Feeding a Mandarin

[Daniel@R2R]

Awesome!

 

[NanaReefer]

UPDATE:
So I created a little gadget that allows me to feed my mandarin. He has been trained. He knows to hang out next to it now. When I see him there I know its feeding time. Now the only way the other get the brine shrimp is if one gets by the mandarin. Now if I can only figure out how to feed him frozen and for him to like it. ;)
Thanks all for the advice.

IMO your Mandarin looks very thin. Although he may be eating the Brine Shrimp he is in no way getting the required nutrients for him to survive long term, let alone thrive. Your feeding station is awesome! Try hatching (very easy to do) brine shrimp eggs. Much better live food :)

 

[johnrigu]

I just started the feeding station so hopefully he will pick up some weight in the coming days. Alsobim not sure what route to take in hatching my own brine shrimp.

 

[Paul B]

The mesh on your feeding station is much to large. But good luck. He is kind of skinny but they fatten up quickly if enough shrimp are eaten

 

[johnrigu]

Actually the mesh seemed perfect. The stockings seemed like the mesh was not big enough unless you've had success that way. The shrimp were trying to squeeze through as he picked them off one by one. Then he goes away and they stay put. I guess trial and error will determine if I need to decrease the mesh size.

 

[shred5]

Copepod populations has little to do with the size of a tank now adays, most keep their tanks to clean.. Copepods live on detritus and algae and both are things we dont want in our tanks..

To me a mandrin is just as easy in a 20 gallon as it is a 75 because food will have to be offered to suplement the copepod populations in the tank.....

Copepods are very easy to culture, There is even someone that sells them here on R2R.. A little phyto and a small aquarium or jar and a small air pump.

You can also supplement with BBS and sometime they will even eat smaller adults.. Brine shrimp even if gut stuffed do not offer enough nutriton by them selves though..

People have had some luck with other live foods too..

Some have been able to train theirs to eat pellet food but to me is extremely hit or miss..

 

[Paul B]

Mine find enough pods but I have a lot of pod eaters besides a breeding pair of mandarins I have a scooter dragonette and 3 pipefish that hunt pods all day.
I also supplement the mandarins with live white worms that I grow in soil. They stay alive in saltwater for hours and the mandarins can't get enough of them. They also eat live blackworms but those die in seconds so the mandarin practically has to be hit in the head with them for him to see them. I feel that pellets are a very bad food for a mandarin even if you can get one to eat them. An animal that was designed to eat nothing but live food should have live food. I don't consider a fish "just" living enough. You can get any fish to live, you want it in breeding condition even if you don't want to breed them because that is the condition they are always in in the sea and the condition we should strive to have all our fish in. Just living is almost the same as almost dying and the reason for all the disease and fish death threads.

White worms

 

[revhtree]

Feeding The Finicky Fish - REEFEDITION

More good info.

 

[Lemony Lemons]

Mine find enough pods but I have a lot of pod eaters besides a breeding pair of mandarins I have a scooter dragonette and 3 pipefish that hunt pods all day.
I also supplement the mandarins with live white worms that I grow in soil. They stay alive in saltwater for hours and the mandarins can't get enough of them. They also eat live blackworms but those die in seconds so the mandarin practically has to be hit in the head with them for him to see them. I feel that pellets are a very bad food for a mandarin even if you can get one to eat them. An animal that was designed to eat nothing but live food should have live food. I don't consider a fish "just" living enough. You can get any fish to live, you want it in breeding condition even if you don't want to breed them because that is the condition they are always in in the sea and the condition we should strive to have all our fish in. Just living is almost the same as almost dying and the reason for all the disease and fish death threads.

UPDATE:
So I created a little gadget that allows me to feed my mandarin. He has been trained. He knows to hang out next to it now. When I see him there I know its feeding time. Now the only way the other get the brine shrimp is if one gets by the mandarin. Now if I can only figure out how to feed him frozen and for him to like it. ;)
Thanks all for the advice.

I agree with the white worms. I don't have my mandarin yet, because I refuse to buy one without the proper food source. So i have my fuge set up (2 weeks now), waiting for my pods to populate a bit more in there.

Also, I have a little Tupper ware of white worms (I bought a starter culture on ebay) in my closet - i feed them dry flakes of mashed potatoes once a week. Once they multiply a bit more I'll buy my mandarin.

Either way, i want to make sure im educated and prepared before i get my little guy and I want to make sure mine stays nice and fat, I really like that idea with the feeder - both the pvc style one and the container idea. I just need to make sure my worms can fit through whatever mesh I choose.
Great ideas on both parts and it's posts like these that are much appreciated for people like me!

 

[Jason edwards]

Good to know about white worms. I primarily used blood worms after watching a vid of them int the wild and it seemed to be small worms they were primarily snacking on. I used bloodworms soaked in garlic and a vit sup. mix in a lil mysis, drop pvc pipe down to feeding dish dump food down pipe into dish and slowly remove the pvc pipe. Spilling just a lil out and about the tank. I fed with pumps off. Everyone loved the dish from dragonets to pipefish. Column feeders catch what comes out as you remove pipe.

 

[Jason edwards]

I didn't start culturing white worms until I was fw breeding.

 

[CWMorrow]

That us very cool. Where do you get live adult brine shrimp?

 

[Paul B]

You can get adult brine shrimp at most aquarium stores but I don't use them. I hatch shrimp and only use the new borns

 

[Paul B]

Always pregnant

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Mine just lives off the pods in my rock and fuge

...fastest little mandarin I've ever seen

 

[lukdojo]

i feed mine twice a week with frozen brine shrimp with a small eye dropper.
rest is on the pods. I've had the tanking running for about 8 months now, mandarin goby has been in there for about 5-6 months already and looks healthy.
30 gallon tank with a 10 gallon sump, i see tons of pods in the sump so i'm assuming it's making it's way up to the main tank.
note: i also started the tank with well established real reef rock which came with loads of pods.

 

[deedeesdaddy]

That is the fattest fish I've ever seen whoa!.... and I had to laugh, first page of this thread. .. $25 a month to feed a $15 fish ... hey if u got it like that.. and I'd have to commend your husbandry.. if that's what he needs and u can do it that way fantastic... after all lil homie don't know nuthin bout money.. he's just trying to live... but me.. I wood defiantly cultivate my own pod populous. ... and super for real dude, definitely wait to get a fish like this until u have been in this hobby much longer... it's doubtful pods will survive in your tank, cuz let's face it your new as they come.... not anything wrong with it... we all started somewhere. .. but at least u have enuff sense to use this website beforehand. For that we thank you. Irresponsible fish keepers seriously **** me off... like to the point I'll fight a ***** over some of the shhh...tuff I see... keep learning... we never know it all... none of us

 

[goldy26]

before i added a sump, i would buy live Tigger Pods by Reef Nutrition and inject some a few times a week into the back of my tank in the cracks of my rock work at night. that seemed to work for the time but with the sump i just pour the live pods in and let them do their thing. they make their way into the DT and my mandarin, wrasses, and CBB love it. i also got pretty lucky in that my mandarin can't get enough blood worms.