Mandarin training help

[canadian reefer]

Can anyone give me tips on how to train a green mandarin to eat frozen food.
I bought man made live rock and it does not have any copepods. My gf already bought the fish and we are picking it up tomorrow any help would be great


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[KJAG]

I would leave it at the fish store and wait until you have a thriving pod population.

 

[mfinn]

I would leave it at the fish store and wait until you have a thriving pod population.

+1
Getting a already ( ORA ?) trained to eat prepared food mandarin is not a sure thing. Training a wild caught one is a long shot at best.
Sounds like it is a very new tank and might not support fish yet?

 

[canadian reefer]

+1
Getting a already ( ORA ?) trained to eat prepared food mandarin is not a sure thing. Training a wild caught one is a long shot at best.
Sounds like it is a very new tank and might not support fish yet?

The tank has been running for 2 years but I just recently added live rock (4 months ago) and is a reef. The fish is supposed to be trained to eat frozen food but the lfs is not sure and will wait to make sure it eats before selling it. I personally do not trust the lfs since she doesn't seem to know what she is talking about and has went out of business multiple times. But this was my girlfriends decision


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[canadian reefer]

I have just set up a quarantine tank to make it easier to attempt to feed it


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[mfinn]

The tank has been running for 2 years but I just recently added live rock (4 months ago) and is a reef. The fish is supposed to be trained to eat frozen food but the lfs is not sure and will wait to make sure it eats before selling it. I personally do not trust the lfs since she doesn't seem to know what she is talking about and has went out of business multiple times. But this was my girlfriends decision


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Even if it does eat prepared food, it will still want to graze for copepods.
I'd still wait.

 

[ritter6788]

Agreed with the above posts. Even if you train it to eat prepared foods you would have to stand there and feed it to them. They are constant eaters.

 

[Aqua fire/medic]

Hummingbirds of the reef...... Agree with all above posts. Not saying it can't be done, I did it in a Nano for over a year. Takes patience and a lot of time. If you don't have both, I'd skip it.

 

[that novice guy]

do not quarentine this fish but if you need too you have to give give pods on a daily basis, these are very resilient little fish

 

[LisaD]

I've had my mandarin for over 6 months and he is a fat little guy. I never tried to feed him solely frozen although he will eat frozen my sis shrimp with everyone else now (he learned from my scooters). I simply order pods (buy 1000 get 1000 free... excellent deal really)every payday online and just chalk it up to fish food. I didn't have a lot of pods at first but boy I do now. Enough for everyone to snack on. I still add more because it gives my seahorses a nice snack while I'm at work.. They like to hunt them. My Mandarin and both Scooter blennies are fat and happy.


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[LisaD]

Just caught this pic of my mandarin tonight

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[NanaReefer]

I've had my mandarin for over 6 months and he is a fat little guy. I never tried to feed him solely frozen although he will eat frozen my sis shrimp with everyone else now (he learned from my scooters). I simply order pods (buy 1000 get 1000 free... excellent deal really)every payday online and just chalk it up to fish food. I didn't have a lot of pods at first but boy I do now. Enough for everyone to snack on. I still add more because it gives my seahorses a nice snack while I'm at work.. They like to hunt them. My Mandarin and both Scooter blennies are fat and happy.


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What size is your tank, how old is your tank?

 

[LisaD]

It's a 75g and it is a little over 1 yr.


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