Mail order Mandarin, any suggestions and experiences?

[Ordovician_Reef]

I have had poor luck with LFS, got two mandarins, the male is doing great! The female died. I have 350 lbs of live rock and ample pods to make them happy. Just need a good supplier to get a healthy fish. I do not necessarily want to go aqua-cultured as I do not need them to eat frozen.

I have heard Petco actually contracts out fish deliveries and can be good at times, is this true? I love Marine collectors but cannot really swing $150 for a mandarin.

 

[ReefStable]

For Mandarins, they don't tend to live well in reef tanks if they were wild caught.

Your best bet is either Marine Collectors or ORA bred mandarins. They're the highest chance of success it seems.

 

[littlefoxx]

I have had poor luck with LFS, got two mandarins, the male is doing great! The female died. I have 350 lbs of live rock and ample pods to make them happy. Just need a good supplier to get a healthy fish. I do not necessarily want to go aqua-cultured as I do not need them to eat frozen.

I have heard Petco actually contracts out fish deliveries and can be good at times, is this true? I love Marine collectors but cannot really swing $150 for a mandarin.

Reef beauties. I have had a male from LFS for a while but had horrible luck with females. I got a female from reef beauties and she is fattening up really well! This is her.

 

[mrpontiac80]

I got a male from ORA a couple months ago. My LFS ordered it and I picked it up still in the ora bag. It’s tiny but so far so good. Supposedly they are raised with frozen foods too but all I ever see is mine hunting the rocks.
first pic is him dead center to right of green Goni as lights were almost off. I rarely can find him.

 

[Jmp998]

Ordering directly from Biota is a good option.

 

[ReefStable]

Ordering directly from Biota is a good option.

I hear good things about biota as well!