Captive Bred Mandarins

[VR28man]

I bought one from live aquaria but it has only been a couple of months it does eat frozen and flake
But I made a tisbee hut from a sponge bob aquarium hut and shoved open cell aquatic filler and then I shot live ‘tis we pods and phyto. Now I have so many live tisbee pods I don’t think he will ever run out

Nice. Many people talk about "pod condos" but this is the first time I've heard of a literal pod hut.

I take it that by "open cell aquatic filter" you mean some foam filter media? Like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Reticulated-Sponge-Filter-Media-Aquarium/dp/B01L00FU76

 

[40B Knasty]

That's awesome you got 2 mandarins eating frozens out the gate.
Now I don't want to be a bearer of bad news about this find, but you really need to understand that giving them frozens 2x a day is not good enough for them. They NEED to have pods to pick at all day long. They can eat 500 on the low side and 1500 on the high side. Please people if you want to have success. Provide them with good intentions of their everyday needs of life. The baby brine shrimp feeding station is not enough. It helps, but just a band-aid. Feeding them 10 pieces of frozen foods is still 490 pieces short of their daily minimum requirement. Plus there is always the chance of them turning away from frozens and wanting only pods. So be prepared or your fish will die. Especially having two of them. Making you need a requirement of 1000 pods minimum. If you need help starting pods. Checkout the videography forum. I did a thread on keeping pods. Or message me. I will gladly help. I am not saying this for likes. I am saying this to make sure you don't waste your money, time, the fish's life, and for you to have success. This is what a mandarin needs.

 

[Carl Eckelman]

Nice. Many people talk about "pod condos" but this is the first time I've heard of a literal pod hut.

I take it that by "open cell aquatic filter" you mean some foam filter media? Like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Reticulated-Sponge-Filter-Media-Aquarium/dp/B01L00FU76

 

[Liquid360]

Can I ask where you bought your pair at?

AlgaeBarn

 

[GraniteReefer]

Mandarins will ALWAYS need pods. I have a 2+ year in tank wild caught male mandarin who is pellet trained and a young Biota female who is not. Captive bred fish are great for the hobby, but it doesn't make this fish as simple to keep as a clown with just sporadic feedings and I feel that assumption has kind of been peddled in this thread. You still need to be responsible and will likely have to make decisions that effect your other husbandry efforts in the tank. And AlgaeBarn or another copepods supplier will likely make a few hundred dollars off you the first year if you don't rear copepods yourself. My female Biota doesn't even pick at frozen yet and will watch the male decimate pellets on the sand bed and she will hunt the back wall and deep in the pukani cracks. She still has a fat belly but it's all copepods. Biota mandarins up here in tax free NH are 69$ At the LFS
Thread on my pair

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/388519-rey-the-biota-mandarin-march-update/

And here is a video of my male eating NLS .5mm pellets

 

[Liquid360]

Thanks for this thread!! I’ve always wanted a pair! And I just looked at algae barn,.,,their next shipment delivers on my birthday!!! Happy bday to me!!!

I am thinking because of similar eating habits, I will QT my mandarins with my 3 blue star leopard wrasses. Any insight into this? (29-40 gallon tank - purchasing a new bigger one for larger fish/QT)

These are not your fathers mandarins. They really are hardy and extremely healthy, not even a bit delicate. They come to you already eating pellets, Flake, and mysis, fully trained with drive to survive that the wild caught ones usually lack. Treat them as any other fish. No special rules, but you’ll feel bad if you don’t have a good pox population. They’ll survive without it, but it’s kinda what they’re motivated to do all day, hunt pods. These captive bred mandarins are tiny. I mean seriously very very tiny. In my 80g tank, I have a purple tang and VERY large Goldflake Maroon, both extremely aggressive fish and they’ve caused exactly zero problems for the mandarins. Not entirely certain they even see them. There is no problem competing for food because the other fish ignore the tiny pellets. The mandarins set camp on the right side of tank and never leave it. The pair sleep together, on top of each other, feed together, and hunt together. I highly recommend a pair vs a single. They’re just such cool animals!
To better give you an idea of size.... find them In this photo [emoji6]

 

[Liquid360]

 

[Tim Olson]

Thanks for the thread. I currently have a wild caught male, that I've had for about a year. I target feed him nutramar ova, Mysis and Arcti Pods. Most of also falls on the rocks and sand, though, and he eats them between feedings. There's also some pods that make it to the display tank from the refugium.

I'm thinking about getting a female, now that I've heard about biota, to give him a companion.

 

[wmwesty]

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.

Did you feel better for killing a creature that was just trying to live???

 

[VR28man]

Did you feel better for killing a creature that was just trying to live???

[thread drift] I don’t I think he should’ve killed the crab.

However, the same argument could be applied to removing algae, or aiptasia...... [/thread drift]

 

[jayala12]

These are not your fathers mandarins. They really are hardy and extremely healthy, not even a bit delicate. They come to you already eating pellets, Flake, and mysis, fully trained with drive to survive that the wild caught ones usually lack. Treat them as any other fish. No special rules, but you’ll feel bad if you don’t have a good pox population. They’ll survive without it, but it’s kinda what they’re motivated to do all day, hunt pods. These captive bred mandarins are tiny. I mean seriously very very tiny. In my 80g tank, I have a purple tang and VERY large Goldflake Maroon, both extremely aggressive fish and they’ve caused exactly zero problems for the mandarins. Not entirely certain they even see them. There is no problem competing for food because the other fish ignore the tiny pellets. The mandarins set camp on the right side of tank and never leave it. The pair sleep together, on top of each other, feed together, and hunt together. I highly recommend a pair vs a single. They’re just such cool animals!
To better give you an idea of size.... find them In this photo [emoji6]

It was like where’s Waldo lol . Found one

 

[jayala12]

Did you feel better for killing a creature that was just trying to live???

Lol .... it’s a crab .... he didn’t film it and sell it on the internet

 

[Liquid360]

Did you feel better for killing a creature that was just trying to live???

Yup.

 

[jayala12]

Yup.

So simple but made me laugh . Good and to the point haha

 

[Liquid360]

It was like where’s Waldo lol . Found one

I’m seriously impressed!!! I couldn’t have found even one!

 

[jayala12]

I’m seriously impressed!!! I couldn’t have found even one!

 

[Liquid360]

Lol .... it’s a crab .... he didn’t film it and sell it on the internet

I unintentionally kill coral on a seemingly daily basis and nobody cares, but kill a crab on purpose.... I assume it’s the intent he takes issue with? [emoji4]

 

[Liquid360]

Nice find! My iPhone cam takes amazing images, but on tiny tiny objects it’s about useless. I need to buy a lens for it.

 

[fishnchip]

Hey guys! Been looking into getting a mandarin as my final fish. What size tank is everyone keeping theirs in???

 

[fishnchip]

And if I do end up getting one, definitely getting one from algae barn!