have to be prepared to ensure they get enough food throughout the day. Yes they’re reared on all kinds of non-live food but the fact is they are very slow fish when it comes to eating. You’d have to find a trick to get food to them where your other fish won’t outcompete them for it.

There are ways to train them to go into specially designed traps that keep most other fish away from the food. Or as I mentioned make sure there are plenty of pods. They WILL EAT PODS! That’s a guarantee. There’s no guarantee they’ll continue to accept or, more likely, be able to get enough processed food throughout the day. They eat constantly and have no stomach.

 

[Sam7]

I dont like that they sell them so teeny tiny

 

[twentyleagues]

The main problem as others have stated is can they get to the food before everyone else in the tank. I have had 3 mandarins and a couple scooter blennies in the past this was well before the time of captive bred dragonettes. All of them would eat frozen foods such as small frozen mysis and baby brine a few would eat stuff like ROE or arctipods from reef nutrition in the squirt bottles. I never saw any of them eat pellets but I didnt feed tiny pellets either. The other issue is how often are you feeding? They need to eat almost constantly. I had a large display fuge and I also set up small overhead fuges over the display tanks to keep pods safe and making it in the system. So mine had plenty of pods to eat even with a handful of wrasses. The main thing is if they came across some frozen food missed by the other fish they would cheerfully eat it.

 

[TheNative192]

I feed 3x to 4x per day. I also target feed with a pipette. I also shut down the flow and feed in multiple locations, every time I shut off the flow he goes into the back left corner of the tank instinctively too. After the first two weeks my Mandarin already kind of recognized that the pipette means food too.

I actually plan to buy a Plank auto feeder and try to do 8 small bursts of food throughout the day to see how that works. The only fish that competes a lot for the food is an orchid dottyback.

That being said as long as you feed small amounts in multiple locations I have no issue with him getting plenty of food. I even like to squirt it near rocks and in little crevices since he loves to pick around while my other fish will mostly go for the floating food.

There is also a ton of pods in my system since I have two tisbe gallon cultures going at all times and even then I see them all over the glass but that is mostly from the fact that I feed a lot of dry goods so he is not actively hunting as much.

 

[mrpontiac80]

For what it’s worth. I got a ORA mandarin back in Nov 2023. It was as the smallest fish I’d ever seen for sale I think. My LFS ordered it for me and they left it in the Ora packaging for me till I picked it up.

I’ve never seen it eat anything but it pecks at rocks constantly. (Eating pods) 2 years later it’s bigger everyday. Probably almost 3” now. Love that guy.

 

[AUSXMD]

I ordered a yellow tang from Biota last week. He arrived quite small, but totally healthy. He was white when he arrived but is rapidly turning yellow and fitting in with his tankmates in my 230 gallon tank. I never considered a mandarin because of the notorious reputation they have in keeping them. Well, I ended up getting one from Biota mainly because they feed off pellets and I dont have to mess with live food (although I have a large fuge, maybe I should add a bunch just to have them. Do all fish feed on pods?). I got what they call a "large" male soley for the coloration and it only upped the cost 45 bucks. It will arrive Tuesday and I'll let you all know how he's doing. I think I'll get all my future fish from Biota. It's a bit more money, but they seem legit and very kind and helpful. More than I can say for LiveAquaria who ripped me off 200 bucks during whatever crisis they were having late last year. Oh well. F 'em. I won't do business there ever again. Anyway, I hope everyone's tanks and mandarins are healthy and thriving. Take care.

 

[W31Olds]

My WC Mandarin will eat Pellets and Frozen Food, however that does not mean you will be successful keeping one. My main problem is all my fish have become wise to my Pipet I use to Target feed my Mandarin and are real pains. I have to attempt to distract them because Mandarins are slow feeders and need to inspect every morsel. I could dump a large amount of food in, but my nutrients are already high, and 6" fish can eat a lot of pellets in short order.

 

[TheNative192]

I ordered a yellow tang from Biota last week. He arrived quite small, but totally healthy. He was white when he arrived but is rapidly turning yellow and fitting in with his tankmates in my 230 gallon tank. I never considered a mandarin because of the notorious reputation they have in keeping them. Well, I ended up getting one from Biota mainly because they feed off pellets and I dont have to mess with live food (although I have a large fuge, maybe I should add a bunch just to have them. Do all fish feed on pods?). I got what they call a "large" male soley for the coloration and it only upped the cost 45 bucks. It will arrive Tuesday and I'll let you all know how he's doing. I think I'll get all my future fish from Biota. It's a bit more money, but they seem legit and very kind and helpful. More than I can say for LiveAquaria who ripped me off 200 bucks during whatever crisis they were having late last year. Of well. F 'em. I won't do business there ever again. Anyway, I hope everyone's tanks and mandarins are healthy and thriving. Take care.

Mine eats TDO B2 Pellets like a Champ B2 is the pellet size. As for Pods. I would try to add some tisbe pods to the sump as they live on surfaces and are the ones that Mandarins eat a lot of as some stay in the water column which Mandarins will not really go for. All fish eat pods but some are more aggressive towards them like many wrasses and can dwindle their population. If you dose phyto that can help too to keep the pod population up. If the tank is new get some tisbe pods and dose phyto, if not you probably have plenty of pods and I would just throw TDO B2 pellets in once a day. They are small so other fish will ignore it.

MOST IMPORTANT THING: Do not drip acclimate the Mandarin. They put something in the water and it will die if you drip acclimate it. It comes in 1.026 water so nothing to worry about there, just float, drain the bag outside the tank and add him in.