Mandarin feeding

[Earl Karl]

Our pelleted food, TDO Chroma BOOST, is being used as another diet option for mandarins. The palatability is one of it's most powerful attributes. It's a diet that is currently being applied in aquaculture, especially by clownfish breeders. You can feed it to fish and corals. Thanks for supporting us!



Chad

He eats NLS pellets now, but I'll try to get my hands on those pellets. I'll try the TDO B2 since I have other nano fish that likes to eat .5mm pellets.

The Arcti-Pods is what really enticed both my mandy and RR scooter to eat frozen mysis and eventually pellets. Highly recommended product when enticing dragonets to eat. Got my mandy eating mysis in a week.

Here's a video (crappy camera and need to wipe glass, did not prepare for this vid lol) of my mandarin eating a slurry of mixed foods.
(RN Arcti-Pods, SFB Fish Eggs, PE Calanus, NLS Thera A o.5mm pellets, ER Masstick, Cobalt Ultra Color Premium Flakes, OO Marine Mini Pellets, Decapsulated Brine Shrimp, LRS Fish Only, and Rod's Coral Blend).

 

[Earl Karl]

I have been getting messages asking how I was able to feed my dragonets frozen and pellets. This is what I did.

First I bought Reef Nutrition Live Tigger Pods. ALL dragonets love these. The other pods may be ignored. For example, my mandarin ignored tisbes, which are pods that dragonets supposedly go crazy for. Tiggers are your best bet. Besides, you don't want the pods to hide. Instead, let them eat them all. The reason for this is that you want them to get familiar with the color and shape. This is an ABSOLUTE MUST if your dragonet is starving with a sunken belly. Regardless of that, you still want to feed them tiggers and make sure they eat it all. My mandarin can eat a whole bottle of RN Tigger Pods in a day.

Next, you want to buy frozen or refrigerated food that's in the orange-red color spectrum. RN Arcti Pods, LRS Fish eggs, PE Calanus, Nutramar OVA, and Rod's Coral Blend are good examples. The one that works best is the RN Arcti Pods. They look like tiggers and are fairly large size for them to see. If your dragonet is really small (>1"), then use PE Calanus. Usually they're big enough to eat Arcti-Pods tho.

I turn off all the flow and I squirt some Arcti Pods (or other orange foods) on a place where the dragonet spends most of their time hunting. Mine likes to hunt around a certain rock, so I squirt it on the sand around there. If you have fish that loves to eat, feed them first. I do this 3-4 times a day until it eats. This may take multiple days or even weeks unfortunately. But usually days. Which is not a big deal since it takes a lot longer than that for a mandarin to starve to death, so you have some time, but don't get carried away. Mine ate it in a few days.

Once they start picking at it, congratulations! You converted your dragonet to eat frozen. You can start adding to the food to make a mixture. I have a cup that contains many different foods and I thaw and refrigerate it. That being said, food spoil quicker in refrigerators, so make sure you have enough to feed a week or so per blend, no more than 2 weeks. Which is like a 100 ml cup. I squirt around 3 ml of the food blend per feeding, so around 9-12ml a day, it lasts me around 10 days.

However, this is still not an easy task. Mandarins have VERY high metabolism. You must feed it at least 3-4 BIG meals a day, evenly spaced throughout the lighting period. If you have a decent pods population, you can get away with less. What's most important is that their bellies are fat and full throughout the day. 4 or more feedings will absolutely make sure that it is full throughout the day without the need of pods. Under that will depend how much pods you have in your tank. Temperature also plays a factor, I keep my tanks 76-77, not over 78.

From the video above, you can tell that my mandarin knows when it is feeding time.

Scooters are the easiest dragonets to feed. Then the spotted mandarins are the next. Green and Red mandarins are actually pretty difficult.

 

[sghera64]

I got this guy very recently from Uncle Bill's in Indy. Right out of the bag he is eating blood worms, Mysis shrimp (he's a big guy), and I thought I caught him eyeing a fire worm - - but changed his mind.

Enjoy

 

[Ryan Kouns]

I got this guy very recently from Uncle Bill's in Indy. Right out of the bag he is eating blood worms, Mysis shrimp (he's a big guy), and I thought I caught him eyeing a fire worm - - but changed his mind.

Enjoy

thats awesome did you get it from the one on 38th street or greenwood on 31? im in indy as well

 

[sghera64]

thats awesome did you get it from the one on 38th street or greenwood on 31? im in indy as well

The Fishers location off of 37.

 

[Stonekeg]

One day I want to have a Mandarin. I'm trying the "it'll be the only pod eater in a 55 gallon" approach. I'm still not sure about it, but threads like this really help. Thanks for starting it, and for everyone who shared. I learned a thing or two while I was here!

 

[Earl Karl]

I have a six line wrasse and a RR scooter with it. Been together for a year and manage to feed them all due to frozen foods.

 

[Ryan Kouns]

The Fishers location off of 37.

good to know I didnt know their was one up there. How is the live stock up there to choose from? The one in Greenwood is pretty lame now, Pete that was the manager over the ordering of the salt water livestock used to do an awesome job. Now hes working in some call center for uncle bills...

 

[sghera64]

good to know I didnt know their was one up there. How is the live stock up there to choose from? The one in Greenwood is pretty lame now, Pete that was the manager over the ordering of the salt water livestock used to do an awesome job. Now hes working in some call center for uncle bills...

The livestock tanks are a bit of a sore sight. Definitely not a WWC showcase. The selection comes and goes.

I don’t mean to disparage, but I go into UB’s with the attitude my mom used to go to garage sales: low expectations knowing every once in a while you’re gonna find a gem.

I have gone back to “The Reef” on Keystone after a 5-8 year hiatus. I like what they’ve done: cleaned up, expanded, re-arranged. I’d say their selection is better.

Believe it or not: I have bought all my tangs in the past two years from PetCo. 96th street is back on line (UB’s quality) and Carmel is quite good [neat, clean, orderly, selection is nowhere near “The Reef”].

If you are up for a little drive, then every 3rd Saturday there is Premium Aquatics. They can get you anything (wink, wink). They have the cleanest systems I’ve seen in the Indy area, and obviously a very knowledgeable and capable staff under Brandon’s leadership. For coral, they are my go-to stop.

 

[Ryan Kouns]

Good to know thanks for the info Ill have to check out "The Reef" sometime, its about the same distance for me to go to Premium Aquatics in Edinburgh that it would take me to get to the North side. Thanks for your insight on the locations I appreciate it!

 

[Earl Karl]

As a correction to my previous post, 3 ml of food is too much for a mandarin, the reason why I said 3 ml is because I have two dragonets in the same tank, which requires a lot of food to avoid competition and it feeds the other fish and shrimps when the pump turns back on. 1 ml of food (or less) is enough for just a mandarin per feeding, so we're looking at 4 ml (or less) a day. If you have other fish, use more.