nova65ss Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 (edited) Just wondering he is constantly pecking at the rocks and what not but don't really see anything that he is eating? He will also around the same time every night peck at the same spot on the glass and all of his fins on the back stand up like he is seeing himself in the glass?? Thanks, Edited February 17, 2009 by nova65ss Quote Link to comment
chazde3 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Probably eating copepods or other tiny crustaceans. Quote Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Yes, it will know what it is eating. Do you have it trained on prepared foods? Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Working on it. I have read alot here on how it was being done with brine. I have only had him for 2 days and every LFS is out of brine because of cold weather in FL?? Quote Link to comment
StevieT Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 They do that when looking for food. It is not always actually finding a pod on every peck, just searching. Quote Link to comment
revaltion131 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 What Stevie said. If you're having a hard time finding brine, look into ways of buying eggs and hatching them yourself. It's not terribly complicated and there are a couple of good techniques outlined in some other recent Mandarin threads on these forums. I think it's like $25 for a good volume of decapsulated eggs. Quote Link to comment
StevieT Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I used live brine but my mandarin went after the frozen food pretty quickly. I used an acrylic tube and placed it in there. With it's normal pickings it got interested in the frozen very quickly. Another good trick is to place it in a breeder box with the frozen. It pretty much instantaly trains the fish since they are always pecking as you see. Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 (edited) I used live brine but my mandarin went after the frozen food pretty quickly. I used an acrylic tube and placed it in there. With it's normal pickings it got interested in the frozen very quickly. Another good trick is to place it in a breeder box with the frozen. It pretty much instantaly trains the fish since they are always pecking as you see. Excuse my newness but what is a breeder box? And if you don't mind could you elaborate on the acrylic tube method? Thank you, Edited February 17, 2009 by nova65ss Quote Link to comment
revaltion131 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Go to a generic chain pet store that deals with freshwater at the very least (Petsmart comes to mind) and look for breeder boxes in the dry goods. It's basically an acrylic box with appropriate vents for water flow that usually hooks to the side of an aquarium. It will both confine the Mandarin to a set area so it can't choose the rocks over the food you're feeding it, and it keeps other fish from stealing its food. Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 I imagine catching him now would be pretty difficult? I had to basically strip the tank a couple of weeks ago to get a few shrimp out. Quote Link to comment
SpankythePyro Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 start a hatchery with a small 5g aga, shouldn't be too difficult... you could also try trapping him, it would be stressful but less stressful than a net or trying to get him in a partial vaccum. This kinda wants to make me train a dragonet to eat frozen... Quote Link to comment
petkingdom619 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 another uninformed noob killing our ocean. thanks 1 Quote Link to comment
StevieT Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Excuse my newness but what is a breeder box? And if you don't mind could you elaborate on the acrylic tube method? Thank you, Vids of my training Quote Link to comment
Nor_Cal_Cuber Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I found it easy to get mine to eat frozen brine, Hikari Frozen Spirula Brine Shrimp Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Was that aimed towards me???? Quote Link to comment
BKtomodachi Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Was that aimed towards me???? He was just making a reference to the fact that you purchased a fish that requires a large investment of time, or an enormous tank with tons of live rock, and that you didn't do much research beforehand. I'm no too upset about it, as you seem to be taking some steps to give the fish proper care. Quote Link to comment
Eole00 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 (edited) i trained my scooter to eat frozen mysis by taking a small closed end plastic cup, cutting a hole about his size in the cup and putting a bunch of mysis in the cup. the other fish should be big enough to not get into the cup with mysis in it and the dragonet will find it and have no competition. make sure you change out the cup frequently or it'll foul your water. http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...mp;ppuser=13200 ( visual aid) in the bottom left corner there's a screw cap cup with 1/4 of the base cut out. within 30 min of having the cup in the tank, the fish was eating mysis. i've trained a mandarin to do the same thing with the same method Edited February 17, 2009 by Eole00 Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 What an idiot now I am killing the ocean?? If it wasn't me it would of been someone else??? Comments like that are just ridiculous get a freakin life! My wife bought it as a present and I had no idea she was even doing it. I wasn't thrilled about it either because I had read about the care they needed. Vids of my training Thanks I will try some frozen in the meantime and see what happens. Quote Link to comment
Nor_Cal_Cuber Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 What an idiot now I am killing the ocean?? If it wasn't me it would of been someone else??? Comments like that are just ridiculous get a freakin life! My wife bought it as a present and I had no idea she was even doing it. I wasn't thrilled about it either because I had read about the care they needed. Thanks I will try some frozen in the meantime and see what happens. People just love to pop off here. Take it with a grain of salt. Quote Link to comment
BKtomodachi Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 What an idiot now I am killing the ocean?? If it wasn't me it would of been someone else??? Once again let me say I'm pleased that you're willing to put in the effort to properly care for the fish- but it is well known that the "if not me, then someone else" argument isn't really valid. Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Once again let me say I'm pleased that you're willing to put in the effort to properly care for the fish- but it is well known that the "if not me, then someone else" argument isn't really valid. What is not valid about it? If that was the case every single person here is destroying the ocean? You can't tell me every person here has tank bred everything? Quote Link to comment
BKtomodachi Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 They are referencing how most people who purchase a fish like a dragonette will invariably kill it quickly, to run out and promptly purchase another one, or something else. So, they are encouraging the collection of difficult species in a sense. Many people will say "If I didn't buy it at the store, someone else would have", which is true- but the store would have lower demand for these items, and therefore less would be required from the distributor. Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 21, 2009 Author Share Posted February 21, 2009 So all of my LFS's were still out of live brine on Wednesday so I got some frozen just to make myself feel better. I turned off all the pumps and squirted some down near the sand where he kind of hangs most of the time. The second day he was eating the frozen and I watched him eat at least 6 today. I am very pleased he is eating and talking with my LFS guy who I have the most faith in around here said I will be fine with what I have as long as I keep dosing the phyto every day. I also noticed a huge fire/ bristleworm come out for the feast this afternoon and he looked like a monster too. How big do these things get and will they hurt any of my good guys? Thanks, Quote Link to comment
jonrx Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 Since you have him eating brine, you should get Mysis shrimp and try that. Brine shrimp is equivalent to feeding the fish cupcakes every day. Quote Link to comment
nova65ss Posted February 21, 2009 Author Share Posted February 21, 2009 10-4 yeah that is what I was told also. I am going to start trying that in a day or so. Thanks, Quote Link to comment
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