wamb0010 Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 I just put my goby's in last night at 9PM CT, and they stayed out in the open for the longest time. Now I can't find them, they are crazy hidden but i know the entrance to their cave. I take this as a good sign. I am optimistic that they will eat tomorrow. I just put a little frozen bloodworm in their cave entrance to try and see if the piece disappears. The fans are so low that it isn't moving it at all. I gotta say, this is the first time ive fed bloodworm and my basslet went BERZERKER. He loves it. Kinda gross stuff but i'm hopeful with this stuff Link to comment
Jay-sun Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 ORA aquacultured mandarin were listed on SWF yesterday for sale. ORA released them on July 5th according to my LFS. Heres the link http://www.saltwaterfish.com/ORA-Aquacultu...ted_p_3659.html Tells what they were eating at ORA. Jason Link to comment
smashbeat Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I trained mine myself to eat It is in my tank since june 2009, so I saved about $75 lol Wholesale price from ora should be around $35-40 Link to comment
Rick Shaw Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 To everyone doubting the LFS just shut the #### up. These are definitely Ora, we have 2 LFS's at least that put out word for availability last week if memory serves. These are honest people that care about the hobby and take excellent care of the customers. If the Mandarin's wont feed its on the OP for feeding the wrong food (no offense OP) or Ora for stretching the truth. Link to comment
lhernandez86 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Sorry guys wasnt trying to throw this thread off and wasnt trying to single out the store you bought them from. Just saying that it could happen at any lfs...and like any fish you can always make sure it eats frozen before you buy it to make sure... Link to comment
Dani3d Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Can you garantee this at 100%? What I beleive is that if those fish are trained on pellet and frozen, they should eat pellet and frozen at least after 2 days would be a good time to start. Geeezz..my wild mandarins started to eat pods right away on liverock when I got them and judging from the amount of slime my male was producing in the bag, he was really really stressed. When I got home he was not moving, not breathing, totaly in shock and full of slime. He was belly up in the bag and not breathing at all so I thought he was dead. Can't beleive they get anymore stresses than this. yeah he had wrong food, but they should have picked at it at least and they should definitly be picking at live rock and be hungry. To everyone doubting the LFS just shut the #### up. These are definitely Ora, we have 2 LFS's at least that put out word for availability last week if memory serves. These are honest people that care about the hobby and take excellent care of the customers. If the Mandarin's wont feed its on the OP for feeding the wrong food (no offense OP) or Ora for stretching the truth. Link to comment
wamb0010 Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 If the Mandarin's wont feed its on the OP for feeding the wrong food (no offense OP) or Ora for stretching the truth. No offense taken. I just want these guys to live and thrive. I think one of the main things everyone is overlooking, for obvious reasons with these fish, is that it is only day 2 or 3 after leaving ORA. At first I was feeding formula one pellets and frozen mysis. This was not on the prescribed list below. I have since went out and bought some Hikari Baby Brine Shrimp and Ocean Nutrition Blood worms. I can't get a visual on these guys right now but I have been target feeding some bloodworms into the entrance of the cave. Can anyone give me a play by play on how to prepare teh frozen baby brine shrimp cubes. There is no mass to this stuff. Once the cube melts, it is basically pink water. "finely chopped Hikari Blood Worms, Nutramar Ova (prawn eggs), fish roe, and baby brine shrimp. They are also accustomed to eating New Life SPECTRUM Small Fish Formula pellets." Link to comment
wamb0010 Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 yeah he had wrong food, but they should have picked at it at least and they should definitly be picking at live rock and be hungry. Thats the only thing that is worrying me. The see the food for sure and It is like they had 0 interest. Mine litterally sat on a pile of mysis for at leat 5 minutes Flinster had this problem too with Rods food and the recommended spectrum pellets. I still have faith. If it was just me, I would attribute it to 100% my error, but since there is one more who is having identical issues, it is a little bit more concerning. I think it is hard to judge the fishes stress. Unlike your Mandarin, these guys probably haven't even seen live rock before. They are also extremely small. Link to comment
zook Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I say give them some time to adjust. In my experience, while my wild-caught Green Mandarins were easily eating frozen mysis in a bare tank during training, it took them 2-3 weeks after being introduced into the display tank before they started eating and going after frozen mysis. Link to comment
Dani3d Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 If they are so small, then maybe they sell them too young? It would probably be wise to wait a little more and sell them a little bigger. One thing is really nice with ORA fish is that you know for sure that they are young. With wild cought mandarin, especialy large males, you never know if they are already 3 years old and on their last leg. Thats the only thing that is worrying me. The see the food for sure and It is like they had 0 interest. Mine litterally sat on a pile of mysis for at leat 5 minutes Flinster had this problem too with Rods food and the recommended spectrum pellets. I still have faith. If it was just me, I would attribute it to 100% my error, but since there is one more who is having identical issues, it is a little bit more concerning. I think it is hard to judge the fishes stress. Unlike your Mandarin, these guys probably haven't even seen live rock before. They are also extremely small. Link to comment
DaveFason Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I picked mine up yesterday. It picked at rocks but looked at pellets and blood worms but nothing yet. I tried this morning again and nada. I am going to buy some Reef Nutrition product today and I will hopefully have pictures too. They are amazing looking! -Dave Link to comment
FishEyeAquaculture Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Saw two at my LFS here in the Tampa area today. Little guys, maybe 2" in length. Chowing down on small pellets. Link to comment
CJO Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 The one at my LFS was eating pellets the first hour he got them in. CJ Link to comment
dday80 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 wamb - I would consider qt'ing these guys. I think this would lessen your stress and theirs. It would be easier to monitor them also. Perhaps the stress of a full blown reef vs. BB glass tank (I assume they were in) is a little much after being shipped across country. Its easy to setup and you wouldn't be polluting your main tank trying to feed. I just had a dinoflagellate outbreak from overfeeding. I plan on buying one and it will be in QT for at least 6 weeks before intorduction into the tank. I learned about not QT'ing the hard way. Link to comment
DaveFason Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Just to make sure. I am using Spectrum 1mm pellets. Are there any smaller ones? -Dave Link to comment
fiction101 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Just to make sure. I am using Spectrum 1mm pellets. Are there any smaller ones? -Dave I use the new life spectrum small fish formula which is .5mm pellets. Link to comment
wamb0010 Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 wamb - I would consider qt'ing these guys. I think this would lessen your stress and theirs. It would be easier to monitor them also. Perhaps the stress of a full blown reef vs. BB glass tank (I assume they were in) is a little much after being shipped across country. Its easy to setup and you wouldn't be polluting your main tank trying to feed. I just had a dinoflagellate outbreak from overfeeding. I plan on buying one and it will be in QT for at least 6 weeks before intorduction into the tank. I learned about not QT'ing the hard way. I agree, your probably right, but I don't have a QT set up and I feel like i'm committed already Link to comment
basser1 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 BTW, here's an article from Reef-Builders. It shows a pic of a pair of ORA spotted mandarins, a male and a female. May want to use this pic as a referrence? http://reefbuilders.com/2010/07/09/captive...t-money-mouths/ Link to comment
wamb0010 Posted July 10, 2010 Author Share Posted July 10, 2010 Anyone have any luck with feeding? I can't be certain but I thought I saw one of mine eat a little something... Maybe I was seeing things Link to comment
MNReefCouple Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 In the last year our store has gone to LA to hand pick corals, China to foster relationships directly with suppliers. We literally go personally to the opposite side of the world to find the best livestock for our customers(how many stores do you know do this). We are the only LFS in MN (that I know of) that has a QT and QT's most all of our animals that come in (there are exceptions of course) most of our fish receive a FW dip and a week in QT prior to moving them to the sales floor. We feed our entire store live foods daily. Trust me when I say this is not your typical LFS. We are all passionate hobbyists first. We even have a library, provide space and tables for local frag swapping. And lets not forget our free raffles food fun and prizes. Our customers always come first And we actually mean it. Link to comment
Nemo Niblets Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Anyone have any luck with feeding? I can't be certain but I thought I saw one of mine eat a little something... Maybe I was seeing things Do you have any feeding pipettes? The fish will be stressed so don't expect them to eat as avidly as they do in ORA's aquaculture tanks yet. They're probably used to hands feeding them, but what I would do to get them used to their surroundings and new life would be to wait for them to come out of the cave, and let them get used to it. Eventually, thaw some of the frozen they are used to/feed pellets. Don't put the feeding tube too close to them, just drop the food down in front of them, or blow it towards them. Even if they don't eat it, they're getting used to the feeding tube. Eventually, just bring the tube closer and closer.. I wouldn't be worried about them not being able to get enough food in your tank for the time being. I bought a full grown, skinny male mandarin in my biocube 29 and it was 3 weeks before he took anything I prepared. He sustained himself off the pods for that long, so I'm sure your small mandarins will be fine w/o you feeding them for that long if not longer. Link to comment
wamb0010 Posted July 11, 2010 Author Share Posted July 11, 2010 I've been using a turkey baster which I assume to be very similiar to a feeding pipette. I removed the small rock to their entrance of their cave so I can better view them. One of them is much more active and far less reclusive. He is actually trying to swim a little bit. I still haven't gotten strong confirmation on one fo them eating. I have been overfeeding and I admit it. I have been doing 10% water changes every other day. When I checked my param's yesterday, it was all 0's. Anyone else out there having luck feeding? Link to comment
skimmerdude Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 How long have you had the fish without them eating? About 10 years ago I ordered a mated pair of true percula clown fish through the mail. They did not eat for about 10 days after their arrival, we tried everything, eventually they started to eat on their own, but it was stressful until they started eating. I imagine that if strong eater like a clown fish will go on a hunger strike after being shipped mandarins could be even worse. These clown fish were wild, and still to this day they will not eat anything that is hard such as pellets. The fish are still alive and doing really well 10 years later. Good luck, John Link to comment
basser1 Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 These clown fish were wild, and still to this day they will not eat anything that is hard such as pellets. The fish are still alive and doing really well 10 years later. Good luck, John You've had your clowns for 10 years? WOW! that must be a record for keeping captive fish in a tank! Link to comment
skimmerdude Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 You've had your clowns for 10 years? WOW! that must be a record for keeping captive fish in a tank! Yeah, I don't want to hijack the thread, but the setup is really simple, basically live rock and lights, and a CPR backpack skimmer. There are about 9 bulb tipped anemone each about 6 inches across in the tank, all split off from one near dead quarter sized anemone that started out totally bleached that my mom purchased because she "felt sorry for it." She paid $10 for it, also over 10 years ago. This tank is basically my mothers now, she WAY over feeds the anemone and has a HUGE hair algae problem, the the fish and anemone seem super healthy. She almost never does water changes, unless I am coming to visit and does not supplement with anything. It seems to work Link to comment
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