ORA Mandarin Not Eating

[O-man21]

I brought a blue mandarin home from MACNA about 3 weeks ago. I have yet to see him eat. I have hundreds of copepods on my glass, but I have never seen him even peck at the rocks. I have tried cyclop-eeze, enriched brine shrimp, enriched brine shrimp with vitality, and with garlic. I'm curious if you know of any other way I can get him to eat. I have no access to Nutramar OVA unfortunately, which is what ORA recommends.

[JaneG]

I brought a blue mandarin home from MACNA about 3 weeks ago. I have yet to see him eat. I have hundreds of copepods on my glass, but I have never seen him even peck at the rocks. I have tried cyclop-eeze, enriched brine shrimp, enriched brine shrimp with vitality, and with garlic. I'm curious if you know of any other way I can get him to eat. I have no access to Nutramar OVA unfortunately, which is what ORA recommends.

Is it in the tank alone or are there tankmates?

[roly01]

dont get your hopes up. i purchased one of these cute little suckers and had the same results. saw him pecking on the rocks at night once in a while, but barely ever when my tank is flooded with pods. tried feeding him pellets, frozen mysis/brine, even tried live brine with negative results. ora is false advertising saying these little guys are trained is pure bs. after a month of him not eating and getting skinnier i returned him to the LFS

[JaneG]

dont get your hopes up. i purchased one of these cute little suckers and had the same results. saw him pecking on the rocks at night once in a while, but barely ever when my tank is flooded with pods. tried feeding him pellets, frozen mysis/brine, even tried live brine with negative results. ora is false advertising saying these little guys are trained is pure bs. after a month of him not eating and getting skinnier i returned him to the LFS

I don't doubt that some of them won't eat (perhaps from shipping stress), but

certainly shows they will eat with gusto down at ORA- they're captive bred, so they've been eating prepared food for a while. I would assume that most of them won't eat due to competitive tankmates. Was yours kept with any quick eaters? The poor thing probably starved after you returned him.

[O-man21]

he's with a pair of clowns and a cleaner shrimp, none of which bother him for food. I tried spot feeding the cyclop-eeze, the brine shrimp, and even New Life Spectrum Small fish pellets, all with no luck.

[JaneG]

he's with a pair of clowns and a cleaner shrimp, none of which bother him for food. I tried spot feeding the cyclop-eeze, the brine shrimp, and even New Life Spectrum Small fish pellets, all with no luck.

Definitely shoot ORA an email and post on their facebook if you can. I have a feeling they're going to tell you it just needs to feel more comfortable, though..their main diet at ORA is the pellet food oddly enough but supposedly they love nutramar ova. Also try capelin roe- you can buy it at most Asian supermarkets (it's used to make sushi).

[Criley7]

I also had an ORA blue mandarin. I tried to spot feed Nutramar OVA with no luck. My tank is full of pods, and I also tried other frozen foods and spectrum pellets which is everything ORA supposedly trains them on. But after about 2 months he has died sadly. Another thing with these "trained" mandarins, they seem very lazy and very sluggish. I think I would have had better luck training a wild one for myself.

[wartskin]

Another thing with these "trained" mandarins, they seem very lazy and very sluggish. I think I would have had better luck training a wild one for myself.

I agree with ya their

[mikel]

ORA has never posted any evidence of their blue mandarins eating....why? I find that very suspicious.

[cadre]

dont get your hopes up. i purchased one of these cute little suckers and had the same results. saw him pecking on the rocks at night once in a while, but barely ever when my tank is flooded with pods. tried feeding him pellets, frozen mysis/brine, even tried live brine with negative results. ora is false advertising saying these little guys are trained is pure bs. after a month of him not eating and getting skinnier i returned him to the LFS

 

 

ORA has never posted any evidence of their blue mandarins eating....why? I find that very suspicious.

This is a large company we're talking about. They're not cheating you out of your money. The ORA mandarins typically eat quite well but they also get stressed easily and they revert back to eating pods if they are given the opportunity. Most of the mandarins you'll get from ORA are tiny, and it used to be they came from bare tanks. There's a lot of stress involved with moving to a fully established tank with tank mates. Not to mention he was probably transported to MACNA and then transported again (can you say stressful!).

 

Give him some time, he is probably just stressed. Try capelin roe if you can get your hands on it though.

[coachtuk]

My spotted ORA started eating pods from the glass as soon as he got in the tank. He eats algae off the sand and the rocks all day. I guess I'm lucky.

[roly01]

This is a large company we're talking about. They're not cheating you out of your money. The ORA mandarins typically eat quite well but they also get stressed easily and they revert back to eating pods if they are given the opportunity. Most of the mandarins you'll get from ORA are tiny, and it used to be they came from bare tanks. There's a lot of stress involved with moving to a fully established tank with tank mates. Not to mention he was probably transported to MACNA and then transported again (can you say stressful!).

 

Give him some time, he is probably just stressed. Try capelin roe if you can get your hands on it though.

 

i know of at least 9 people from my locals from the reef club here in florida that have purchased the ora mandarins as far back as a year ago. the only one that has survived till now has been the one who purchased one from one of the original batches they released when they first came out. im not saying they do or they dont train them, but apparently the second they get purchased they forget how to eat. ive even had a LFS tell me 90% of the ones that come in wont eat anything they give them except pods. i was able to train a regular untraind mandarin to eat frozen in a little over a month and couldnt get my ora to eat anything but pods after a month of trying. if i was able to get a wild one to eat frozen you would think it would be a little easier to get a trained one to eat do you think?

 

My spotted ORA started eating pods from the glass as soon as he got in the tank. He eats algae off the sand and the rocks all day. I guess I'm lucky.

 

they dont eat algae, what your seeing him eat is pods

[coachtuk]

they dont eat algae, what your seeing him eat is pods

 

Thanks. He picks at the rocks and he sifts sand from his mouth so I assumed. I need to make sure the pods are plentiful. Are there a certain kind you suggest?

[mikel]

I have a spotted and a blue mandarin from ORA, and they have been happy and fat with me for a year and some now. I am simply noting that ORA has never been able to present any evidence that their BLUE mandarins are eating frozen like their now famous spotted mandarins all devouring the OVA. Why is that the case? If they cannot prove their Blue mandarin eating frozen, should they be selling them? Mine is one of the earliest ones, and he eats only because he learned from the spotted one.

[johnmaloney]

In a pinch, live bloodworms are a good protein and fat source for your mandarin. They will eat them without training, you can find them at stores that specialize in FW fish usually. Not as good as pods, but much easier to feed and come by, at least around here. Hope he starts eating for you!

[jedidad]

you can order the nutramar ova from liveaquaria.com. the shipping is a little pricey but my mandarin loved the stuff from the first time i fed it some. i've seen a video of ORA's blue mandarin babies eating the ova somewhere online. i can't remember where though.

[wartskin]

Thanks. He picks at the rocks and he sifts sand from his mouth so I assumed. I need to make sure the pods are plentiful. Are there a certain kind you suggest?

Live Tigger pods

[mikel]

"i've seen a video of ORA's blue mandarin babies eating the ova somewhere online."...

 

No, those are spotted mandarins, not blues. There is no video whatsoever of blues eating anythig from ORA. The spotted are much much easier to raise....I am surprised that ORA is even selling the blues as "frozen trained", given how difficult they are to raise. Unless I see evidence that these little guys eat well, like the spotted, the blues should never be marketed as such. Like I said, I have one of each, and I know how hard it was to get my blue to eat, and it was really my ORA spotted mandarin who "re-trained" it. This is very unethical on ORA's part. .

[roly01]

That's exactly how I feel mike, I don't think it's rite that such a big company like Ora is doing something like this. If anything they should at least give a guideline on how to feed them ( if there is one never seen it) they are selling these guys at double normal price and most people are getting the same results as if they would have bought a wild one. Just to make it clear I'm speaking of the blue mandarin not the spotted

[JaneG]

That's exactly how I feel mike, I don't think it's rite that such a big company like Ora is doing something like this. If anything they should at least give a guideline on how to feed them ( if there is one never seen it) they are selling these guys at double normal price and most people are getting the same results as if they would have bought a wild one. Just to make it clear I'm speaking of the blue mandarin not the spotted

I've seen non-ORA youtube videos of ORA blue mandarins eating pellet and the like. As I said, ORA really has faith in their livestock. Email them or post on their facebook and they should help.

[roly01]

Dont get me wrong I think Ora is a great company and have never had anything negative to say about them before my problems with my mandarin. I just feel like they need to do a little more on there part because as you can see this is a wide spread issue not just happening to 1 or 2 people.

[cadre]

I've seen non-ORA youtube videos of ORA blue mandarins eating pellet and the like. As I said, ORA really has faith in their livestock. Email them or post on their facebook and they should help.

+1

 

I'm not saying ORA is doing everything right or they are a perfect company, but you guys are accusing them of something you really don't know about. No offense but how do you know they aren't eating perfectly well at ORA's facilities? The fact that they aren't releasing videos really doesn't mean anything. ORA got a little over-ambitious and started releasing mandarins before they were really ready. I'm sure they are still doing that but I don't doubt that they are eating. I've never had one of their mandarins come in as skinny as the wild caught counterparts. ORA's demand for these is much higher than what they can supply. I have no doubt that there are some corners cut on getting the fish to market but I don't think that the training thing is one.

 

As I said, these mandarins are really easy to untrain. A lot of lfs get them in and throw them in one of their pod heavy tanks. Well what do you think they do then? They start eating pods and refusing prepared foods. Then you get them and another thread gets created and more people start flaming.

 

I stick to my belief that the op's fish is stressed (and possibly untrained). I'd like to hear how big he is because I think a lot of this has to do with the mandarins being sold very young.

[peasofme]

you can order ova online. possibly cheapest on ebay. or see if a lfs can get it for u

[roly01]

+1

 

I'm not saying ORA is doing everything right or they are a perfect company, but you guys are accusing them of something you really don't know about. No offense but how do you know they aren't eating perfectly well at ORA's facilities? The fact that they aren't releasing videos really doesn't mean anything. ORA got a little over-ambitious and started releasing mandarins before they were really ready. I'm sure they are still doing that but I don't doubt that they are eating. I've never had one of their mandarins come in as skinny as the wild caught counterparts. ORA's demand for these is much higher than what they can supply. I have no doubt that there are some corners cut on getting the fish to market but I don't think that the training thing is one.

 

As I said, these mandarins are really easy to untrain. A lot of lfs get them in and throw them in one of their pod heavy tanks. Well what do you think they do then? They start eating pods and refusing prepared foods. Then you get them and another thread gets created and more people start flaming.

 

I stick to my belief that the op's fish is stressed (and possibly untrained). I'd like to hear how big he is because I think a lot of this has to do with the mandarins being sold very young.

 

No offense taken, but there is certainly a problem with the way ORA is handling this part of there business. i dont doubt that ora trains to there mandarins to eat food other then pods, but apparently they are doing something wrong. whether its not training them for a sufficient enough time or its releasing them for sale to early idk. now just because ora gets the little mandarins, places them in completely empty cubes and gives them pellets for a couple of weeks till they begin to eat it, doesnt mean they are completely trained. apparently somewhere along there process there is a flaw, other wise i dont think they would be getting such negative results from customers. i just feel like they are being careless in the way they are doing there mandarin part of business, and allot of mandarins have died from it. every fish goes through stress whether its a mandarin or a damsel, but you dont see topics blowing up everywhere about my damsel isnt eating. i understand that analogy isnt the best but if they where trained they should be able to eat somewhat whether under stress or not. the blue mandarin i recieved was also very smalll maybe and inch/ inch and a half no bigger. could the problem be because of how young they are? maybe, but if so ORA is still responsible for allowing them to leave there facilities at such a young age

[mikel]

No need to argue here. If ORA has that level of confidence in their Blues, then post a video of the little ones gobbling up the OVA like the one for the Spotted that they have. Otherwise, they have NO PROOF, and plenty of evidence on the other side from real hobbyists.

 

My blue is alive, but I know many many who were not so lucky. If ORA has proof, then by all means show us. I will be posting this to ORA.