Im about to do It!! Dream Fish!!!

[najer]

Good luck with the fish, live phyto is a great pod food.

 

[Alenya]

Glad to hear that. Either way im getting a what we here call "australian accent" after a few months, to you its just english XD

I’m sure it’s perfectly fine

And after this thread I went out and picked up a psychedelic mandarin!

 

[Dark_Knightt]

I’m sure it’s perfectly fine

And after this thread I went out and picked up a psychedelic mandarin!

Awesome!!!

 

[Alenya]

Awesome!!!

Thanks for sucking me back into mandarin land Not long to go before yours arrives!

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Thanks for sucking me back into mandarin land Not long to go before yours arrives!

Ordered it yesterday, got it coming tomorrow around lunch. I needed to add it to my tank because im leaving for a short trip on wednesday with my dad and wanted to make sure its all good. My mom and sister are going to watch over it for the few days and send me daily pics and updates. Also going to add a capfull of phyto and 2 bottles of pods so he should be good for a few days. Hopefully he'll take to the Hikari Marine S when my mom feeds my clowns. Soooo excited this is basically my favorite animal and my favorite fish for sure, so its going to be awesome!!!! Good luck with yours mate

 

[Dark_Knightt]

GUYS IT CAME!!!! ORA MANDARIN FEMALE!! butTHEY DO NOT LIE when they say its 1 inch. Its the size of my thumbnail!!! Im getting a breeder box for this gal

 

[HockeyRooster]

My ORA green mandrin has been in the tank for about 6 weeks now. She is the cutest, tiniest little thing. I added rotifers and copepods twice before she arrived as well as a couple of days after. I add freshly hatched brine shrimp a couple of times a week.
My phyto culture is going well and I started A tigger pod culture last night. Total water volume including refugium is 110 gallons.

I’m glad you got your dream fish but I highly encourage you to cultivate some type of live food. I have yet to see this little cutie eat anything other than pods and live brine shrimp.

 

[G Santana]

Congrats

 

[Dark_Knightt]

My ORA green mandrin has been in the tank for about 6 weeks now. She is the cutest, tiniest little thing. I added rotifers and copepods twice before she arrived as well as a couple of days after. I add freshly hatched brine shrimp a couple of times a week.
My phyto culture is going well and I started A tigger pod culture last night. Total water volume including refugium is 110 gallons.

I’m glad you got your dream fish but I highly encourage you to cultivate some type of live food. I have yet to see this little cutie eat anything other than pods and live brine shrimp.

Yes mine is currently like the size of my thumbnail so im assuming she's not going to eat anything other than pods for now. Im going to try to get her to eat small pieces of frozen mysis. When shes bigger itll be a lot easier

 

[HockeyRooster]

Yes mine is currently like the size of my thumbnail so im assuming she's not going to eat anything other than pods for now. Im going to try to get her to eat small pieces of frozen mysis. When shes bigger itll be a lot easier

Pumped you got your mandarin! Almost scary small hey? I had to put a grate over my wier because she got sucked in twice! I should have done a better job of feeding her frozen but I know she’s eating. Brine shrimp Hatcher is really simple and cheap just in case you need it.
Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Pumped you got your mandarin! Almost scary small hey? I had to put a grate over my wier because she got sucked in twice! I should have done a better job of feeding her frozen but I know she’s eating. Brine shrimp Hatcher is really simple and cheap just in case you need it.
Good luck and enjoy!

Ill seet something up. My mom went and bought a breeder box and added a few pieces of coral from the ocean to it, so the little holes could support a few pods. Going to be dosing pods to the lil box daily. Then ill get her onto some frozen. But yeah scaryy small, i opened the box and i saw it and i was like "that must be some piece of rock or smth thats too small to be a fish. I just hope she makes it

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

Make sure you get a captive bred Biota or ORA Mandarin that is already conditioned to eat frozen foods. You cannot establish nearly enough of a pod population in that 20g to keep up with the Mandarin's demands; it would bankrupt you to try to keep adding pods to keep up. Ooops, looks like I'm too late with this advice, congrats on getting your Mandarin and best of success in keeping her.

 

[josvanmeer]

I actually prefer a wild caught bigger dragonet since they are big enough to eat pellets etc. Good luck with your baby

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Make sure you get a captive bred Biota or ORA Mandarin that is already conditioned to eat frozen foods. You cannot establish nearly enough of a pod population in that 20g to keep up with the Mandarin's demands; it would bankrupt you to try to keep adding pods to keep up. Ooops, looks like I'm too late with this advice, congrats on getting your Mandarin and best of success in keeping her.

Lol no worries i called and texted the store i ordered her from, they say they have theirs already eating frozen, pellets theyre still too small for. Also is anyone aware of the growth rate of mandarins? How long would it take for the mando to double in size? so like 2 inches big.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

Lol no worries i called and texted the store i ordered her from, they say they have theirs already eating frozen, pellets theyre still too small for. Also is anyone aware of the growth rate of mandarins? How long would it take for the mando to double in size? so like 2 inches big.

Oh good, then keeping the Mandarin in the 20g will be a cinch. I don't know how long the fish will take to reach 2" in size; but would think that it would in about a year.

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Oh good, then keeping the Mandarin in the 20g will be a cinch. I don't know how long the fish will take to reach 2" in size; but would think that it would in about a year.

Ok thats good to know. Right now shes to small to eat pellets, so im going to try with some small pieces of frozen baby mysis. That should fit in her mouth. Also a daily dosing of maybe 3-4 squirts of pods targeted at her.

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Here are some pics! *My lighting isnt acc that blue its just the crappy camera on iPhone 6s lol*

pics are a bit blurry ik srry.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

Here are some pics! *My lighting isnt acc that blue its just the crappy camera on iPhone 6s lol*

pics are a bit blurry ik srry.

You might want to change your camera's color balance to daylight for aquarium pix.

 

[Coralsdaily]

Yeah ive thought of putting one in the DT so that the pods can just leave right into the rocks and sand and theres really no point on havving one in a fuge because theres nothing to hide from in there.

but the pod hotel just clashes with anything in your display tank... ugh, if they make it look more like a piece of rock, than a plastic box then maybe...

 

[Dark_Knightt]

You might want to change your camera's color balance to daylight for aquarium pix.

Can that be done on iPhone 6s? Also how?