Feeding Mandarins

[savetheocean]

Very sorry to hear about your experience. It can be tough to convince these guys to even get near frozen food. I think the only way Iv managed to train most of mine is because there has always been one dragonet that is already used to the food and he motivates the others to go after it.




Pods are a must in the environment, but just pods wont keep your mandarin thriving. Mandarins need a variety of nutrients and fatty acids and unless your pods are being fed phyto-feast on the regular, (because its a mix of the most important phytos) its hard to provide that level of nutrition when cultivating your own. Most people only use Nanno. Id be curious to see if someone cultivating pods with a mix of phytos had mandarin in better shape than someone feeding them frozen.

You are correct when you say brine shrimp have no nutritional value, but when your fish wont eat anything, its a great start to begin them on eating frozen. There are also spirulina brine shrimp and omega enriched brine if your that concerned about it.

Mine have always taken to the spirulina brine, from there you can start introducing stuff like fish eggs. Reef Oceon Eggs should be more nutritional than a pod IMO, but I have yet to compare nutritional values between both to verify for sure.

Here's a picture of my spotted.

My mandarin has been thriving for months on only pods. Never once had to worry about him.

 

[Ley3198]

My mandarin has been thriving for months on only pods. Never once had to worry about him.

Tank size? Amount of live rock? Only 1? get him a girlfriend already then!? Iv kept up to 4 in a 40b with a 20g sump and still see pods on the glass. Need to find me some females for my guys still.

 

[savetheocean]

Tank size? Amount of live rock? Only 1? get him a girlfriend already then!? Iv kept up to 4 in a 40b with a 20g sump and still see pods on the glass. Need to find me some females for my guys still.

Only one and my tanks around 75 gallons

I have no idea if mine is a male or female

 

[Why-Me]

Males have a longer dorsal fin on top

 

[davocean]

I would say having multiple pairs spawning is very much thriving.

I do agree there are ways of getting past having just a large enough tank, and a fuge, but that is best really IMO, and the alternatives can come w/ extra cost, or extra effort, though it can be done

 

[davocean]

This is vid of one of my pairs spawning, doing their mating dance.
Had them about 3 years before they went w/ a tank swap, never once ate any frozen or prep'd foods from what I could tell, but they did have plenty of pods.
They do appear fat and happy, very much thriving.

 

[Joshua Snyder]

davocean Woah thats really cool!

 

[Rispa]

Mandarins need a variety of nutrients and fatty acids and unless your pods are being fed phyto-feast on the regular, (because its a mix of the most important phytos) its hard to provide that level of nutrition when cultivating your own. Most people only use Nanno. Id be curious to see if someone cultivating pods with a mix of phytos had mandarin in better shape than someone feeding them frozen.

Could a person aquire and culture all the different phytos? Where do you go for the different types as opposed to a generically labeled one?

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Could a person aquire and culture all the different phytos? Where do you go for the different types as opposed to a generically labeled one?

It can certainly be done. We put 6 different species in our product with a wet weight of 45grams, so it is very dense. All the algae is grown by us at our million gallon+ farm in California. You can find live algae starter cultures at AlgaGen. The species that we put in our product (Phyto-Feast) are: Pavlova, Isochrysis, Thalassiosira weissflogii, Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis, and Synechococcus. Iso and Pav can be very challenging to work with.

-Chad

 

[Rispa]

It can certainly be done. We put 6 different species in our product with a wet weight of 45grams, so it is very dense. All the algae is grown by us at our million gallon+ farm in California. You can find live algae starter cultures at AlgaGen. The species that we put in our product (Phyto-Feast) are: Pavlova, Isochrysis, Thalassiosira weissflogii, Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis, and Synechococcus. Iso and Pav can be very challenging to work with.

-Chad

Thanks for the info! Why can they be challenging to work with?

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Thanks for the info! Why can they be challenging to work with?

When you grow multiple species of phytoplankton in the same room, you have to be very careful with contamination. Nannochloropsis is a very hardy species and can easily contaminate other cultures. Brown algae are more delicate and require optimal growing conditions and nutrient. Most people that work with phytoplankton can grow a lot of the green species (Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis), but have problems when it comes to the brown algae species like Isochrysis and Pavlova. With all that being said, anything can be grown, you just have to practice!

Chad

 

[Rispa]

When you grow multiple species of phytoplankton in the same room, you have to be very careful with contamination. Nannochloropsis is a very hardy species and can easily contaminate other cultures. Brown algae are more delicate and require optimal growing conditions and nutrient. Most people that work with phytoplankton can grow a lot of the green species (Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis), but have problems when it comes to the brown algae species like Isochrysis and Pavlova. With all that being said, anything can be grown, you just have to practice!

Chad

Thanks! It sounds like a fun challenge to try

 

[Clownfish2]

When you grow multiple species of phytoplankton in the same room, you have to be very careful with contamination. Nannochloropsis is a very hardy species and can easily contaminate other cultures. Brown algae are more delicate and require optimal growing conditions and nutrient. Most people that work with phytoplankton can grow a lot of the green species (Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis), but have problems when it comes to the brown algae species like Isochrysis and Pavlova. With all that being said, anything can be grown, you just have to practice!

Chad

Hello Chad,

For culturing Isochrysis Galbana, what would be your recommended salinity, light, temperature, inoculant level, and amount of fertilizer?

I am curious to know if I can culture Isochrysis Galbana the same way I culture Nannochloropsis. Would the following work for culturing Isochrysis Galbana:

Salinity 1.020
Light 16 hours on and 8 hours off using a 9 watt 5,000k LED fixture
temperature of 73-77
10% inoculant level
1/3 ml of Guillards F/2 medium per 1 liter vessel.

Thanks

 

[Rispa]

Has anyone written a book on the different species?