Mandarin Characteristics

[darkdancer333]

I recently upgraded my tank from 14gal bio-cube to a 35gal red sea. When i had my cube I had a mandy I returned to the store because of not eating. Limited pods in the tank.

My red sea has about 3 months with live rock from the 2 year old cube plus another 20 lbs purchased.

When I purchased the mandy I also purchased a container of live pods..

 

I just purchase a Mandy 5 days ago and he is always pecking at the sand and rocks. I don't see him spit anything out. I assume he is finding his pods. I don't recall mandarins swimming as much as this guy does. He goes up and down the tank glass I thought they were mostly bottom feeders.

When I see Mandy's in stores I don't seem them going around the tank lol This guy is really active

 

Does the pecking mean he is eating pods??

[Gilly's Reef]

its hard to say unless you observe him at night. You can see the pods with a flashlight

[darkdancer333]

its hard to say unless you observe him at night. You can see the pods with a flashlight

at night he is still cruising the tank pecking away at times he hits a spot and like 4-5 pecks

[Gilly's Reef]

he is definitely hitting them. When i had a 55 going, i had two that did similar behavior. They lived for a long time

[darkdancer333]

he is definitely hitting them. When i had a 55 going, i had two that did similar behavior. They lived for a long time

like cruising the glass on the tank lol he must be seeing his reflection ??

[darkdancer333]

here is the culprit.. i called a local store for live copopods and they said 35 gal tank too small........Now I think i am going to return him

[Gilly's Reef]

if you had a sump with a refugium, i would say its ok because the pods could breed and reproduce in there. Ive read some articles on owners getting their mandarins to eat shrimp Thats the way to go! They are a tempting fish to keep, thats for sure

[Newstead]

Mine swims up and down the glass as lights dim. Have wondered if he is looking at his reflection or what, as the rest of the day he cruises the sand and rocks.

I was just lucky to find him. He was in a tank at the LFS with 2 other target mandarins and a ywg, which is what I was looking for. I asked to see the goby eat and when they put mysis in the tank, one of the mandarins swam right up with the goby and ate as many mysis as he could grab. I brought them both home ;-). He is target fed 2x day with the small Hikari mysis or Reef Frenzy abd pecks at the feeding tube if I am not feeding fast enough and is now much fatter. Sadly, last time I was at the LFS, the other 2 mandarins were skin and bones.

Have you tried target feeding him some frozen just to see if he will eat?

[tetraodon]

best chance for mandarins is to target feed multiple times a day, i had mine fat and eating a mix of bloodworms, mysis, and some nutritional supplements before he decided to take a closer look at my carpet.

[patback]

Best bet for any sized tank is getting him on prepared foods. Also that is not a mandarin fish, that is a spotted or target dragonet.

+1 to tetra. The good news is that the target dragonet are supposedly easier to train than mandarins.

[Newstead]

Best bet for any sized tank is getting him on prepared foods. Also that is not a mandarin fish, that is a spotted or target dragonet.

+1 to tetra. The good news is that the target dragonet are supposedly easier to train than mandarins.

Good to know - I have been calling mine a target mandarin. Thanks for the info!

[Mariaface]

I'd definitely train onto frozen - keep in mind that these little guys can eat upwards of 2k pods in a day, and are constant feeders. It might be useful to get a culture going, and/or supplement often.

[darkdancer333]

Mine swims up and down the glass as lights dim. Have wondered if he is looking at his reflection or what, as the rest of the day he cruises the sand and rocks.

I was just lucky to find him. He was in a tank at the LFS with 2 other target mandarins and a ywg, which is what I was looking for. I asked to see the goby eat and when they put mysis in the tank, one of the mandarins swam right up with the goby and ate as many mysis as he could grab. I brought them both home ;-). He is target fed 2x day with the small Hikari mysis or Reef Frenzy abd pecks at the feeding tube if I am not feeding fast enough and is now much fatter. Sadly, last time I was at the LFS, the other 2 mandarins were skin and bones.

Have you tried target feeding him some frozen just to see if he will eat?

I tried last night, frozen pods i syphon to him but he did nothing ill try mixing mysis with it and see what happens

[sheen]

Is that a picture of your actual mandarin? If so, it looks plump and full bodied. Healthy individuals are willing to try weird foods (weird from their perspective). Get a 35ml feeding syringe and insert a piece of rigid airline to make a target feeder. I will make a visual tutorial one of these days but you are basically going to train the fish to associate the tube with food. If you don't have any adult brine shrimp (Artemia), try to find some. Shut the flow off and pipe some live brine at the fish directly. Watch closely to see if it eats. If so, get it used to it and start freezing some of the live brine to kill it. You will slowly mix in the dead brine with live until it eats the dead brine. In my experience, the mixing isn't necessary as they will take the recently frozen Artemia well once used to the tube. Once weaned, you can move on to commercially prepared spirulina brine, mysis, etc. Give the food a good soak in Selcon and Vitachem. These are not hard fish to keep once you get them eating prepared foods. But, you have to be patient in training it.