training a mandarin to eat prepared foods?

[surfn]

so does anyone have any experience training them to eat frozen or pellet food?

any tips/tricks. i know all about the mandarin diner, but i'm pretty sure my little guy will prob show no interest in it until he developes a taste for prepared foods.

 

[gflat65]

I always soaked my food in Selcon and that has worked for me. I don't know if I've just been lucky with manadarin's or whatr, but I've never had a problem with one starving... Bloodworms and mysis seemed to be favorites. I don't feed mine at all, now, though (maybe one a month do the fish get frozen food, anywmore).

 

[surfn]

I always soaked my food in Selcon and that has worked for me. I don't know if I've just been lucky with manadarin's or whatr, but I've never had a problem with one starving... Bloodworms and mysis seemed to be favorites. I don't feed mine at all, now, though (maybe one a month do the fish get frozen food, anywmore).

what is selcon?

if you only feed your fish frozen food once a month, what do you feed them on a regular basis? just flake stuff?

i cant get any of my gobies to eat anything besides frozen mysis/brine shrimp. they dont even like the cyclopeze.

 

[rocko918]

Selcon
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_additives_american_marine.asp?CartId=

I use this stuff to train my Pipefish
Articpods
http://www.reed-store.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=74

 

[revhtree]

Those artic pods are awesome! You can see them swim around in the bottle.

 

[JGoslee]

Those artic pods are awesome! You can see them swim around in the bottle.

Rev, I think the tiger pods are the ones that are still alive. The arctic pods are preserved in some sort of oil. I tried feeding my mandarin the arctic pods but he showed no interest. My palys on the other hand love them.

 

[rocko918]

I have used both, I have dumped a full bottle of the tigger pods in my fuge.

I wonder if that will really make a difference.

 

[JGoslee]

I have used both, I have dumped a full bottle of the tigger pods in my fuge.

I wonder if that will really make a difference.

I added 2 bottles of the tigger pods to my tank a a few months ago. My pod population is pretty high and my mandarin is fat and happy. So I think it makes a difference.

 

[gflat65]

what is selcon?

if you only feed your fish frozen food once a month, what do you feed them on a regular basis? just flake stuff?

i cant get any of my gobies to eat anything besides frozen mysis/brine shrimp. they dont even like the cyclopeze.

Just flake spirulina nightly. They are all fat, so I figure they get most of what they need from natural food. I give a squirt of Arctic pods every now and then, too, but not too much on the feeding side.

 

[jessiesgrrl]

I keep transferring rocks from my refugium to my tank on a weekly basis. The pods hideing inside the rocks get into the main tank and supplement what gets eaten. The macro helps them to thrive as well. It keeps the pod count in the main tank high enough for two dragonets so far- a mandarin and a stellate (starry)...


Laurie

 

[JGoslee]

Hey Laurie whats a stellate?

 

[surfn]

whoohoo!! i got my mandarin to eat frozen blood worms tonight.

he doesn't exactly gobble them up, he watches a single worm kinda float around, and follow it around a rock and then will pounce on it! lol

he ate a bunch though, so i'm much happier

 

[JGoslee]

whoohoo!! i got my mandarin to eat frozen blood worms tonight.

he doesn't exactly gobble them up, he watches a single worm kinda float around, and follow it around a rock and then will pounce on it! lol

he ate a bunch though, so i'm much happier

Thats great! I should try to get my mandarin eating prepared foods while he still in Qt. Did you use a small bottle like Melev uses or did you just add the bloodworms to the tank?

 

[surfn]

Thats great! I should try to get my mandarin eating prepared foods while he still in Qt. Did you use a small bottle like Melev uses or did you just add the bloodworms to the tank?

ya know, thats a good question.

the way i see it, the mandarin diner is only good for when you have prepared foods to feed your tank, and your mandarin is interested in them, but cant get to them b/c all the other fish gobble them up before they hit the ground.

otherwise, if your mandarin doesnt know what prepared food is, i dont see it taking much interest into the bottle.

i try to spot feed him in the tank with the thawed frozen foods. and apparently i've heard just about any fish will like the blood worms. so i would try to do that first. turn off all your pumps, then get a little dropper and spot feed the mandarin with some blood worms

 

[ficklefins]

I had a mandarin in a 55g and felt guilty enough to find him a new home. Lately I have been trying some new ideas for keeping mandarins and pipefish.

So here are the feeder ideas I have come up with, BTW they are a take off of Melev's Dinner.

A bottle or piece of PVC large enough to fit your mandarin. Drill a hole in the top of it so that you can fit a 1/2 PVC pipe in it. This PVC pipe will be long enough to extend out of the tank (think golf club). You can then slip food, pellets or anything else down the tube and have it only be accessible by the mandarin.

My ideal tank is a mandarin and pipefish tank. One of these days I guess....

 

[TyreeUM]

You guys are doing good if you are able to keep a dragonette for any longer than a year and a half-we have had several pairs at the university and can never seem to keep them for more than 12-15 months. We feed them a variety of live foods, we can get them to spawn, but we cant keep them alive-for that reason I choose not to buy them for my home tank-so tempting sometimes though-they are amazing.

 

[victoly]

For feeding frozen food try e-mailing Rod Buhler ([email protected]) He makes sure mandarins eat frozen food before selling them to people.

 

[Azurel]

I had one for 6 years......He past away this past June....Sad day one of my favorite fish and the cats favorite too.....I had mine eating frozen mysis after about the 6th month mark. I would put a little in-front of him and eventually he ate it after the first time he ate it was all over.....He ate it every time I feed the tank.

One trick after you get them eating frozen food take a small capers bottle that you get at your local grocer take the mysis after you fill it with tank water and place it in a spot on the bottom of your tank, he will eventully go into the bottle eat as much as he wants too.....This prevents other fish from eating the food before he gets it....It is harder with smaller fish but with bigger fish they cant get in the bottle and get the food.....