my mandarin diner

surfn · Jan 27, 2008

as some of you know, i've gotten my mandarin to eat frozen blood worms. i've had him for about a year and a half.

as of right now, the pod population in my 50g tank is pretty much gone, thanks to him, a sixline wrasse, and a coral banded shrimp.

the mandarin hasn't been looking to well lately, and he is difficult to spot feed as he takes forever, and the other fish usually get the food before he does.

so i cut up this water bottle today and put some food in it, took him about 10min to find it and get into the bottle and start eating.

of course, the snails also figured out how to get in and pushed the mandarin out.....lol

Pitcom · Jan 27, 2008

That's a good idea. I have had great sucess feeding my fish with blood worms. I feed that more than i do mysis now. My possum wrasse would not even think about touching any food other than pods for the first 7 months. The first time i put blood worms in, she went nuts.

Hypertek99 · Jan 27, 2008

Where can i buy blood worms??? Are they live or frozen??

Pitcom · Jan 27, 2008

I use the frozen cubes from hikari. The package says Bio-Pure vitamen enriched blood worms.

surfn · Jan 27, 2008

Hypertek99 said:
Where can i buy blood worms??? Are they live or frozen??

they are frozen, i've never seen live ones......but that would be kinda cool.....but kinda creepy....lol

chris used to have frozen blood worms at his old store, just ask him. i didn't look when i was there as its kinda a long drive to get frozen foods.

reef-lover · Jan 27, 2008

My leapord wrasse lives on "live blood worms". In florida , at least in my area, most lfs stock live bloodworms. It's $2.00 for about 100-150 worms. They will last in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

Hypertek99 · Jan 27, 2008

ewww i don't think i would want to grab live worms.

Hypertek99 · Jan 27, 2008

So how did you train him to eat the blood worms???

reef-lover · Jan 27, 2008

Hypertek99 said:
So how did you train him to eat the blood worms???

I did'nt. Someone once told me that no fish can resist live bloodworms. So, I tried them, and within 20 seconds, he was in the mix slurping them down.

surfn · Jan 27, 2008

reef-lover said:
I did'nt. Someone once told me that no fish can resist live bloodworms. So, I tried them, and within 20 seconds, he was in the mix slurping them down.

same here, although i wouldn't say he "slurps" through them. he picks through them very slowly. sorta like when he's hunting pods.

he wouldn't touch the blood worms just floating in the water like you normally feed fish, i would have to spot feed them onto the sand right where he was for him to notice them.

Azurel · Jan 27, 2008

The jar bit really works, I was skeptical at first to till I saw it the first time. It's almost like they know exactly whats going one......Cool pics Al.

J. Montgomery · Jan 27, 2008

Bloodworms broke my green clown goby of his month long hunger strike. When I bought it, he was really shy and skinny. I never saw him eat anything and he showed no interest in any foods that I added to the tank. One day I added some bloodworms and he went nuts. Since that day, he eats anything I put in the tank.

Bloodworms are even more enjoyed that Cyclopeeze, IMO.

twon8 · Jan 27, 2008

i do feed frozen bloodworms, but i want to get some of these live blackworms.

http://www.wormman.com/pd_california.cfm

Hypertek99 · Jan 28, 2008

Must go buy bloodworms this week.

twon8 · Jan 28, 2008

and just a fyi, these aren't actually worms but rather a larvae
http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/pondexplorer/gallery/bloodwrm.html

surfn · Jan 28, 2008

i'm surprised only 1 person has said anything to me about that little mummy eye frag sitting over on the right hand side of the picture. lol!!

Pitcom · Jan 28, 2008

twon8 said:
i do feed frozen bloodworms, but i want to get some of these live blackworms.

http://www.wormman.com/pd_california.cfm

My LFS sells the live blackworms, but i have never gotten any. They are a pretty big seller for freshwater fish.

rackyrane · Jan 28, 2008

Surfn,
I noticed that frag and it looks great! Can I be first in line for a frag?

Can you give more specifics on how you made that bottle feeder? You said that you cut it, but I can't see any cut lines. Did you glue it back together? Maybe I just can't see the lines to well on this office computer.
Thanks!

surfn · Jan 28, 2008

rackyrane said:
Surfn,
I noticed that frag and it looks great! Can I be first in line for a frag?
Can you give more specifics on how you made that bottle feeder? You said that you cut it, but I can't see any cut lines. Did you glue it back together? Maybe I just can't see the lines to well on this office computer.
Thanks!

that little frag is gonna go up on the CZ classifieds for auction this weekend since lots of people want one.

as for the bottle, i just took a typical bottle of water, cut the top part off, cut the bottom part off, threw out the middle, and just slid the top half into the bottom half. no glue or tape necessary as they will fit snugly together. took about 5min.

of course, i could have just used the entire bottle and not cut it at all, but my tank isn't big enough to toss in a big water bottle.