How can I fatten my mandarin?

[Reef Breeder 2013]

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 does 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.

Yeah, I know, but like I said, here in Mexico it's almost impossible to find a captive-bred mandarin, and that's exactly why I plan to breed mandarins one day.

 

[winxp_man]

Yeah, I know, but like I said, here in Mexico it's almost impossible to find a captive-bred mandarin, and that's exactly why I plan to breed mandarins one day.

Just posting info that if one is kept your tank needs to be dosed on a regular with pods. The question is how to fatten up a MD. The answer is a ton of pods. Otherwise they will get to the point they die because they are too far gone to be saved. Have seen many dies because of starvation.

So again dose pods in large quantities. One other thing that comes to mind to feed MD is that feeding pad for pod feeding. That might help target feed them. But in the end the tank itself needs to sustain enough pods for them if they are wild caught. Which most are wild caught. And price reflects that.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

Just posting info that if one is kept your tank needs to be dosed on a regular with pods. The question is how to fatten up a MD. The answer is a ton of pods. Otherwise they will get to the point they die because they are too far gone to be saved. Have seen many dies because of starvation.

So again dose pods in large quantities. One other thing that comes to mind to feed MD is that feeding pad for pod feeding. That might help target feed them. But in the end the tank itself needs to sustain enough pods for them if they are wild caught. Which most are wild caught. And price reflects that.

I think it's much cheaper and easier to feed her brine shrimp daily. I say it's much easier because copepods aren't easy to find here either.

 

[winxp_man]

I think it's much cheaper and easier to feed her brine shrimp daily. I say it's much easier because copepods aren't easy to find here either.

Have yet to get my wild ones to eat. Even as they were getting in the thin side. It’s why I gave them to one of my LFS that is big into corals. He has a tank with lots of rocks, and millions of pods in it. Talk about MD heaven haha.

 

[Cheese Griller]

From that picture her belly looks quite sunken in. I would recommend starting your own pod culture to keep seeding the tank daily.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

From that picture her belly looks quite sunken in. I would recommend starting your own pod culture to keep seeding the tank daily.

Do you think brine shrimp would work to fatten her up?

 

[Cheese Griller]

Do you think brine shrimp would work to fatten her up?

You'd have to feed at a pretty unreasonable consistency to do that. The best thing to keep them at a healthy weight is to provide them their natural food source in an appropriate abundance.

 

[Üter]

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:

Besides growing copepods or buying them, try feeding these pellets too as well as frozen PE. Mine was Biota, raised on frozen, but eats these pellets as well as live pods.

 

[schooncw]

I’ve never had one not take frozen bloodworm. I use Hikari.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

I’ve never had one not take frozen bloodworm. I use Hikari.

Yeah, I tried giving her freeze-dried bloodworms, and she eated them. Her favorite food? Definitely not, but at least she'll eat them.

 

[vahegan]

See if you can source live blackworms. I was always able to wean any wildcaught mandarin to eat them, and they are very nutritious. At one time I kept 3 mandarins in a small 20 gallon tank, and they were all very fat and happy - I enjoyed watching their breeding dances when a pair raised in a spiral from tank bottom to the top with their bellies touching (but have never seen egg release, though). Since blackworms are freshwater, you will need to enrich them with HUFA. I was placing them in a small container and adding a drop or two of selcon, letting them soak for 15 minutes, then placing in the tank in the vicinity of mandarins, using tweezers. The only caveat is that regular feedings of enriched blackworms will raise your phosphate... BTW, all the fish love them, not only mandarins.

 

[Reef Breeder 2013]

See if you can source live blackworms. I was always able to wean any wildcaught mandarin to eat them, and they are very nutritious. At one time I kept 3 mandarins in a small 20 gallon tank, and they were all very fat and happy - I enjoyed watching their breeding dances when a pair raised in a spiral from tank bottom to the top with their bellies touching (but have never seen egg release, though). Since blackworms are freshwater, you will need to enrich them with HUFA. I was placing them in a small container and adding a drop or two of selcon, letting them soak for 15 minutes, then placing in the tank in the vicinity of mandarins, using tweezers. The only caveat is that regular feedings of enriched blackworms will raise your phosphate... BTW, all the fish love them, not only mandarins.

3 mandarins in 20 gallons!?

Well, I'll try to find blackworm.

 

[brclark82]

Mandarins have a different digestive system and metabolism than most fish. They need to be eating pretty much all day long to thrive. They can’t eat a big meal once or even a few times a day and be good, they process and metabolize the food quickly and need to continue to feed. You also can’t sustain feeding them mysis or bloodworms or pellets 20-30 times a day which is why pods are such a must for any mandarin. For mandarins that will take prepared foods it’s just a supplement to their constant searching for pods.

I would recommend doing some research into setting up a pod and/or Phyto culture until you are able to get ahead of the population in your tank. It can be done but its usually easier if you establish a very large population before introducing the mandarin as they can find many of them as they are introduced before they have a chance to reproduce in the tank so it can take longer to get a good population up at this point.

Long story short you need a self-sustaining/reproducing pod population to have a healthy mandarins long term and need a plan to figure that out.

Good luck

 

[PeterEde]

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:

Thankfully mine eats flake and plenty of mysis shrimp in the tank

 

[pgr7]

I've had good luck with Prime Reef Flake being used for 3 different Dragonets, including my current Green female. I supplement with copepods, but she feeds primarily on Ocean Nurtrition Prime Reef Flake and has since last May or so. Not saying this is your answer by any means,but something to possibly try.

 

[vahegan]

3 mandarins in 20 gallons!?

Well, I'll try to find blackworm.

Yes, 3 happy and fat mandarins: a pair of picturatus, and one spotted. But my phosphate quickly grew to 3ppm.

 

[winxp_man]

Mandarins have a different digestive system and metabolism than most fish. They need to be eating pretty much all day long to thrive. They can’t eat a big meal once or even a few times a day and be good, they process and metabolize the food quickly and need to continue to feed. You also can’t sustain feeding them mysis or bloodworms or pellets 20-30 times a day which is why pods are such a must for any mandarin. For mandarins that will take prepared foods it’s just a supplement to their constant searching for pods.

I would recommend doing some research into setting up a pod and/or Phyto culture until you are able to get ahead of the population in your tank. It can be done but its usually easier if you establish a very large population before introducing the mandarin as they can find many of them as they are introduced before they have a chance to reproduce in the tank so it can take longer to get a good population up at this point.

Long story short you need a self-sustaining/reproducing pod population to have a healthy mandarins long term and need a plan to figure that out.

Good luck

The constant fanning of their fins is what gives them a high metabolism.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

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:

Copepods, and more copepods! Then maybe some more copepods!! I don't even have a mandarin YET, but I get pods delivered monthly because I plan to get one. They are such an excellent addition to any tank,

 

[PeterEde]

My first Mandarin i used to feed mysis and brine shrimp from pipette. I lost her unfortunately. My new one is male and my tank is full of live mysis. He chases them all day and flake food when i feed

 

[Uncle99]

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:

If this fish has made it 8 months, just leave her and she will do that on her own.