Jump to content
Pod Your Reef

Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread


metrokat

Mandarin Training  

164 members have voted

  1. 1. Does your Mandarin Fish eat Frozen?

    • Yes & I trained my mandarin
    • Yes & I had nothing to do with it
    • No
  2. 2. Answer this if you have a 2nd Mandarin Fish

    • Yes & I trained my mandarin
    • Yes & I had nothing to do with it
    • No
    • I don't have a second Mandy


Recommended Posts

I was trying to find that food but I don't think they sell it in the US :(

 

I just got off the phone with Andy, one of the owners of Ocean Nutrition USA and SanFran Bay brand. I've been trying to get someone to help me out with information for over 2 weeks. One of our posters on this thread has been feeding Ocean Nutrition Lobster Eggs which may work as a substitute for OVA. (I've previously posted that I spoke to Nutramar directly also). Anyway Lobster Eggs is only sold in Europe and not in the US. In fact ON Europe is a completely separate company than ON USA.

 

Andy has been working on more egg products but in the meantime he suggested I try their Reef Plankton product which has eggs in the smallest micron size about 150 he said. He was also skeptical whether the lobster egg product is actually lobster eggs.

 

In the meantime I have also been trying a new product on the market- Doc's Eco Eggs. This is being used by Kevin Kohen at Live Aquaria to condition his corals and fish so that is a pretty major endorsement right there. Over emails with "Doc" I learnt that the eggs in his product are freshwater fish eggs with a better nutritional profile than other products on the market.

 

Bella eats everything so I cannot really judge if she reacts any better to Docs than she does to other frozen. Perhaps someone else could try the product and report results?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=29142

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=29157

  • Like 1
Link to comment

 

What a happy mandy! With all that macro, it looks like the perfect home for her :)

 

I was trying to find that food but I don't think they sell it in the US :(

I had much the same conversation and outcome a few weeks back. It baffles me, as there's a market for it that it's not available, despite being in production. The list of foods I've tried (and not had accepted) is getting longer and longer.

 

Best feeding response thus far other than nutramar has been decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, and even then it proved to not be enough as a staple to maintain Fio's girlish figure.

 

Makes a convenient on-the-way-out-the-door in the morning food, though. It ensures she's got something to hunt and peck for during the day that won't foul the water that much as many other foods. Still looking for a silver bullet food for the bigger feeding, nonetheless.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

If it died in your tank and you have any respectably-sized cleanup crew, you would never find a body.

my CUC is a tux urchin, 3-4 hermits, 4 turbo snails, and a nassarus snail. not sure if that would be able to take care of a mandarin in 4 hours

Link to comment
jedimasterben

Sounds about right. They'd find it very quickly after beginning to decay (which would start immediately following primary functions shutting down) and would possibly pull it into the rocks to get to work (at least that's the hermits, nassarius would snack on it right where it was).

 

 

Unless it did actually jump and you have any other animals in the house that would have had a snack.

Link to comment

She (?) is beautiful! LOVE her little blue freckles :wub:

Thank you!!! I'm not sure if it's a he or she, I'm tempted to say she based on the fin, but I hear if you leave them alone they turn male. (Without another dragonet I mean). Either way, the name is officially Smaug the Desolate.

 

Here's an old picture of my lil buddy.

Quite a cutey. :)

 

Finally got a pic with the fin up.

 

image-118.jpg

Lovely!!!!

  • Like 1
Link to comment

I lucked into a trained pair a few weeks ago and love them, Shrek and Fiona. Here's Fiona showing off her Buddha belly and pissing off some zoas. She is definitely the far more outgoing one. Im really enjoying them!

IPdjgQO.jpg
06IiprH.jpg

  • Like 5
Link to comment

Today...saw the weirdest thing.

 

My female ruby red was inside the pistol shrimps burrow with just her head sticking out and the pistol shrimp was right next to her pushing sand around and pushing her around. My 1st thought was "omg she's died!" thinking the pistol shrimp was cleaning up the corpse.

 

....but then she suddenly just swam out and went back to scooting around. The male ruby red is sitting right outside the pistols entrance.

 

if I see it again, I will try to get a picture. Luckily the pistol didn't seem to mind sharing the burrow with the scooter. :huh:

  • Like 3
Link to comment

Today...saw the weirdest thing.

 

My female ruby red was inside the pistol shrimps burrow with just her head sticking out and the pistol shrimp was right next to her pushing sand around and pushing her around. My 1st thought was "omg she's died!" thinking the pistol shrimp was cleaning up the corpse.

 

....but then she suddenly just swam out and went back to scooting around. The male ruby red is sitting right outside the pistols entrance.

 

if I see it again, I will try to get a picture. Luckily the pistol didn't seem to mind sharing the burrow with the scooter. :huh:

lol sounds like your mandarins are having an identity crisis! Do you have a goby paired with the shrimp? Or maybe she was looking for a cleaning station. Hopefuly you get some pics!

Link to comment

lol sounds like your mandarins are having an identity crisis! Do you have a goby paired with the shrimp? Or maybe she was looking for a cleaning station. Hopefuly you get some pics!

 

OMG... she was in it again and I ran to get the camera and she was out by the time I got back. When she sees people she thinks "food" and starts looking around. Maybe there are pods in there? It's nice and dark.

 

I used to but his goby perished (had him for a long time) so he isn't paired anymore. He was pretty much acting like the scooter was his new "goby".

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Doh!!!! A red! I haven't seen one in forever!!! And in such awesome shape!

 

I lucked into a trained pair a few weeks ago and love them, Shrek and Fiona. Here's Fiona showing off her Buddha belly and pissing off some zoas. She is definitely the far more outgoing one. Im really enjoying them! mzzqg8D.jpg06IiprH.jpg
  • Like 2
Link to comment

So while I'm posting - Sam the Salmon is Sam the Skinny and is still very much alive. I feed live black worms daily and he does enjoy those rather a lot. I've also managed to get him to eat Dr Gs medicated food which contains prazi. He still loves frozen brine. He is alive against all odds and still very very skinny. I have noticed that the black worms make him look better though. I threw some in on a GHA area where he was hovering just now and he practically yanked off the GHA while trying to get at them - repeatedly. :wub:



He's not red :) The red ones have completely red/orange fins like in joe's sig.

Ah! Thanks Amber.

Link to comment

Alright, well I got it on video!

 

Here is my odd couple... she has been in and around the burrow pretty much all day. She comes out to venture when she sees people cuz... people = food :)

 

Also I am slowly replacing my sand bed with fine oolite sand and my spotted mandarin sleeps buried with just his head out. I thought it was only the scooters who did that... was a surprise.

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...