Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[JoeDigiorgio]

I don't even remember if I told you guys but I snagged a male spotted mandarin on Tuesday of last week. He took me to three mandarins, two spotted and a red splendidus male. Well my little (not really though) girl wasted no time and only took like 5 days to get busy. Right now I have about 100 eggs in an improvised kreisel clipped to the display tank. Right now I'm collecting pictures of it all so I can either have the wonderful Kat post them or I can get ahold of someone on here who can offer me technical support because this is pissing me off now. It's not like I don't know how to post pics...

 

Anyway I'll keep you guys posted either way

[AMAYEU]

I have not been spot feeding frozen to my mandarin for about a month or so. He's been eating about 4-5 pellets each feeding.

 

Its great he's on pellets, but was wondering how healthy is it having him only eating pellets?

 

Trying to figure out how much I should mix up his diet. He also eats mysis and cyclopleeze.

[JoeDigiorgio]

If I had a mandarin that would happily eat frozen foods, I'd never even waste space in his stomach with pellets. There isn't a pellet on the market I've found that comes close to the natural diet requirements of these fish. Even the best spectrum pellets have a ton of stuff in them that I can't see being at all useful to mandarins and when you're talking about a fish with specific requirements and a very fast metabolism, dietary deficiencies can happen fast.

 

I doubt you'd ever visibly see the results of nutritional deficiencies but my personal belief is that fish should live their natural lifespans in captivity. I have heard many anecdotal accounts of mandarins eating pellets and yet they only lived several months or a year while I've heard a lot of stories of 4, 6 and even 9 year old mandarins that are only fed frozen foods such as mysis and ground table shrimp. Now that I went on that anti pellet rant, I will go ahead and say that realistically adding pellets into the mix can't hurt.

 

Variety is the key to anything. Be happy your fish is open to new foods but don't turn around and let that fact screw him out of complete nutrition.

 

In other news, the eggs hatched last night. Like, all of them. OMG. Honestly I'm thinking I'll have to sacrifice some just to ensure I have enough food for the remaining ones. I'm afraid I will end up starving all 100 little mandarins instead of having potential (unlikely) success with a small number.

[slowngreen]

Just posting a better pic of Marvin Musquin.

 

http://s183.photobucket.com/user/slowngreen/media/011-47.jpg.html'>

[JoeDigiorgio]

That picture is gorgeous. I love this thread.

[metrokat]

Pods are arriving today. Unfortunately I am leaving to go out if town tomorrow. So I think I might put the pods in their own little tank to avoid them getting eaten by the wrasse and other fish. I could siphon out the pods and feed the male Mandy. I don't know what is the best solution yet

[Tamberav]

Anyone get that male ruby red on DD?

[metrokat]

Little Bella is clearly hydrated.

Sam is very skinny. He is eating but not putting on weight.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Blackworms!

[metrokat]

He didn't care for those

[JoeDigiorgio]

Ova and mysis. Can't beat that combo lol

[AMAYEU]

If I had a mandarin that would happily eat frozen foods, I'd never even waste space in his stomach with pellets. There isn't a pellet on the market I've found that comes close to the natural diet requirements of these fish. Even the best spectrum pellets have a ton of stuff in them that I can't see being at all useful to mandarins and when you're talking about a fish with specific requirements and a very fast metabolism, dietary deficiencies can happen fast. I doubt you'd ever visibly see the results of nutritional deficiencies but my personal belief is that fish should live their natural lifespans in captivity. I have heard many anecdotal accounts of mandarins eating pellets and yet they only lived several months or a year while I've heard a lot of stories of 4, 6 and even 9 year old mandarins that are only fed frozen foods such as mysis and ground table shrimp. Now that I went on that anti pellet rant, I will go ahead and say that realistically adding pellets into the mix can't hurt. Variety is the key to anything. Be happy your fish is open to new foods but don't turn around and let that fact screw him out of complete nutrition. In other news, the eggs hatched last night. Like, all of them. OMG. Honestly I'm thinking I'll have to sacrifice some just to ensure I have enough food for the remaining ones. I'm afraid I will end up starving all 100 little mandarins instead of having potential (unlikely) success with a small number.

Thank you for kicking me to stop being lazy by doing simple feedings.

 

[metrokat]

Ova and mysis. Can't beat that combo lol

He's eating. He loves frozen brine. However he doesn't eat enough before other fish eat it. I'm making a new mandarin diner. I hope it works.

[Based]

I have been trying to get a pic of bullseye but he moves too much and when i do get a shot of him my glass is all frosted up from this hard algae that my scrubber cant scrape off, ill try after my water change this weekend.

[ManGups]

This from august 2013 - he had just been introduced and was undergoing training with Nutramar Ova. He now just eats formula two pellets...

Youtube:

[JoeDigiorgio]

So he doesn't get Ova anymore?

[ManGups]

So he doesn't get Ova anymore?

 

Nope.. I started with ova first, then mix of ova and artic pods, then mix of ova, artic pods and crushed pellets and flakes... slowly over time i stopped mixing any ova and artic pods and now he justs finds what he can find in the tank and goes for formula 2 pellets when dropped for food for other aquaria...

 

 

I had used a breeder net for training. He kind of jumper from the breeder net to the tank right around the last leg of the training (that's when i introduced the glass bowl) and I thought he would not make it since he has not switched to pellets completely by then... few days I fed him the last of the training regime and then 1 day I saw him directly going for pellets ..big sigh of refief...

 

That was in early september.. he is doing fine.. every now and then I make sure he is eating pellets and each time is it a sign of relief....

[JoeDigiorgio]

I just can't understand why anyone would take a fish that happily eats so many great products and limit it to a pellet only diet...

[ManGups]

I just can't understand why anyone would take a fish that happily eats so many great products and limit it to a pellet only diet...

 

It is now the way you are thinking that he just eats pellets .. he eats everything else also flakes, frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, frozen clams..(these I what I feed my fish/inverts/ anemone as variety) .. the ultimate aim was to get to get him to eat flakes or pellets. However he prefers formula 2 pellets and Hikari frozen brine shrimp

 

Eating pellets is a kind of backup for worst case scenario...for example - I travel for work and am away from my tank for sometimes 7-8 days. With flakes and pellets on an automatic feeder i can be at ease that he not starving for the 7 days I am away and not waiting on me to come back and feed him pods and ova.

 

I also have a 3.6 gallon CPR refugim which I had seeded with Tibse reef pods almost 1 month before I got him.. so he gets that too. I have not seeded my refuim again after that and I can see amphipods/coepods on the acrylic and when i give the chaeto a shake/stir..

 

I saw my previous post.. I put in 'just eats' - i actully should have put in 'also eats'..I guess that is where it made you think i just feed him pellets..

[metrokat]

I caught him and put him in the breeder net. I couldn't take it anymore. He's eating but not enough. I threw in some media with amphipods in it and he was munching through his stress. I couldn't stand it anymore watching him not gaining weight.

[Jstn]

I have been toying with the idea of growing chaeto in a 5gal bucket using tank water from water changes along with pod condos (gutter guard and live rock) to grow out some pods, then drop the pods condo in the tank at night allowing for them to spread. Mine have been living the last 8 months on mostly pellets, but I want to keep them healthy. My male has a messed up front fins that dont seem to be healing, I wonder if its something to do with nutrition.

[Tamberav]

I hope he pulls though for you Kat and fattens up. I feel your stress, my mandy girl is still skinny and now I have a skinny scooter. They came that way and its stressful worrying that they won't put on weight fast enough.

[metrokat]

Bella. Look at the belly! She's hydrated.

[Tamberav]

I picked up a ruby red dragonet off DD yesterday, he is very very skinny :*( He is eating but not sure how much as he stops if he knows I am watching. He arrived this morning so now I'm praying he can eat enough to get passed this.

 

 

[metrokat]

That's awful, and the shipping was stressfull too. I bet the picture you saw online didn't show him skinny. Good luck with getting him to eat.