Captive Bred Mandarins

Liquid360 · Mar 31, 2018

In the past couple months I’ve purchased two captive bred mandarins, a male and a female. I have had trouble with mandarins forever, going back at least two decades. These new’ish captive bred fish are AMAZING!!! I couldn’t recommend them more passionately. I recommend getting a pair. They eat anything. They’re active and extremely hardy. They’re so very tiny, but just adorable fish! Watching them interact is such good fun.
Sorry, but best photo I could grab. These things are TINY!

Scurvy · Mar 31, 2018

Good to hear they live up to expectations!

Dsnakes · Mar 31, 2018

Good looking fish

DSC reef · Mar 31, 2018

Congrats, there amazing fish. We've got a pair as well but not captive bred. They eat everything too. The big male will shred pieces of LRS reef frenzy like a little pit bull. They recently took a liking to reef nutrition beta brine so we don't need to purchase live brine anymore. Mysis feast and TDO chroma boost has been the latest offering that there eating. It's exciting to watch them. Before the lights go out they hunt together all over the tank.

jokim · Mar 31, 2018

They are really awesome fish!! I got a pair and my jawfish ate one of them!! The other one gets bigger and bigger

jayala12 · Mar 31, 2018

Liquid360 said:
In the past couple months I’ve purchased two captive bred mandarins, a male and a female. I have had trouble with mandarins forever, going back at least two decades. These new’ish captive bred fish are AMAZING!!! I couldn’t recommend them more passionately. I recommend getting a pair. They eat anything. They’re active and extremely hardy. They’re so very tiny, but just adorable fish! Watching them interact is such good fun.
Sorry, but best photo I could grab. These things are TINY!

Where did you get them from ?

TheShrimpMeister · Mar 31, 2018

jayala12 said:
Where did you get them from ?

Yes we'd like to know where too. I love all the mandarin style fish but we usually can't keep them longer than two years & most only 6months. They just show up dead for no apparent reason & more than one aquarium staff member at different places have stated it likely due to the stress of not being in their home habitat, so captive bred ones shouldn't have this issue one would think.

DSC reef · Mar 31, 2018

Check out biota, I believe they sell captive bred. Not sure where the OP got his from.

Scurvy · Mar 31, 2018

TheShrimpMeister said:
Yes we'd like to know where too. I love all the mandarin style fish but we usually can't keep them longer than two years & most only 6months. They just show up dead for no apparent reason & more than one aquarium staff member at different places have stated it likely due to the stress of not being in their home habitat, so captive bred ones shouldn't have this issue one would think.

Algae Barn has had the up for sale quite a bit in the last few weeks. Supplies are limited and like most fish availability is sporadic

Liquid360 · Mar 31, 2018

DSC reef said:
Check out biota, I believe they sell captive bred. Not sure where the OP got his from.

I bought from AlgaeBarn which buys from biota.

Liquid360 · Mar 31, 2018

TheShrimpMeister said:
Yes we'd like to know where too. I love all the mandarin style fish but we usually can't keep them longer than two years & most only 6months. They just show up dead for no apparent reason & more than one aquarium staff member at different places have stated it likely due to the stress of not being in their home habitat, so captive bred ones shouldn't have this issue one would think.

Exactly! Buy from AlgaeBarn. These guys are the secret to Mandarin bliss!

Scurvy · Mar 31, 2018

DSC reef said:
Congrats, there amazing fish. We've got a pair as well but not captive bred. They eat everything too. The big male will shred pieces of LRS reef frenzy like a little pit bull. They recently took a liking to reef nutrition beta brine so we don't need to purchase live brine anymore. Mysis feast and TDO chroma boost has been the latest offering that there eating. It's exciting to watch them. Before the lights go out they hunt together all over the tank.

Mine wasn’t captive bread but also tears into Reef Frenzy! I was shocked one day when a larger chunk sank right to him and fought off a hermit and two snails to keep it for himself. I now make sure he gets a nice chunk delivered to his spot under a plating monti that most other fish cant steel it from him.

Liquid360 · Mar 31, 2018

Oh I forgot!!! The first one I bought was eaten alive by my arrow crab!!! I caught him eating him! Here’s the photo.... I killed that crab immediately.

KMench · Mar 31, 2018

I have a Biota mandarin also. They do come tiny, but man they grow fast! I got mine from LiveAquaria. I had tried before with a mandarin and it died in QT, so I broke the QT rules by just adding him directly to the DT

jayala12 · Mar 31, 2018

I have a red mandarin that’s doing great . Could I put a green captive to teach it to eat frozen lol. Maybe ?

DSC reef · Mar 31, 2018

Scurvy said:
Mine wasn’t captive bread but also tears into Reef Frenzy! I was shocked one day when a larger chunk sank right to him and fought off a hermit and two snails to keep it for himself. I now make sure he gets a nice chunk delivered to his spot under a plating monti that most other fish cant steel it from him.

It's really cool to witness, I wish I could get a video!