Target Mandarin Advice

[allenspidey]

People are going to do what they want. Many of us have made the mistake once and didn't try again. Fish don't just die of crazy stuff like that very often. I've lost a few fish to dumb mistakes but I try not to make them again.

[mwp]

I may have posted this earlier, but IF you're lucky enough to get a mandarin that settles in well and takes to prepared foods, the next most likely cause of death (after spawning) for the average hobbyist's mandarin is JUMPING.

 

I've lost several Synchiropus species over the last two-three years. I have not lost a single one to starvation. Please see my earlier posts in this thread to understand how I can make such a claim.

 

More or less I lost two that were perfectly healthy and were killed by a medication I was running in the tank for some sick clowns. The medication claimed to be risky for certain FW fish, made no mention that it would KILL any scaleless SW fish. Let that be a lesson - killed a pair of Priolepis hipoliti too.

 

The remainder have all been found after jumping, or have been perfectly healthy and simply vanished overnight (assumed to have jumped). Having an open top tank did NOT help the jumping thing, so now I routinely place eggcrate on top of the tank anytime I'm not standing right there enjoying the open top! Even THAT didn't prevent one of my Red Scooters from ending up in the back filter chamber. I have rescued multiple jumpers and have even been standing right there once and saw it happen.

 

So why do they jump? It's part of the spawning rise, and in the shorter tanks, the fish tend to be right at the surface when they do their release. The release is followed immediately by the fish bolting from the scene, and once in a while a fish makes a wrong turn and goes up and away vs. making a mad dash back to the substrate.

 

Perhaps the best way to prevent jumping might be to not keep them in pairs, so they never spawn

 

FWIW,

 

Matt

[moonjellii]

I think the general consensus is that the bottom line is, they require a lot of care, attention, and knowledge. If you can't provide that and have some common sense, then maybe it's not such a good idea to have one. Besides, the display tanks at most LFSs have mandarins swimming around. We can always enjoy them there

[bb502cid]

Sorry if I was a bit harsh. I may be out of line.

 

I just hate to see such beautiful fish (which were likely captured wild) taken out of our ocean to die in captivity. I just feel like they deserve every bit of caution and care that you can possibly provide if you do choose to keep them, and putting one into a freshly cycled tank with no food supply just seems reckless.

 

Fish can take months to die of starvation. I certainly don't wish that upon any creature. I hope he survives, but as many others have reported, his chances are slim to none in his current tank. People don't warn you about this to make you mad, they do it for the good of the animal.

 

i understand everyones concern and i appreciate all feedback. but if people took time to read rather than jump to conclusions they would understand things more clearly. who said he has no food supply...the purpose of this thread was advice on what they eat and how to feed them. i offered a reccomendation in that both of my mandarins accept Tigger-Pods. so their food source is me feeding them and so far he seems to be fine as he eats daily.

 

im on NR for the same reason as everyone else. simply its a good community of people who want to help each other and i respect the opinions/advice i receive from everyone (and in this case the concern for a fish that i keep) but some people blow things out of proportion like 05xrunner - i feel your concern but why don't you read some posts before you assume and knock my intelligence. no food supply- apparently you missed the part where i said both of my mandarins accept Tigger-Pods which i manually feed them both daily. i also buy bagged pods for them when available at my lfs. im sure this still isn't acceptable to you but i'll keep doing what i do and you can do what you do.

[shift_9k]

I think the general consensus is that the bottom line is, they require a lot of care, attention, and knowledge.

 

 

 

Most LFSs have mandarins swimming around. We can always enjoy them there

 

1. You're right it requires all that and some luck in a nano.

 

2. If thats true why did you buy yours?

[stevelkaneval]

even IF he eats frozen foods/ its still not enough to keep him alive. go to any website that has the husbandry for these guys and they all say SUPPLEMENT.

[mwp]

even IF he eats frozen foods/ its still not enough to keep him alive. go to any website that has the husbandry for these guys and they all say SUPPLEMENT.

 

Frozen foods aren't enough to keep a fish alive?! Please explain the logic behind that. At times, I'm appauled by the lack of common sense applied to Mandarins, as well as people's points of view on them.

 

I'm going to have to defend a very conflicting position, which is that in order to be truly successful with Synchiropus sp. over the long term it's highly likely that they'll NEED to learn to accept at minimum enriched frozen brine shrimp, aka. "frozen foods". I'll also back up that if a mandarin can be trained onto frozen brine and frozen mysis, assuming including appropriate enrichments with vitamins and HUFAs, there is no reason why a mandarin should starve. The addition of accepting pellets virtually ensures a long term well rounded diet and is the icing on the cake. If Hippocampus (Seahorses) can be spawned and reared and maintained long term on nothing more than frozen mysis, well, I see no reason why this would not work for Synchiropus (Dragonettes).

 

Steve, I've spawned Mandarins & Red Scooters and have reared the larvae to 10-14 days and 6 days respectively. They are maintained in 24 gallon tanks successfully and are downright FAT and they all eat frozen foods and some take pellets. Steve, please do share what your experience is with Synchiropus and why you believe that frozen foods are "not enough"? In my experience, frozen foods seem to be plenty for most every marine fish that will accept them..

[KEdwards]

Frozen foods aren't enough to keep a fish alive?! Please explain the logic behind that. At times, I'm appauled by the lack of common sense applied to Mandarins, as well as people's points of view on them.

 

I'm going to have to defend a very conflicting position, which is that in order to be truly successful with Synchiropus sp. over the long term it's highly likely that they'll NEED to learn to accept at minimum enriched frozen brine shrimp, aka. "frozen foods". I'll also back up that if a mandarin can be trained onto frozen brine and frozen mysis, assuming including appropriate enrichments with vitamins and HUFAs, there is no reason why a mandarin should starve. The addition of accepting pellets virtually ensures a long term well rounded diet and is the icing on the cake. If Hippocampus (Seahorses) can be spawned and reared and maintained long term on nothing more than frozen mysis, well, I see no reason why this would not work for Synchiropus (Dragonettes).

 

Steve, I've spawned Mandarins & Red Scooters and have reared the larvae to 10-14 days and 6 days respectively. They are maintained in 24 gallon tanks successfully and are downright FAT and they all eat frozen foods and some take pellets. Steve, please do share what your experience is with Synchiropus and why you believe that frozen foods are "not enough"? In my experience, frozen foods seem to be plenty for most every marine fish that will accept them..

 

 

You seem to know what you're doing. Maybe you would be kind enough to write an article for this site, describing your success, with a firm warning to those who dont wish to go to the lengths you have to keep your fish healthy. I think everyone can agree that these threads would be tedious and frustrating for somebody to read who is researching mandarins. Just like a 15 year old kid, if you just tell them NO with no logical explanation, whatever it is, they're going to do it anyway. A good article written by someone who has had real success would be a tremendous help for everyone, I think. Then any mandarin threads can be constructive, detailed discussions.

[clifford513]

+1

I am not opposed to capable individuals keeping a mandarin. It has always been my stance that it could be done given provision of the dietary needs of the fish. That entails added time to feed daily, purchase of pods, inclusion of one or more refugia, proper water maintenance, and a good understanding of the biological processes of aquaria.