The Mandarin Plan

[Kfmmartin19]

So I have always loved mandarins and have always been told that keeping one in my 29 gallon would be impossible. After reading some success stories of mandarins in nano's, I am beginning to believe this is not always the case. After doing a lot of research I wanted to give u guys an idea of my plan to keep one, and let u guys make suggestions and corrections to the plan, and hopefully answer some questions. So...here we go...

 

Which Mandarin?

I have been told that the easiest mandarin to train to eat prepared foods is the "spotted" or "target" mandarin. Question: is this really going to be a big deal? If so, I will gladly get a spotted, but in reality, if it's not gonna make that much of a difference, would a green mandarin be much harder to train? Probably will end up going with the spotted, but just curious...

 

How to train?

The breeder net method. I have a breeder net and I plan to put the mandarin in the net and try to feed it frozen brine. If it doesn't go for that, I will introduce live brine to it. When I get it eatin live brine, I will slowly replace that with frozen brine, then mysis, then any other food

I want it to eat. After it is eating with gusto, I will release into tank.

 

What food?

I am going to try to get it to eat a large variety of foods to try to give it a balanced diet. I will try frozen mysis, rod's food, and nutrimar ova, as well as NLS small fish pellets and formula 1 pellets. Question: do you think I will also have to periodically supplement my tank with pods or live brine? If so, how often?

 

How to feed?

I am going to try the Mandarin Diner technique with a little glass jar I have. Am thinking that once every day I will dump any extra food in the sink and re-fill with the foods mentioned above. Also, maybe I should give him his food in the breeder net in the jar so he can get used to eating out of it?

 

Misc. Questions:

I have heard that it is impossible to have an SPS dominated tank with a mandarin. With the approach that I am taking, would you say that this is true? If this is the case I may have to reconsider. I do weekly 25% water changes, skim, have a fuge rack, and run Purigen and Chemipure elite.

When I go to look for one at my LFS, is there anything I should specifically look for? Is it obvious to tell if it is starving? Want to get the healthiest one possible!

 

Alright. That's it so far. Interested to hear what everyone has to say. Would love to hear suggestions as to how I can improve this plan!

 

Thanks.

[patback]

While trying to get It to eat at first, it can be extremely messy, but nothing some diligence with a siphon and an extra water change can't handle.

 

Goodluck !

 

Btw, metrokat has had a mandarin with sps in a 30 gallon. It's been in there for a while and I think use to be in a smaller tank. These fish have short digestive symptoms with a fast metabolism, but that in no way makes it impossible.

[Kfmmartin19]

While trying to get It to eat at first, it can be extremely messy, but nothing some diligence with a siphon and an extra water change can't handle.

 

Goodluck !

 

Btw, metrokat has had a mandarin with sps in a 30 gallon. It's been in there for a while and I think use to be in a smaller tank. These fish have short digestive symptoms with a fast metabolism, but that in no way makes it impossible.

Thanks patback! I didn't know Kat has a mandarin! She had better come join the party over here.

[metrokat]

Somebody called?

Martin (can I call you Martin), the plan you have needs a little tweaking.

 

First, the mandarin you are considering should already be eating at the LFS. Ask them if it is, then make them feed the mandy in front of you. If you see it pecking at the food you have a winner. Make sure to bring home the foods it is eating. If it is live foods then put the fish on hold while you stock up on the necessary set up at home to feed the live foods it is eating.

 

I was lucky, the mandy I got was eating nutramar ova at the LFS.

 

Regarding training: you don't throw frozen at it to see if it will eat then go out and get live foods if it doesn't. Assuming the mandy is eating live foods at the store, you start off in the breeder net with live foods for it. Then slowly mix in frozen, gradually, a little more frozen every day till all it is eating is frozen.

 

If you get a mandy already eating frozen, that is awesome. BTW in live foods, they like baby brine shrimp, adult brine shrimp, live rotifers, copepods, blood worms. I had a pod culture for my mandy for about 5 months. He also loves Dr G's caviar.

 

Links:

Training Mandys: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=256327

Pod Cultures: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...57&hl=tisbe

 

Yes I have SPS with the mandy, no idea who said you can't. A mandy doesn't need feeding like NPS corals do which keeps the water column nutrient dense or with phosphates. What the mandy eats is beneficial for the tank by itself.

[Kfmmartin19]

Somebody called?

Martin (can I call you Martin), the plan you have needs a little tweaking.

 

First, the mandarin you are considering should already be eating at the LFS. Ask them if it is, then make them feed the mandy in front of you. If you see it pecking at the food you have a winner. Make sure to bring home the foods it is eating. If it is live foods then put the fish on hold while you stock up on the necessary set up at home to feed the live foods it is eating.

 

I was lucky, the mandy I got was eating nutramar ova at the LFS.

 

Regarding training: you don't throw frozen at it to see if it will eat then go out and get live foods if it doesn't. Assuming the mandy is eating live foods at the store, you start off in the breeder net with live foods for it. Then slowly mix in frozen, gradually, a little more frozen every day till all it is eating is frozen.

 

If you get a mandy already eating frozen, that is awesome. BTW in live foods, they like baby brine shrimp, adult brine shrimp, live rotifers, copepods, blood worms. I had a pod culture for my mandy for about 5 months. He also loves Dr G's caviar.

 

Links:

Training Mandys: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=256327

Pod Cultures: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...57&hl=tisbe

 

Yes I have SPS with the mandy, no idea who said you can't. A mandy doesn't need feeding like NPS corals do which keeps the water column nutrient dense or with phosphates. What the mandy eats is beneficial for the tank by itself.

Sure Kat. U can call me whatever u want . Thank u for the advise! I'm not really gonna go to the LFS with a specific type of mandarin in mind, just will get the first I see eating. My LFS is good, and they gladly feed the fish when asked. The problem is, I think all they feed is enriched brine. And I'm sure they are just throwing that in and assuming the fish are eating. What do u think the odds are that one of their mandarins just happens to be eating that? If I can't find one that is eating...I should just keep looking?

How do u feed yours? Just target feed? How often?

Do u think a pod culture is necessary?

Thanks Kat!

[JoeDigiorgio]

I know you were addressing Kat earlier but I figured any help is good.

 

I started a thread a week ago regarding a very skinny female mandarin at my lfs that I wanted to save. Unfortunately she was sold before I had a chance to scoop her up but ironically, the store I work at was taking down the big display reef up front for renovations and the spotted mandarin inside needed a home. I didnt want him to be sold to someone who would let him starve so I brought him home and put him in my 10g reef. Its been almost a week since then and I have already gotten him from live brine out of a baster to frozen from the baster. I turn off all circulation and target feed him several times a day.

 

I never used a breeder net because I was afraid it would stress him too much and in tanks as small as ours, target feeding is almost always pretty simple. I hope this helps!

 

Joe

[lokipsl]

I had luck using garlic power mixed with the live brine my mandarin was eating at the lfs. Then I would soak frozen brine in garlic power and mix it with the live brine and mix in more frozen until he was eating all frozen brine. When he was eating all frozen brine I started to mix in some frozen mysis with it. By using the garlic power he seemed to be more ready to take foods possibly because he associated the garlic with food. The whole ordeal took about 2 months to really get him fattened up and chomping on mysis regularly. I did a lot of water changes and his only other tank mate was a clown goby, so not much competition at feeding time. I had him alive and healthy for almost 2 years but one day I came home and found him on the floor.

[altolamprologus]

I don't have time to read all the responses right now (I'm in class lol) so I apologize if anything I say is repetitive. My two mandarins were in my biocube with sps for a year and a half with no skinning with no problem (and I know you know how good the tank looked). You just have to keep up on water changes. You're on the right track and I can tell you've done a lot of research. Your training and feeding plan looks fine. As for target vs green mandarin, there is a slight difference in ease of training, but I successfully trained 6 out of 6 green mandarins so its really not that hard. You will still need to seed the tank with pods twice a year or so to make sure the mandarin still has some to graze on. Culturing the pods would be even better if you have the space. Check out my pod farm thread if you're interested in doing that.

[yoshii]

Also, female mandarins are easier to train

[altolamprologus]

Also, female mandarins are easier to train

 

+1 I forgot to add that but yeah females are a million times easier to train

[Kfmmartin19]

Hey, thanks for all the replies guys! Unfortunately I think I have a decision to make between a mandarin and a wrasse, as I am pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong) it would be impossible to have a mandarin with a pod-eating wrasse even if it was eating frozen? Mandarins are sweet but a wrasse is looking quite enticing. U think I could do both or do I have to choose?

[altolamprologus]

Hey, thanks for all the replies guys! Unfortunately I think I have a decision to make between a mandarin and a wrasse, as I am pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong) it would be impossible to have a mandarin with a pod-eating wrasse even if it was eating frozen? Mandarins are sweet but a wrasse is looking quite enticing. U think I could do both or do I have to choose?

 

You could do both. I have a long fin fairy wrasse with my mandarins. I did notice a sudden drop in the pod population after I added him but I just increased frozen food feelings to make up for it. If you kept a couple pod cultures to supplement you shouldn't have any problem keeping both.

[iPhone]

How to train?

The breeder net method. I have a breeder net and I plan to put the mandarin in the net and try to feed it frozen brine. If it doesn't go for that, I will introduce live brine to it. When I get it eatin live brine, I will slowly replace that with frozen brine, then mysis, then any other food

I want it to eat. After it is eating with gusto, I will release into tank.

 

thats going to add stress,try training it in a qt.

it will be easier because the mandarin will see the food a lot better.

if you are still going to train it with the breeder net method,i would advise you to put something thats black colored (maybe some black acrylic) on the bottom so the food will stand out more to the mandarin.

[Kfmmartin19]

You could do both. I have a long fin fairy wrasse with my mandarins. I did notice a sudden drop in the pod population after I added him but I just increased frozen food feelings to make up for it. If you kept a couple pod cultures to supplement you shouldn't have any problem keeping both.

When u say increase feedings...u think I could still get away with filling up a diner once a day? Perhaps with more food?...