Need Help Feeding Mandarin!

Kathy Floyd · Sep 20, 2022

kourtnee said:
Purchasing many different types of food in hopes the fish will begin to eat, is cruel??
I'm so confused as to how this is cruel in any way! If you purchase an animal, and animal does not eat, giving up and not caring is cruel! Not only is this person trying everything possible, they are also reaching out for advice to see if there are any other options!

Did you read all of it? There were several options to save the fish before it starved to death.
My opinion. Done responding to this thread.

exnisstech · Sep 20, 2022

kourtnee said:
Purchasing many different types of food in hopes the fish will begin to eat, is cruel??
I'm so confused as to how this is cruel in any way! If you purchase an animal, and animal does not eat, giving up and not caring is cruel! Not only is this person trying everything possible, they are also reaching out for advice to see if there are any other options!

Buying a fish that has a history of eating only live pods and "hoping“ to train it to eat frozen I get. But that should be for convience not a requirement. IMO anyone that buys a wild caught mandarin hoping to train it to frozen when they know they don't have a pod population to support it if it chooses not to eat frozen is somewhat cruel. As is confining it to a small container to try to coax it to eat frozen while it slowly starves seem cruel to me as well. But I didn't say it was cruel just offering my reasoning why someone might think that

I never finish anythi · Sep 20, 2022

My mandarin only eats pods . So I only feed it pods that simple really. Just put it in the display tank and give it a chance

Crustaceon · Sep 20, 2022

Fine, I'll wade into this... Here's my background with mandarins: For over the past decade, I've taken in dragonets from friends and local reefers to "train". I've had mandarins that were plump and healthy, but the owner wanted the fish to start with me "just in case" and i've had mandarins that were super skinny with fully depressed bellies. I'll start off by saying having pods is preferable but is not a must. People will fight me on this and recite what they've read in magazines and online. It's not true. Every mandarin i've taken in has gone through a month QT at least without pods and this includes both Biota AND wild caught dragonets, so yes, they can be trained to take frozen food and I've had extremely good results doing so. If you already have sufficient pods in your tank and you observe the dragonet eating, leave it there. I personally have a wild caught green mandarin that eats full sized pe mysis (yes, the 1/2" ones). There are things to keep in mind though... First up, you have to be extremely patient and keep the fish from stressing out. If it's stressed, it WILL NOT EAT. That means not putting your face next to the tank constantly to check on its condition or trying to feed it with other fish pushing the mandarin out of the way. They get intimidated very easily and if it's sitting motionless on the bottom with its tail curved, it's probably stressed. How I approach this is by not making sudden movements near the tank and using a long pipet for feeding. I gently swish it towards the mandarin from at least 6" away. Let the food settle on the bottom and give it a VERY light swish just to move the food a little. As a starter, I used to use Nutrimar ova (when it was available), mixed with baby brine. Live brine is the second best food option to live pods IMO. Some people claim success using rotifers or cyclops, but I haven't personally. If you try feeding baby brine, put a flashlight or similar pointed at a bottom corner of the tank. Weak mandarins, don't like to lift far off of the bottom to feed and will usually ignore food that's only 1/4" off of the bottom. Hopefully, you'll get a feeding response. Look for the fish to perk up and start bouncing off of the bottom. If the mandarin stops moving, lightly swish the food at range using the same pipet. ONLY use that pipet. Again, try to keep yourself and your actions as hidden to the dragonet as possible. Hope this helps.

Lavey29 · Sep 20, 2022

Crustaceon said:
Fine, I'll wade into this... Here's my background with mandarins: For over the past decade, I've taken in dragonets from friends and local reefers to "train". I've had mandarins that were plump and healthy, but the owner wanted the fish to start with me "just in case" and i've had mandarins that were super skinny with fully depressed bellies. I'll start off by saying having pods is preferable but is not a must. People will fight me on this and recite what they've read in magazines and online. It's not true. Every mandarin i've taken in has gone through a month QT at least without pods and this includes both Biota AND wild caught dragonets, so yes, they can be trained to take frozen food and I've had extremely good results doing so. If you already have sufficient pods in your tank and you observe the dragonet eating, leave it there. I personally have a wild caught green mandarin that eats full sized pe mysis (yes, the 1/2" ones). There are things to keep in mind though... First up, you have to be extremely patient and keep the fish from stressing out. If it's stressed, it WILL NOT EAT. That means not putting your face next to the tank constantly to check on its condition or trying to feed it with other fish pushing the mandarin out of the way. They get intimidated very easily and if it's sitting motionless on the bottom with its tail curved, it's probably stressed. How I approach this is by not making sudden movements near the tank and using a long pipet for feeding. I gently swish it towards the mandarin from at least 6" away. Let the food settle on the bottom and give it a VERY light swish just to move the food a little. As a starter, I used to use Nutrimar ova (when it was available), mixed with baby brine. Live brine is the second best food option to live pods IMO. Some people claim success using rotifers or cyclops, but I haven't personally. If you try feeding baby brine, put a flashlight or similar pointed at a bottom corner of the tank. Weak mandarins, don't like to lift far off of the bottom to feed and will usually ignore food that's only 1/4" off of the bottom. Hopefully, you'll get a feeding response. Look for the fish to perk up and start bouncing off of the bottom. If the mandarin stops moving, lightly swish the food at range using the same pipet. ONLY use that pipet. Again, try to keep yourself and your actions as hidden to the dragonet as possible. Hope this helps.

Thanks for sharing. Are they prone to hunt pods at dawn and dusk? Mine seems to stay in the caves during the day but I can hear his popping sound so I know he is finding food in there but at dawn and dusk he seems to come out and really work the sand areas of the tank.

Crustaceon · Sep 20, 2022

Lavey29 said:
Thanks for sharing. Are they prone to hunt pods at dawn and dusk? Mine seems to stay in the caves during the day but I can hear his popping sound so I know he is finding food in there but at dawn and dusk he seems to come out and really work the sand areas of the tank.

Yes, I have seen that. It's less apparent in QT because it's literally only that one fish, so there's no competition for food. Try to keep an eye on your mandarin when it's along the back wall and see if you can actually watch it take food. If it does, that's where you can feed it. Just make sure to put sufficient food on the opposite side of the tank for other fish to go after at the same time or time it by feeding when you mandarin is active but the other fish are not. Dinner should be a private affair for mandarins.

Lavey29 · Sep 20, 2022

Crustaceon said:
Yes, I have seen that. It's less apparent in QT because it's literally only that one fish, so there's no competition for food. Try to keep an eye on your mandarin when it's along the back wall and see if you can actually watch it take food. If it does, that's where you can feed it. Just make sure to put sufficient food on the opposite side of the tank for other fish to go after at the same time or time it by feeding when you mandarin is active but the other fish are not. Dinner should be a private affair for mandarins.

I've had good luck with the ova food also but pods are certainly his first choice. He seems to come out of the caves though when I feed the other fish. I can see him scooping up small food particles off the sand also but if it's a pod he definitely makes a popping sound when he hits it.

Crustaceon · Sep 20, 2022

Lavey29 said:
I've had good luck with the ova food also but pods are certainly his first choice. He seems to come out of the caves though when I feed the other fish. I can see him scooping up small food particles off the sand also but if it's a pod he definitely makes a popping sound when he hits it.

That's a really good sign. I'd definitely try to pipet some frozen brine and pods in front of it at feeding time. Sometimes they'll take frozen food during the excitement of feeding and start associating the pipet with food.