Is conventional wisdom about Mandarins wrong?

[littlefoxx]

They eat a pod every 10 seconds when the lights are on. Watch any video of them in an established tank, and observe the behavior.

So no, they don't eat 4 times a day. They eat 4,000 times a day. They are not fish to be kept in any scenario when you can't feed it as often as possible, or in any tank without at least 50lbs of rock and a good pod population.

Lol yes my target spot went from skinny when I rescued him from the store to a fatty in about a month! Its crazy they see the small pods, its like they dont even search for them they just grab one and on to the next!

"Mandarins need to be fed 3-4 times a day or they'll starve!"

Is that true?

Or is it only true based on a diet of mass consumption of low nutrition copepods?

TDO pellets and mysis are much, much more nutritional.

Short digestive system or not - do captive bred, prepared/frozen fed mandarins have the same requirements for success?

And based on what Ive researched about these guys captive bread and eating frozen foods isnt good for them in the log run as they get the nutrition they need from the pods. I dump pods into my tank every two weeks just to make sure my guy gets all the pods he needs! one of my favorite fish

 

[PeterEde]

Mine picks all day. I feed it brine from pipette every other day. I can't do every day due to Nitrates.
It's a fish I wish I never bought.
I've fed her like this for 12 months plus

 

[Casingram]

I got one from biota a while ago. They are bred at the facility and are raised eating ONLY prepared foods. Mine is very fat on a diet mainly consisting of TDO pellets. I have watched him swim right by a copepod and get a pellet instead. I’ve never actually seen him eat a pod although I’m sure he does. I feed the pellets 3 times per day, enough each time for him to have some to hunt for a while. He was in a 10 gallon for maybe 6 months but a few months ago I moved him into a 50 gallon that I recently set up. He’s still doing great. I do add pods every now and then to supplement and have a refugium.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

I have in two separate tanks blue (psychedelic) Mandarin and Ruby red dragonet and other target (spotted) mandarin and Ruby red dragonet. Both tanks stocked with pods, but all four also eat prepared (not captive bred). I believe that pods are essential to these guys. That is why I started culturing pods myself (plus for anthias and other specialty fish). As for pods nutritional value, I believe it depends on how cultured and dosing phytoplankton to keep them enriched. I started selling both on R2R and believe I have the best value for $$.

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[Casingram]

Serious question for those of you who have mandarins that eat prepared foods. How the heck do you get the food to the mandarin? Mine only eats from the rock, never the water column and in my tank full of wrasses, tangs, gobys, hawkfish, and basslets there is never a morsel of food that makes it's way out of the water column before it's eaten. Mandarins are such slow, deliberate feeders how is it practical to feed them prepared foods?

Fortunately I have a large and mature tank with lots of pods.

Tankmates makes a big difference. I have a captive bred mandarin feeding mainly on TDO pellets, and I purposefully keep tankmates to a minimum and the ones I have are selected as to not outcompete the mandarin for food. They are slow feeders and I don’t think mine would remain well fed with other fish that would gobble up the food quickly.

 

[Jesterrace]

It's refreshing to see this thread. I keep seeing idiots who claim that owning a mandarin isn't hard and you only need to feed them 3-4x a day. Regardless of the food source they need to feed near constantly when they are awake. I had a wild caught one that seemed plump for it's size and I tried everything I could to keep it going (ietons of pods being dosed, training it to eat frozen, turning off power heads and dropping food right near it's mouth) and it died in 3 months. I haven't had the heart to try another one given my miserable failure the first go around. That said, my current setup is much better suited to keeping one. I firmly believe the folks who have success with the 3-4x a day feeding probably have a large sustainable copepod population supplementing their diet. No way that a mandarin is only eating 3-4x a day AND NOTHING ELSE and surviving long term.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

It's refreshing to see this thread. I keep seeing idiots who claim that owning a mandarin isn't hard and you only need to feed them 3-4x a day. Regardless of the food source they need to feed near constantly when they are awake. I had a wild caught one that seemed plump for it's size and I tried everything I could to keep it going (ietons of pods being dosed, training it to eat frozen, turning off power heads and dropping food right near it's mouth) and it died in 3 months. I haven't had the heart to try another one given my miserable failure the first go around. That said, my current setup is much better suited to keeping one. I firmly believe the folks who have success with the 3-4x a day feeding probably have a large sustainable copepod population supplementing their diet. No way that a mandarin is only eating 3-4x a day AND NOTHING ELSE and surviving long term.

If you stocked pods I can only imaging that your mandarin suffered a fate other than starvation. Both my psychedelic and my target are well over a year in possession in very well stocked tanks. 40+ fish in my 210 with the psychedelic. With other dragonets and such. Maybe you got one with some other issue.

 

[blaxsun]

I have (at present) 46 fish in my tank including a pair of mandarins (one large, one small). They eat 23/7 and treat my tank as their own private buffet. I've seen them pick off some of the calanus, bring and mysis that I regularly feed the other fish - but I think they much prefer "the hunt".

The fact that I rarely see them speaks volumes (they're always off hunting in the most bizarre places that only fish can seem to find).

 

[Jesterrace]

If you stocked pods I can only imaging that your mandarin suffered a fate other than starvation. Both my psychedelic and my target are well over a year in possession in very well stocked tanks. 40+ fish in my 210 with the psychedelic. With other dragonets and such. Maybe you got one with some other issue.

Possible, but to be fair the tank I had only had 40lbs of rock and it still wasn't a year old yet. My current tank has about 91lbs and has been running for almost 6 years now. I think I will try another one at some point in the not to distant future.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

Possible, but to be fair the tank I had only had 40lbs of rock and it still wasn't a year old yet. My current tank has about 91lbs and has been running for almost 6 years now. I think I will try another one at some point in the not to distant future.

I would. One of my favorite all time fish. I have so many fish with over 1000 gallons of tanks running, but watching them hover over the rock like a little fairy or pixie just really does something for me. My psychedelic was out in my 110 within 6 months of starting it. Don’t know why, but the easiest start up I’ve ever had. Then about a year ago I moved it into my new 210 and got the target for the 110. I did really fill the tanks with rock, almost full wall from bottom to 3/4 up with lots of caves and tunnels so pods may have taken root better. Best of luck with one when you choose to get one.

 

[mucky1957]

I HAD a mandarin for nearly 8 yr. Started off with live pods daily and then went onto the frozen and she was absolutely fine. Gutted to find her dead last week. NO idea what happened or why she has died. They are quite difficult to keep ( I had 3 males and none survived for more than 6mn ) but they are stunning to look at.

 

[britnicole1724]

I have successfully trained 2 mandarins to eat frozen and pellets. BOTH, however, constantly peck for food every 10-20 seconds.

To understand why they NEED to eat so frequently, it is helpful to understand the anatomy of the fish as well. I think this is why so many people fail to keep “expert” only fish. It’s not that they are hard to keep, it’s that their diet, and anatomy don’t allow for the average reefer to keep them.

People think “it’s alive so it’s working” and that is not the case. The fish may live, but it isn’t thriving.

 

[PeterEde]

I think many Mandarins are on the verge of death when we pick them up from the store if wild caught.
LFS tanks don't have the pods to handle more than one Mandarin if it has any. If Banggai are to be banned I'm afraid I would agree with banning wild caught Mandarins too

 

[PeterEde]

I bought bloodworms tonight and Mandy took to them straight away. Like maybe she was raised on them and brine?
I've only ever fed her brine before and pods

 

[blaxsun]

I think many Mandarins are on the verge of death when we pick them up from the store if wild caught.
LFS tanks don't have the pods to handle more than one Mandarin if it has any. If Banggai are to be banned I'm afraid I would agree with banning wild caught Mandarins too

Hard to say. The last two wild caught ones I got were both fairly plump. They've since grown a lot (and become absolute pigs), but they also have 160-gallons of prime hunting ground that they don't really have to complete with anything else for.