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Cultivated Reef

Feeding my Mandarinfish


tviquez10

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I've had my Mandarinfish for about 6 months now. When I got him(her?), he was very malnourished. You could see a sunken line on both sides of him. I couldn't get him to eat frozen so I made sure to keep my tank stocked with pods from my refugium in the back of my AIO. I was tired of seeing how skinny he was and I was really stressing that he wasn't getting enough food. After lots of research, I decided to try out a tube/dish combo where I could shoot some frozen food down the tube and into the dish. After a few weeks of doing it every day, he finally went in the dish and tried some. I started also putting carnivore pellets in it and he devours them. He has gotten so chunky and I'm so happy that he's being fed well! My sandsifting starfish also likes the dish.lol14721187_PXL_20220807_230049559.PORTRAIT2.thumb.jpg.0391202b4f438922264e3e487501d231.jpg

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Cute! Doesn't look chunky from this angle, though, not yet. Mandarins are set up to eat highly nutritious food almost constantly, so they can't hold food in their guts to digest it like other fish do. They often can't get enough nutrition out of frozen foods and pellets, as it all runs through their gut too fast. Want to really fatten him up, try hatching baby brine shrimp. For the day after they hatch, they're full of yolk, and are therefore highly nutritious. It unfortunately doesn't last long, but they're easy enough to hatch frequently. 

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12 minutes ago, Tired said:

Cute! Doesn't look chunky from this angle, though, not yet. Mandarins are set up to eat highly nutritious food almost constantly, so they can't hold food in their guts to digest it like other fish do. They often can't get enough nutrition out of frozen foods and pellets, as it all runs through their gut too fast. Want to really fatten him up, try hatching baby brine shrimp. For the day after they hatch, they're full of yolk, and are therefore highly nutritious. It unfortunately doesn't last long, but they're easy enough to hatch frequently. 

It wasn't a very good picture but you can tell he has chunked up from the beginning when we got him! I need to try and get a picture of the top view so you can see. I did try hatching the baby brine but he wasn't interested at all for some reason. My other fish loved them though. I'm trying to find some fortified frozen brine shrimp but not having any luck locally. Not sure ordering online will work right now during our summer season but I'll try in the winter. I do have a ton of pods in the tank that I see him grazing on and periodically shake my chaeto in the DT once a week or so. Do you know of any other pellets out there that would be good for him as a supplement? I'm definitely not just straight feeding him pellets and frozen, but like to make sure there's a variety of food sources along with pods since he was so skinny.

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Golden Pearls fish foods are meant for fry, so they should be pretty nutritious, and they come in a variety of small sizes. The copepods are the main thing, though. Keep a supply of them going, and he should eventually turn into a nice fat sausage. You want him to be round when seen from the front. Looks like he's on his way there. 

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1 minute ago, Tired said:

Golden Pearls fish foods are meant for fry, so they should be pretty nutritious, and they come in a variety of small sizes. The copepods are the main thing, though. Keep a supply of them going, and he should eventually turn into a nice fat sausage. You want him to be round when seen from the front. Looks like he's on his way there. 

I will be ordering this, thank you!

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