How can I fatten my mandarin?

[Reef Breeder 2013]

About 8 months ago I acquired my first spotted mandarin. She arrived very thin, and although she is still thin now, at least she is not as thin as when she arrived.

Now, is there any food that can make her fat? Currently she eats basically any food that moves, especially brine shrimp and bloodworms.

This is a photo I just took a few minutes ago:

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

As a bonus, she's an amazing hunter. Lol.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Copepods. Many copepods.

 

[Miami Reef]

Now, is there any food that can make her fat? Currently she eats basically any food that moves, especially brine shrimp and bloodworms.

Nice. Can you feed more of it?

 

[BristleWormHater]

Thought the title said flatten lol

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

Nice. Can you feed more of it?

Oh, yeah, good point.

 

[Goaway]

Well, you can see if she'll eat prepared foods. Very small pellets or what not.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

Well, you can see if she'll eat prepared foods. Very small pellets or what not.

I will try it.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

Something I forgot to mention is that almost all marine fish in Mexico are caught from the sea, including my mandarin.

 

[Ryans Reef]

I order copepods and phyto from Dinkins Aquatics to keep my mandarin happy. Dose the phyto daily to keep the copepods happy and reproducing and they’ll feed the mandarin.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

I order copepods and phyto from Dinkins Aquatics to keep my mandarin happy. Dose the phyto daily to keep the copepods happy and reproducing and they’ll feed the mandarin.

Yeah, I had phytoplankton, but it died. Lol.

 

[winxp_man]

Yeah, I had phytoplankton, but it died. Lol.

How did you achieve that? Unless you’re talking about UV sterilizer. And how do you know. You cant see phyto without a microscope.

 

[braaap]

How did you achieve that? Unless you’re talking about UV sterilizer. And how do you know. You can phyto without a microscope.

It usually goes brown and smells funky.

Grow your own copepods. I have a 5 gal container going of them. Millions of pods in the container. I take out a gallon or two a week and add back fresh salt water to keep the breeding going.

 

[winxp_man]

It usually goes brown and smells funky.

Grow your own copepods. I have a 5 gal container going of them. Millions of pods in the container. I take out a gallon or two a week and add back fresh salt water to keep the breeding going.

I was questioning how someone knows phyto died in their tank. Not about reproducing in a setup just for that.

 

[braaap]

I was questioning how someone knows phyto died in their tank. Not about reproducing in a setup just for that.

Oh. Phyto won’t last more than a day or two in a tank environment. So you couldn’t possibly know.

But I’m pretty sure he was saying he had some to feed/dose.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

How did you achieve that? Unless you’re talking about UV sterilizer. And how do you know. You cant see phyto without a microscope.

Well, at least I think it died, since it went from being green to simply clear water.

 

[winxp_man]

Well, at least I think it died, since it went from being green to simply clear water.

As in your storage container or DT?

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

As in your storage container or DT?

Storage container (a bottle).

 

[DaJMasta]

Do you need to? Do you feed with the pumps off? Can you feed more of the foods she'll eat? Have you tried mysis shrimp?

From the pic, I don't know if I see particularly thin, but that area is sort of covered, but they don't have to be gigantic to be happy and healthy. If you don't already feed with the pumps off, it definitely helps dragonets find more food, and it usually only needs to be off for a few minutes for them to get a nice meal. If you're not feeding daily, you could start, and if you area, you could increase that amount still (I feed twice a day most days.)

 

[winxp_man]

Wild caught mandarins are one tough fish to get to feed on anything but pods. Got rid of mine when I switched tanks. A lot of pods died off thus no food for them. They can eat up to 1k pods a day. Unless you have a very well established tank I would not recommend MD goby’s. Again wild caught MD’s do not eat well. And 99% of the time you end up starving them to death unless you dose pods on a regular. And doing that can get expensive real quick.

One reason why tank raised MD’s fetch a pretty penny. They feed on frozen foods. Making it easy to keep them.