Mandarin Feeding tools

[saltyfish24]

I have a Mandarin in a 30 gallon biocube. Due to the size of the tank, I went into it planning to put in the work to feed the Mandarin.

What kinds of tools have people used to assist with pellet / frozen / live food feeding? I'll post a few photos of things I've seen online, let me know if you've tried one that's worked well and what foods you used it for?

Current situation:
Mine is a biota captive bred Mandarin. Although they said it eats TDO pellets, mine has only pecked at TDO pellets. I'll continue trying TDO pellet feeding, but it's also been eating a lot of baby brine for the last week. It's currently in an isolation box in the 30 gallon biocube. I hope to release it once I see it eating pellets and I have a good plan in place for supplemental feedings. I culture phyto weekly and add it daily to the back of the AIO that functions as a refugium. Despite adding phyto, I don't think the pod population is anywhere big enough to sustain even a small mandarin.

Besides looking for feeding tools, I'm also planning on trying masstick.

 

[afboundguy]

As a fellow nano-mandarin keeper Mastic is great and I would suggest hatching baby brine shrimp daily and using an @Paul B mandarin feeder (believe @Printed Reef sells a 3D printed one).

I would also suggest starting phyto and pod cultures to dose your tank. It's pretty easy to do and I go a little over the top with 7 strains of phyto and 9 different pod species but I enjoy doing all the work and I'm rewarded with a breeding pair of mandarins in my 35 gallon display tank!

I would also suggest trying a white worm culture. My mandarins love them and I love it when they eat so many of them they're sticking out of their mouth!

And don't give up on TDO and frozen foods for them. My @Biota_Marine mandarin ate right away and actually helped train my down the road wild caught mandarin how to eat pellets and frozen food and they eat like pigs when I feed the tank.