TDO Pellet Alternatives for Mandarin Dragonets

[Zakary2003]

Tl;dr: I want some suggestions for lower phosphate pellet foods for my mandarins, who currently eat TDO chroma boost x-small which spikes my phosphates significantly.

I have two mandarin dragonet in my 20 gallon tank. They're both captive bred from biota. I got the male in April 2025 and the female in September 2025.

When I first got them, they were a bit slow, and too shy to eat prepared foods before the hermits and clean up crew, but would eat x-small TDO pellets if they stumbled across them. I mostly fed them freshly hatched baby brine shrimp and bottled copepods.

Now, both are taking frozen mysis and pellets consistently and they even wait under the feeding ring for food to sink when the auto feeder goes off. I want to back off the live foods to save time and money. I can definitely keep them fed on pellets and frozen alone, but my main issue is phosphate management.

I was on vacation for 3 weeks from mid December until early January, and they ate from the auto feeder exclusively while I was gone with no live or frozen foods. I came back to find both were fat, happy, and the female had noticeably grown.

So clearly I can keep them fed on pellets, but I can't manage the waste from the amount of pellets required to keep them fed. The phosphates spiked to over the hanna checker's maximum of 0.90 ppm while I was gone, so I had to switch back to live foods (phosphate is back to normal now). I see that TDO uses calcium phosphate as a major ingredient in the pellets, and I'm guessing that's my issue.

Can anyone recommend another small, mandarin sized sinking pellet that contains less or no added phosphates? They've ignored New Life Spectrum Marine Fish so far.

 

[mypocketreef]

Tl;dr: I want some suggestions for lower phosphate pellet foods for my mandarins, who currently eat TDO chroma boost x-small which spikes my phosphates significantly.

I have two mandarin dragonet in my 20 gallon tank. They're both captive bred from biota. I got the male in April 2025 and the female in September 2025.

When I first got them, they were a bit slow, and too shy to eat prepared foods before the hermits and clean up crew, but would eat x-small TDO pellets if they stumbled across them. I mostly fed them freshly hatched baby brine shrimp and bottled copepods.

Now, both are taking frozen mysis and pellets consistently and they even wait under the feeding ring for food to sink when the auto feeder goes off. I want to back off the live foods to save time and money. I can definitely keep them fed on pellets and frozen alone, but my main issue is phosphate management.

I was on vacation for 3 weeks from mid December until early January, and they ate from the auto feeder exclusively while I was gone with no live or frozen foods. I came back to find both were fat, happy, and the female had noticeably grown.

So clearly I can keep them fed on pellets, but I can't manage the waste from the amount of pellets required to keep them fed. The phosphates spiked to over the hanna checker's maximum of 0.90 ppm while I was gone, so I had to switch back to live foods (phosphate is back to normal now). I see that TDO uses calcium phosphate as a major ingredient in the pellets, and I'm guessing that's my issue.

Can anyone recommend another small, mandarin sized sinking pellet that contains less or no added phosphates? They've ignored New Life Spectrum Marine Fish so far.

Hello! That photo of your mandarin is gorgeous! Live foods of course would be the best option, but I totally understand wanting to have a pellet food. I have been happy with the smallest size of Aquaforest's pellet recently, but of course it will depend on if your fish like it. I'd say it's worth a try!

 

[joseph scott]

What a great photo!

 

[BryanM]

It was my understanding that TDOChromoboost was one of the better foods out there for not increasing phosphates too much.

 

[joseph scott]

TDO
Chromoboost is the pellet my mandarin loves.

 

[CopepodsForSale Verified Sponsor]

Tl;dr: I want some suggestions for lower phosphate pellet foods for my mandarins, who currently eat TDO chroma boost x-small which spikes my phosphates significantly.

I have two mandarin dragonet in my 20 gallon tank. They're both captive bred from biota. I got the male in April 2025 and the female in September 2025.

When I first got them, they were a bit slow, and too shy to eat prepared foods before the hermits and clean up crew, but would eat x-small TDO pellets if they stumbled across them. I mostly fed them freshly hatched baby brine shrimp and bottled copepods.

Now, both are taking frozen mysis and pellets consistently and they even wait under the feeding ring for food to sink when the auto feeder goes off. I want to back off the live foods to save time and money. I can definitely keep them fed on pellets and frozen alone, but my main issue is phosphate management.

I was on vacation for 3 weeks from mid December until early January, and they ate from the auto feeder exclusively while I was gone with no live or frozen foods. I came back to find both were fat, happy, and the female had noticeably grown.

So clearly I can keep them fed on pellets, but I can't manage the waste from the amount of pellets required to keep them fed. The phosphates spiked to over the hanna checker's maximum of 0.90 ppm while I was gone, so I had to switch back to live foods (phosphate is back to normal now). I see that TDO uses calcium phosphate as a major ingredient in the pellets, and I'm guessing that's my issue.

Can anyone recommend another small, mandarin sized sinking pellet that contains less or no added phosphates? They've ignored New Life Spectrum Marine Fish so far.

Beautiful mandarin pair! Quick thought, the phosphate issue probably isn't TDO specifically (it's actually one of the cleaner pellets). With two mandarins in a 20g, the bioload to feed them adequately on pellets alone is just going to push phosphates regardless of brand.

The more sustainable fix is establishing a breeding pod population in the tank so they graze 24/7 and you can drop pellet volume way down. Tisbe in particular reproduce in rockwork and the mandarins won't wipe them out. A small chaeto refugium or media basket with macro becomes a pod factory that constantly seeds the display. Add light phyto dosing 2-3x a week to feed the pods and the system runs itself.

This is how most long term mandarin keepers do it Alot of customers have had theres for 5+ Years which makes me the happiest man in the world. Minimal pellets, frozen as a treat, and let the pods carry the daily nutrition load. Bioload (and phosphate) drops a lot. But I will still have having a pod that eats pellets is like hitting the lottery so congratz on that !

 

[ReefED!]

You could try EasyReef DKI pellets

I doubt they’re much better

Pellets are just phosphate generators in general

But so seems to be heavy frozen feeding of PE mysis and LRS etc

 

[SleepyMama1986]

Tl;dr: I want some suggestions for lower phosphate pellet foods for my mandarins, who currently eat TDO chroma boost x-small which spikes my phosphates significantly.

I have two mandarin dragonet in my 20 gallon tank. They're both captive bred from biota. I got the male in April 2025 and the female in September 2025.

When I first got them, they were a bit slow, and too shy to eat prepared foods before the hermits and clean up crew, but would eat x-small TDO pellets if they stumbled across them. I mostly fed them freshly hatched baby brine shrimp and bottled copepods.

Now, both are taking frozen mysis and pellets consistently and they even wait under the feeding ring for food to sink when the auto feeder goes off. I want to back off the live foods to save time and money. I can definitely keep them fed on pellets and frozen alone, but my main issue is phosphate management.

I was on vacation for 3 weeks from mid December until early January, and they ate from the auto feeder exclusively while I was gone with no live or frozen foods. I came back to find both were fat, happy, and the female had noticeably grown.

So clearly I can keep them fed on pellets, but I can't manage the waste from the amount of pellets required to keep them fed. The phosphates spiked to over the hanna checker's maximum of 0.90 ppm while I was gone, so I had to switch back to live foods (phosphate is back to normal now). I see that TDO uses calcium phosphate as a major ingredient in the pellets, and I'm guessing that's my issue.

Can anyone recommend another small, mandarin sized sinking pellet that contains less or no added phosphates? They've ignored New Life Spectrum Marine Fish so far.

Beautiful mandarin pair! Quick thought, the phosphate issue probably isn't TDO specifically (it's actually one of the cleaner pellets). With two mandarins in a 20g, the bioload to feed them adequately on pellets alone is just going to push phosphates regardless of brand.

The more sustainable fix is establishing a breeding pod population in the tank so they graze 24/7 and you can drop pellet volume way down. Tisbe in particular reproduce in rockwork and the mandarins won't wipe them out. A small chaeto refugium or media basket with macro becomes a pod factory that constantly seeds the display. Add light phyto dosing 2-3x a week to feed the pods and the system runs itself.

This is how most long term mandarin keepers do it Alot of customers have had theres for 5+ Years which makes me the happiest man in the world. Minimal pellets, frozen as a treat, and let the pods carry the daily nutrition load. Bioload (and phosphate) drops a lot. But I will still have having a pod that eats pellets is like hitting the lottery so congratz on that !

This is going to sound silly but this is essentially what I want to do to establish my tank to one day aquire a mandarin. Can you explain step by step what you do to set up a sustainable pod population? (in detail, if possible)

 

[Zakary2003]

Tl;dr: I want some suggestions for lower phosphate pellet foods for my mandarins, who currently eat TDO chroma boost x-small which spikes my phosphates significantly.

I have two mandarin dragonet in my 20 gallon tank. They're both captive bred from biota. I got the male in April 2025 and the female in September 2025.

When I first got them, they were a bit slow, and too shy to eat prepared foods before the hermits and clean up crew, but would eat x-small TDO pellets if they stumbled across them. I mostly fed them freshly hatched baby brine shrimp and bottled copepods.

Now, both are taking frozen mysis and pellets consistently and they even wait under the feeding ring for food to sink when the auto feeder goes off. I want to back off the live foods to save time and money. I can definitely keep them fed on pellets and frozen alone, but my main issue is phosphate management.

I was on vacation for 3 weeks from mid December until early January, and they ate from the auto feeder exclusively while I was gone with no live or frozen foods. I came back to find both were fat, happy, and the female had noticeably grown.

So clearly I can keep them fed on pellets, but I can't manage the waste from the amount of pellets required to keep them fed. The phosphates spiked to over the hanna checker's maximum of 0.90 ppm while I was gone, so I had to switch back to live foods (phosphate is back to normal now). I see that TDO uses calcium phosphate as a major ingredient in the pellets, and I'm guessing that's my issue.

Can anyone recommend another small, mandarin sized sinking pellet that contains less or no added phosphates? They've ignored New Life Spectrum Marine Fish so far.

Beautiful mandarin pair! Quick thought, the phosphate issue probably isn't TDO specifically (it's actually one of the cleaner pellets). With two mandarins in a 20g, the bioload to feed them adequately on pellets alone is just going to push phosphates regardless of brand.

The more sustainable fix is establishing a breeding pod population in the tank so they graze 24/7 and you can drop pellet volume way down. Tisbe in particular reproduce in rockwork and the mandarins won't wipe them out. A small chaeto refugium or media basket with macro becomes a pod factory that constantly seeds the display. Add light phyto dosing 2-3x a week to feed the pods and the system runs itself.

This is how most long term mandarin keepers do it Alot of customers have had theres for 5+ Years which makes me the happiest man in the world. Minimal pellets, frozen as a treat, and let the pods carry the daily nutrition load. Bioload (and phosphate) drops a lot. But I will still have having a pod that eats pellets is like hitting the lottery so congratz on that !

This is going to sound silly but this is essentially what I want to do to establish my tank to one day aquire a mandarin. Can you explain step by step what you do to set up a sustainable pod population? (in detail, if possible)

I don't really worry about my pod population. I got captive bred mandarins that eat pellets, and I hatch out live baby brine shrimp. I sometimes see pods on the glass, but the population certainly isn't enough to sustain my mandarins on its own.

My current feeding schedule, which seems to be working for my tank without nutrient issues or hungry mandarins, is feeding 2x per day. I feed frozen foods in the morning, pellets in the evening, and live baby brine shrimp with both feedings. I cut the flow for 30 minutes to give the mandarins time to catch the prepared foods which settle on surfaces, and then the flow turns back on at minimum settings for 15 additional minutes to gently stir up the food and let the other fish (clownfish, blenny, and yasha goby) a chance to catch the leftover food from the water column. The mandarins eat the sunken food on the sand first, then the low flow suspends that food afterwards and gives the other fish a chance to eat when the mandarins are done. It's a lot of work, which is why I'm looking for better pellets so I can automate the process more.

On vacation, I just have the auto feeder set to drop pellets 2x per day (using an apex to cut the flow automatically instead of a manual feed mode) instead of feeding frozen and live brine. The longest I've left for was 3 weeks and I came back to the high phosphates described in the original post but the mandarins and other fish remained fat and healthy. If phosphates weren't a concern, I could easily keep my mandarins fed just on the pellets indefinitely, but I still feed mostly live and frozen foods to keep phosphates reasonable.

I also occasionally add bottles of pods for variety but I don't think they establish populations very well. Really the big secret is the live baby brine. It's cheap, easy compared to other live foods, and produces a high yield quickly (ready to harvest after just 24 hours, and then continues producing for around another 4 days before the shrimp get too large for the mandarins). I suspect I could keep my mandarins alive on just brine, but I personally believe the variety from pellets and frozen food is important for health and coloration.

I don't know what size tank you have, but establishing sufficient pods for 2 mandarins in a 20 gallon system like mine does not seem plausible. The only way I think you'll be successful is getting small captive bred fish and making sure you get them eating frozen and pellets, and using baby brine as a staple.

They're beautiful fish, but they aren't easy to care for in smaller setups. It's 100% possible even in a small tank, but you have to be prepared to make a lot of accommodations for them and make sure you source them well. Both of my biota mandarins came fully accepting prepared foods, but they were 3x more expensive than the wild caught ones at my local fish store, and were a tiny fraction of the size of the adults.

Basically, I'd recommend you treat feeding them like feeding seahorses. Seahorses are picky and have a high metabolism, but most people don't put seahorses in large tanks with massive refugiums to sustain enough copepods for food, they focus on providing ample supplemental prepared foods and cultivating live foods for them.

 

[JoJosReef]

I know you want to move away from live foods, but have you considered white worm culture? Super easy to grow worms and mandarins LOVE them. Mine swim up from the bottom of the tank (25gal) to the pipette when I'm feeding worms and snatches them in the water column. Costs very little to keep white worms running once you get their culture set up.

 

[Zakary2003]

I know you want to move away from live foods, but have you considered white worm culture? Super easy to grow worms and mandarins LOVE them. Mine swim up from the bottom of the tank (25gal) to the pipette when I'm feeding worms and snatches them in the water column. Costs very little to keep white worms running once you get their culture set up.

I haven't really looked into it but I'll check it out.

I used to culture midge larvae/bloodworms but I developed a severe allergy to them. That was also pretty easy since it just required putting live bloodworms in my greenhouse, letting them grow into adult flies, and then harvesting the next generations of larvae. My mandarins didn't care much for the blood worms but my freshwater fish loved them. Same with mosquito larvae.

Maybe I'll buy some live white worms and see if they even like it enough to be worth culturing.

 

[CopepodsForSale Verified Sponsor]

This is going to sound silly but this is essentially what I want to do to establish my tank to one day aquire a mandarin. Can you explain step by step what you do to set up a sustainable pod population? (in detail, if possible)

Happy to walk through it for you SleepyMama1986. And shoutout to Zakary2003 because he raises a really fair point above, pods alone usually wont sustain two mandarins long term in a 20 gallon and his baby brine plus pellets approach is a totally valid strategy especially for the harder smaller tank setups. What I am about to lay out is more about getting a strong baseline microfauna population to support a future mandarin, not replacing prepared foods entirely. The combo approach Zakary uses is the gold standard for smaller tanks.

A few step by step thoughts on building the pod side:

1. Tank size matters a lot. The bigger the system and the more live rock you have, the easier pods establish. A 40 gallon plus with a refugium is way easier than a 20 gallon nano. If you are still in planning mode, going bigger gives you way more pod surface area.

2. Seed the tank with a diverse pod blend early. Tisbe is the big one because they reproduce in the rockwork and the mandarin wont be able to wipe them out. Apocyclops and Tigriopus add variety. Multiple bottles spread out over the first month or two is better than one big dose because you are constantly reseeding.

3. Build a refugium or pod hotel zone the mandarin cant access. This is the single biggest factor for long term sustainability. A chaeto refugium or a media basket with macro running on a reverse light cycle becomes a pod factory that constantly feeds the display. If you cant do a fuge, pod hotels tucked behind rocks where only some holes are exposed work great.

4. Dose phytoplankton 2 to 3 times a week to feed the pod population. Without phyto the pods will eat themselves out of food and crash. Even just light dosing makes a massive difference for population sustainability.

5. Wait it out. Pod populations need 2 to 3 months minimum to really establish before adding a mandarin. Most failed mandarin attempts happen because people add the fish too early.

6. Source a captive bred mandarin like Zakary did with Biota. Captive bred fish accept prepared foods which gives you the safety net he mentioned. This is non negotiable in a smaller tank.

The honest truth is for a smaller setup like a 20 gallon, you really want the pods carrying part of the load and prepared foods carrying the other part. Pods alone is way easier in 40 gallons plus with a fuge. Prepared foods alone works but pushes phosphates like Zakary mentioned. The combo is usually the move.

Let me know what size tank you are working with or planning and I can tailor more specific recommendations!

Ricky, CopepodsForsale.com

 

[saltyfish24]

hey @Zakary2003, I also have a Mandarin in a small tank ( 30 gal), also a biota raised one that readily eats TDO extra small pellets. Regarding your phosphate problem...

Are you feeding more pellets than you normally would so that the mandarin is sure to get some despite the food competition? My problem is that the clown fish and blenny and wrasse in my tank eat FAST, and I'd have to totally cover the floor with TDO pellets if I want my Mandarin to get even a little bit. The other fish take all the food before it even sinks to the bottom, so I have to put the food in the tank before they wake up, and subsequent feedings are more tricky. I'm definitely over feeding the tank as a whole if I'm trying to get enough pellets to the Mandarin. That's my current struggle. I'm investigating feeding tubes and other ways to target feed pellets to the Mandarin without my other fish seeing it.

Do you have macro algae like Chaeto? I have lots chaeto in the back of the AIO, acting like a refugium. In the 2 months I've had my single Mandarin, I haven't had any phosphate issues despite the increased feedings. I can turn up the refugium light intensity and add more chaeto grow to support the macro growth. I actually have a low nutrient issue, and add phyto so nitrate and phosphate doesn't bottom out.

I think the combination of small tank and more food is going to lead to phosphate issues regardless of the type of food if you don't have macro algae. Growing macro - even in the main display area - will help a lot, add natural cover for pods to grow, and just looks nice.

My original plan is that pellets would be the majority of the Mandarin's nutrition, with pods only being supplemental. I add a lot of phyto (1 liter/week) to my tank to increase nitrate and phosphate, so maybe that increases my copepod population. But I'm not counting on it.

Sorry I'm not helpful with food recommendations, but try nutrient uptake with macro algae.

​

 

[JoJosReef]

Also, I sometimes turn off the flow completely, take some TDO B2 pellets, mix them in tank water so they are all sinking, pipette them up, and layer them across the sand in front of my mandarin. He eats the pellets that I "target feed" him and I guess that lets me reduce the total amount added through the Plank autofeeder.

Still nothing like white worms, though. He absolutely attacks those. I've seen him suck down a worm the length of his body.

 

[Zakary2003]

hey @Zakary2003, I also have a Mandarin in a small tank ( 30 gal), also a biota raised one that readily eats TDO extra small pellets. Regarding your phosphate problem...

Are you feeding more pellets than you normally would so that the mandarin is sure to get some despite the food competition? My problem is that the clown fish and blenny and wrasse in my tank eat FAST, and I'd have to totally cover the floor with TDO pellets if I want my Mandarin to get even a little bit. The other fish take all the food before it even sinks to the bottom, so I have to put the food in the tank before they wake up, and subsequent feedings are more tricky. I'm definitely over feeding the tank as a whole if I'm trying to get enough pellets to the Mandarin. That's my current struggle. I'm investigating feeding tubes and other ways to target feed pellets to the Mandarin without my other fish seeing it.

Do you have macro algae like Chaeto? I have lots chaeto in the back of the AIO, acting like a refugium. In the 2 months I've had my single Mandarin, I haven't had any phosphate issues despite the increased feedings. I can turn up the refugium light intensity and add more chaeto grow to support the macro growth. I actually have a low nutrient issue, and add phyto so nitrate and phosphate doesn't bottom out.

I think the combination of small tank and more food is going to lead to phosphate issues regardless of the type of food if you don't have macro algae. Growing macro - even in the main display area - will help a lot, add natural cover for pods to grow, and just looks nice.

My original plan is that pellets would be the majority of the Mandarin's nutrition, with pods only being supplemental. I add a lot of phyto (1 liter/week) to my tank to increase nitrate and phosphate, so maybe that increases my copepod population. But I'm not counting on it.

Sorry I'm not helpful with food recommendations, but try nutrient uptake with macro algae.

​

I don't overfeed a ton. The portions I feed are actually slightly smaller than I would feed without the mandarins, the only difference is that I feed twice a day with them in the tank since they have such small stomachs and such a high metabolism.

I've tried chaeto, it didn't work for me. I had a 1.5 gallon HOB refugium with chaeto and rock rubble, but it didn't impact my nutrients noticeably so I replaced it with a skimmer so I could effectively carbon dose, which did make a slight difference. I never used chaeto grow though, so maybe it was limiged by trace element availability. Light definitely wasn't the limiting factor since my light was powerful enough to bleach the top layer of algae when it was at 100% intensity, and nutrients weren't a limiting factor either.

 

[Zakary2003]

Also, I sometimes turn off the flow completely, take some TDO B2 pellets, mix them in tank water so they are all sinking, pipette them up, and layer them across the sand in front of my mandarin. He eats the pellets that I "target feed" him and I guess that lets me reduce the total amount added through the Plank autofeeder.

Still nothing like white worms, though. He absolutely attacks those. I've seen him suck down a worm the length of his body.

That's pretty similar to how I feed. I place the waterlogged pellets in the same corner of the tank every feeding time, so the mandarins know to go there to eat. I also cut the flow for 30 minutes at every feeding to give them a chance to catch the brine shrimp and eat all the pellets they want.

 

[saltyfish24]

That's pretty similar to how I feed. I place the waterlogged pellets in the same corner of the tank every feeding time, so the mandarins know to go there to eat. I also cut the flow for 30 minutes at every feeding to give them a chance to catch the brine shrimp and eat all the pellets they want.

How long did it take your Mandarin to learn the spot? When my Mandarin was in the tank, I had to wait until it was hanging out under the tube that I installed in the corner. When I see him there, I quickly sink some pellets down the tube and it basically lands right next to him and he notices.

My other fish also noticed me doing this and have started scrambling into that same corner, so I have to come up with something else.

I'm using a tube to concentrate the drop to the same corner, otherwise I feel like even water-logged pellets would kinda tend to spread out.

 

[whalewhalewhale]

I used to feed my mandarin TDO everyday multiple times a day but my phosphate climbed from 0.05ppm to 0.45ppm. It was an absolute pain to bring it back down safely.

I switched to masstick that I spread over a frag disk. I mix the powder, put a tiny amount on the textured side, and store in the freezer. Everyday I drop a disk down and my mandarin will immediately find it and pick it clean over the next few hours. I still use TDO for vacations but not mixing TDO in for everyday feeding has made phosphate management much easier.