Training & Feeding a Mandarin

[fellbeast]

Cool keep up the good work!

[Nemo Niblets]

IMO, most people in this thread hate the fact that Khayman got a Mandarin. As a beginner I would never get one, and I would never recommend one to a beginner. However, he is obviously not going to give up on it. Most people are telling him it's going to die, that he's going to make it lose it's life pointlessly. Well if it's going to die the way he is doing it, why not help him out and give him advice and support? I don't think it was a good idea for him to get a Mandarin but it's still alive and I hope he does a good job keeping it alive and healthy.

[StevieT]

No offense, I'm not the smartest man in the world, but feel I am intelligent. It can take a long time for a fish to starve, and six months is possible.

 

Mandarins have a higher metabolism than other fish, they never stop moving and need to eat quite a bit of food to create energy. A mandarin without food for six months would be a mandarin that was eaten by a CUC, picked away, and bones dissolving in the sand.

[ribbie]

Looks good to me khayman! So, I'm curious. Are you still using your pod condos? How many bottles of Zoo2 have you gone through?

[fellbeast]

Mandarins have a higher metabolism than other fish, they never stop moving and need to eat quite a bit of food to create energy. A mandarin without food for six months would be a mandarin that was eaten by a CUC, picked away, and bones dissolving in the sand.

 

ahh good point, thanks StevieT

[SpankythePyro]

lmao I like it when he is sittin on the bottle!

 

I have mine eating bloodworms & mysis... he comes right up to the top of the tank

[D3monic]

I like her colors, She is still pretty skinyy though. What are you enriching the food you feed her? How often you you feed? I would feed her twice a day food enriched with either selcon or brightwells AminoOmega. I see that her sides are still sunken in and her face is kind of skinny. Her body shoudl be atleast as big around as her head. Green mandarins dont have a tendency to get as fat as spotted mandarins but she is definatly on the skinny side still. Mine have rolls if they bend and are more of a torpedo shape than a hourglass. Its good to see that your trying hard. You shouldnt have to keep adding pods to the tank. Just feed phyto everyonce in a while and you should see a decent explosion. I havnt added pods to my tank or fuge since initial establishment. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

[Khayman]

Looks good to me khayman! So, I'm curious. Are you still using your pod condos? How many bottles of Zoo2 have you gone through?

 

Hello Ribbie

 

I do still use the Pod Condos, they make a excellent hiding place and a breeding ground that fish and inverts can not get into. I have only ever needed to use 1 bottle. I use to have a Pod culture but it became pointless. My 24G with about 30 - 34lbs of live rock seems sufficient for the pods to have a continuous population of pods.

 

Please keep in mind however that my Mandarin also eats frozen, she will even take a pellet if it is sitting on the live rock or the substrate when she swims by. The frozen she eats is Mysis, Brine, Cyclops, and Daphnia shrimps.

 

If you or anyone else has any other questions for me please feel free to ask. I will take this opportunity to say that I am not an authority on the subject of Mandarin keeping but I am doing my best to learn. It has been 7 months or so now and the little fish is my favourite. She is beautiful and very active. Except when she sleeps. When a mandarin is sleeping they are motionless and all their vibrant coloration pales. They almost look like they are dead and pallid in colouration.

 

Best Regards

Thank you for reading

 

Khayman

[Khayman]

I like her colors, She is still pretty skinyy though. What are you enriching the food you feed her? How often you you feed? I would feed her twice a day food enriched with either selcon or brightwells AminoOmega. I see that her sides are still sunken in and her face is kind of skinny. Her body shoudl be atleast as big around as her head. Green mandarins dont have a tendency to get as fat as spotted mandarins but she is definatly on the skinny side still. Mine have rolls if they bend and are more of a torpedo shape than a hourglass. Its good to see that your trying hard. You shouldnt have to keep adding pods to the tank. Just feed phyto everyonce in a while and you should see a decent explosion. I havnt added pods to my tank or fuge since initial establishment. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

 

Hello D3monic

 

I would love to be able to feed her twice a day and I have tried. She only wants to eat frozen at night as odd as this seems. Every night between 9pm and 10pm she swims into her little jar and waits until I feed her. My Girl Friend thinks it is adorable. I do however have allot of pods in the tank that she constantly grazes on. I agree that she is not as robust as other Mandarins I have seen but she does appear happy and healthy.

 

In my research I have found 3 distinctly different mandarins Green, Red, and Spotted. All 3 seem to have distinctive differences. The green is the largest in the group as far as I have been able to find. The Red is smaller than the green and has thicker red markings. The Spotted is by far the fattest they also seem less active and like to perch this would explain why they are fatter in my opinion.

 

Best Regards

Thank you for reading

 

Khayman

[Phyto4life]

I like the pod pile cage looking thing seems neat I have a large pod pile behind my rockwork with a power head going over it on the left side behind the rocks blowing to the right I'm going to add that to the right side to increase the pile a tad

[Sahin]

Khayman, well it seems as though this mandarin is surviving and possibly wil survive long term. I suppose I would say that it is not thriving though.

 

I am setting up a 28G NC and I really doubt I would consider buying a madarin (maybe perhaps in a years time and there was a better/more substantial way to feed these somehow). But otherwise no, I wouldnt.

 

Can you post some hi res / larger size pictures? I just wanted to see the fish closeup. I had a mandarin in my old 90G tank. Beautiful fishes, but oh so hard to keep unless one has a large aquarium.

 

Wish you good luck with your fish.

[Khayman]

I will try and borrow or rent a camera that can take a better picture. I will keep you posted on the progress of the pictures.

[Khayman]

I am closing on the one year mark with the Mandarin and she is still alive and well. She is actually bulging with eggs I beleive.

[zook]

That's seem like a lot of trouble. Even though it was a long process, I took very simple steps:

 

1) Train

 

2) Breed

 

3) Harvest

 

All in a 20g shallow with 8" of vertical water height.

[Gatotsu77]

I spent an hour this morning reading through this thread... it still amazes me that no one brought up this quote in the earlier pages.

I posted this earlier on another reefes thread and I feel it has relivance here also. Please only give advice if you have the proper experience of evidence to back-up your claims.

That aside, I am glad to see that the fish is still alive and presumably doing well. Given the context of the first few pages of this thread, I was highly skeptical as well. Perhaps, as you've now got over a year's experience with this fish, you could thoroughly document your experiences, so that we have a thread more focused on proper Green Mandarin husbandry, as opposed to calling each other out at every turn. (a lot of which I do not blame the posters for... I am very much the same way about the fish I've kept and have experience with)

 

I'm also curious to see a few new photos of the fish, full tank shots, shots of your pod/brine culturing equipment, etc. Anything to help the cause for these beautiful fish.

[TomBomb]

I just read this whole theard this evening. I am interested in seeing some new pics of the fish. Glad to see that she made it thru everything. I have to give you kudos on taking all the criticism and not giving up.