mandarins... let's beat this dead horse

[CJO]

I put the mandarin in a breeders net in my tank with a big ball of cheato. After he was comfortable in there I started feeding live brine mixed with frozen brine and nutrimar ova and as he got used to that I pulled out the cheato and slowly started cutting back on the live baby brine until he was only eating tge frozen food. The whole thing took about a week and a half.

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That's almost exactly how I trained mine to eat frozen.

CJ

 

[reeffirstaid]

I apologize but I haven't read the entire post. I am answering your question based on your initial post so I hope I don't turn over stones that have already been worked through. In a tank your size the main aspect of keeping a mandarin fish is simply ... feeding. A 29 gallon aquarium simply does not support a manadrinfish based on the assumption that there are enough micro invertebrates for it to feed from. These fish can quickly wipe out large populations of micro inverts and in a large aquarium the invert population can replenish - in a small tank it simply cannot. If you want to keep a mandarinfish you will have to feed it. I have had the best luck with OVA. It's a fairly popular frozen food that is essentially prawn eggs and other nutrients. The issue often encountered is that mandarinfish are slow and methodical eaters. I place ova mixed with frozen mysis (both soaked in Garlic Power by Brightwell Aquatics and Zoe by Kent Marine) in a small glass jar at the bottom of my tank. The mandarin can swim in and eat and the food does not become disturbed by flow. The jar I use was $ 2 at the grocery store and is small enough that only the mandarin can get it. If you are willing to commit to feeding then a mandarin in a tank your size should work - if not I would say no.

 

[Dowtish]

I apologize but I haven't read the entire post. I am answering your question based on your initial post so I hope I don't turn over stones that have already been worked through. In a tank your size the main aspect of keeping a mandarin fish is simply ... feeding. A 29 gallon aquarium simply does not support a manadrinfish based on the assumption that there are enough micro invertebrates for it to feed from. These fish can quickly wipe out large populations of micro inverts and in a large aquarium the invert population can replenish - in a small tank it simply cannot. If you want to keep a mandarinfish you will have to feed it. I have had the best luck with OVA. It's a fairly popular frozen food that is essentially prawn eggs and other nutrients. The issue often encountered is that mandarinfish are slow and methodical eaters. I place ova mixed with frozen mysis (both soaked in Garlic Power by Brightwell Aquatics and Zoe by Kent Marine) in a small glass jar at the bottom of my tank. The mandarin can swim in and eat and the food does not become disturbed by flow. The jar I use was $ 2 at the grocery store and is small enough that only the mandarin can get it. If you are willing to commit to feeding then a mandarin in a tank your size should work - if not I would say no.

You got a picture of the jar?

 

[reeffirstaid]

I am at my office at the moment but I will get a picture of the mandarin feeding and some video tonight when I feed.

 

[reeffirstaid]

This person is using the exact same approach on their tank, found this on You Tube.

Mandarin feeding in jar - YouTube

 

[cdness]

Yeah I have a 125G with 75G sump/fuge and I don't know if I could get them to have enough pods to be happy. Survive maybe but not be happy.

The jar idea is interesting though...

 

[shred5]

20 Gallon is not big enough for a mandrin. It would kill the pod population in days. You could try to supplement with dry food or frozen, sometimes it can work but a huge gamble. Best bet is copepod based food like cyclopeeze.

You could buy live copepods but that would get expensive because they could eat a bottle a day. You can culture them which isn’t hard at all.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

I say go for it. I had mine for 3 years. He ate frozen brine, my fuge produced pods that he couldnt get to, and i also added pods a few times a month to help keep levels up. As long as know what you are in for, you can be ready to take care of one.