Mandarin feeding

[Tony G]

I have 2 Mandarins in a 34 gallon tank. A Green Mandarin and a Spotted. Before I get bombarded with the how could I's please be informed that I did my homework. I realize that they have a high mortality rate and need to be cared for with "kit" gloves.

I purchase alot of copepods to keep my fish in the correct kind of food. I knew from the start I would spend more in food in a couple of months then the fish cost.

My question is this... A bottel of copepods has approx 1000 in it ( I could only count 968..LOL

). How much and how often should they be fed? Currently I use a bottle every 2 weeks. Does that sound right? The Spotted is doing great. the Green one I am concerned about. It eats but does not look the same as the Spotted. Both are very active and seem fine but the Spotted seems "fatter". I also use frozen food and live Brine shrimp.

Thanks in advance.

Tony G

 

[Tony G]

Here are a couple of pics of my little buddies..

 

[gilmour01]

build some pod piles in your tank so that the pods have a safe place to reproduce.

 

[Tony G]

What is a pod pile??? Have not read anything on that.

 

[Paul_N]

build some pod piles in your tank so that the pods have a safe place to reproduce.

+1 you will never have to buy them again. I have a spotted mandarin and wrasse that eat them non-stop and every time I check the tank at night it's polluted with pods. I dug out some of the sand in two of the corners of my tank and just put a bunch of rubble rock and shells in it. Also depending on how porous your main pieces of live rock is that will also help greatly.

 

[Tony G]

That sounds like a great idea. Thanks for the help.

 

[gflat65]

Transferring chaeto from sump to tank every couple of days can help, too. Not necessary for very long, but would add more help kick start a population in the display.

 

[firsttime]

Tony it is good that you are feeding them with pods. I would also recommend trying to train them to eat frozen food. It will make life lot easier for you in the long run.

 

[mike_dani]

NEWB Question

I have 2 Mandarins in a 34 gallon tank. A Green Mandarin and a Spotted. Before I get bombarded with the how could I's please be informed that I did my homework. I realize that they have a high mortality rate and need to be cared for with "kit" gloves.

I purchase alot of copepods to keep my fish in the correct kind of food. I knew from the start I would spend more in food in a couple of months then the fish cost.

My question is this... A bottel of copepods has approx 1000 in it ( I could only count 968..LOL

). How much and how often should they be fed? Currently I use a bottle every 2 weeks. Does that sound right? The Spotted is doing great. the Green one I am concerned about. It eats but does not look the same as the Spotted. Both are very active and seem fine but the Spotted seems "fatter". I also use frozen food and live Brine shrimp.

Thanks in advance.

Tony G

Where is it that you buy your pods
do you only buy copepods or do you get the others dont remember the name but starts with an A and the other starts with an R?

 

[m and m]

Sorry to hijack this thread but they dont need sand beds do they? and how do you check for bpods at night?

 

[bkoppes]

Training your Mandarin's to eat frozen

I have trained my male and female mandarin pair to eat Frozen Mysis and Nutramar Ova. I have a piece of rigid tubing attached to a bulb syringe or also called a baby nose booger sucker...lol. When feeding the tank I suck some Ova and Mysis into the rigid tubing and squirt it very slowly by the mandarins. It took a couple times of doing this and they eat frozen everytime I feed the tank.

JUST FYI..Gamma Lobster Eggs and Nutramar Ova are the same food, simply with different packaging and a different name.

Here is a link to video of them doing the love dance.. http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn273/bkoppes/?action=view&current=MOV03335.flv


c

 

[Paul_N]

Sorry to hijack this thread but they dont need sand beds do they? and how do you check for bpods at night?

I have a flashlight with a red bulb. It doesn't make everything scatter.

 

[m and m]

Where can i find a flash light thats red, i just looked but no luck

 

[Paul_N]

I got mine at Gander Mt. It's an led flashlight and has two buttons on it.

This is the one I have:
V2 6 Chip Dual Color Tactical Torch :: Tactical Use Lights :: Coast LED Lenser Lights :: Discount LED Lights & Knives

 

[m and m]

Think this would work?
Celestron Night Vision Red Flashlight - OPT Telescopes

 

[Paul_N]

That looks good. It's amazing the things you can see with a red flashlight. It scared the crap out of me when I saw the pods crawling all over the rocks and also the bristle worms. I use it to catch the huge bristle worms.