Has anyone had luck with Mandarin fish

[jerky48183]

Has anyone been able to keep a Mandarin alive for years I got this guy 2 weeks ago still looks fat and happy but I hear they are hard to keep. I have a 225 gallon reef tank thats been up for a year and a few months now so he should have enough to eat...

 

[zwulfke]

Pods from either get your pods or one of the others I get them once every 2 months if you have cherto or equivalent in your sump they will populat on tier own

 

[jerky48183]

My sump does have cherto in it and i see a ton of pods in there, and i see alot if i shine a flash light into the tank at night. I know these guys need to eat alot everday to survive my worry is him running out of food. I also have 250 lbs of live rock so there should be enough room for pods to breed. None of my friends in the hobby ever was able to keep one more then a few months so i guess thats a good idea add some every few months if needed.

 

[rayn]

I had one for almost a year until a crash happened. With cheato in your fuge you should be good. That is all I relied on and never supplemented them.

 

[ca1ore]

It's simply a matter of having a large enough, mature system with plenty of live rock. I have had my mandarin for almost 2 1/2 years and have literally never seen it take prepared foods. Oh yeah, no competitive feeders is a good idea as well.

 

[Humblefish]

I've had my pair for several years now. So long as you always have an ample supply of pods, they aren't difficult to keep.

 

[arashsheikhpoor]

I have had two and was able to get both to take prepared food By constantly spot feeding. The first one even took pellets.

 

[turtlesoup2]

I use to have a spotted one that was awesome. He eventually leaned onto simple mysis frozen food and would actively search out for it. Sadly the stupid thing jumped out

 

[Mikeb7467]

I had one for two + years, when I moved tanks it died, it was huge and happy. I bought a new little one a while back and it is doing great, I have tons of live stuff in my tank to eat. But it's a plus if they eat frozen

 

[stravo71]

Lots o pods and with the amount of life rock and having cheato. You should be good. They always are looking for food. If he is actively foraging he is happy. If he starts to lay j one spot and appears sunken in put him in a tank all by him self with your cheat. Make food finding easy. That how I saved the two u adopted

 

[4FordFamily]

I've had my target mandarin for about 3 months...(hardly long enough to call it a success..) Fat and happy even with 8 leopard wrasses sharing her home! Lots of pods in the fuge though. She may eat frozen because she gets very excited when I feed, but I don't stop to be certain. Will do tomorrow.

I had a red mandarin I bought off of Craigslist a few months years ago... It lived in my 54 corner for another year until my heater died, it was one of the first to go. It ate mysis, brine, anything it could fit in its mouth!