daily diary on mandarn training

[offsprg01]

sorry guys forgot to update this post for the past few days.

 

he's eating reaidly now. starting to fatten up now. but i'm kinda worried. the amount of food i have been feeding has caused the nitrate levels in my tank to rise up to 18. even with wter chages and my uber over kill filtration. not good. to high for me. esspecially since i have a red/purple cyano outbreak covering my sand. one big sheet. kind pretty actually. but i'm wondering how i can cut down my feeding and still keep him fed. ??? i have started the live brine shrimp hatching in my in tank hatchery i just received. seeing as how these will be babies with the yolk still attached when the mandy eats them do yo uthin i can cut back on my feeding to maybe twice daily? and still keep his diet vaired and nutritious enough?

[Travis]

Live Adult Brine have more protien. Have you tried Mysid? What was it that he first ate? Was it live or frozen?

[Travis]

BTW, do you have any more pictures?

[renichms]

It won't solve the problem entirely, but adding macroalgae will help reduce nitrates. My chaeto has cut nitrates to an undetectable level in my tanks and I have too much chaeto to handle too.

 

RN

[offsprg01]

i have a fuge with macro (4 diff types including cheto). canister filter protieen skimmer and big ass tetra tec hob plus about 35 ~ 40 pounds lr in the display and about 7 in the fuge. 25 lbs live sand.

 

to sum up this thread....

 

he's eating marine c and mysis and blood worms. all frozen. i'm currently introducing falke food with the frozen trying to trick him into eating that as well. it's taken about a week or two to get him to eat frozen food. over the course of this week my notrates have rose steadily from non exixtant to 18. this is with water changes 2 time last week. 3 times this week.

 

my tank param are as follows.

 

20L plus 5.5 gal fuge.

 

tetra tec pf500

 

cascade canister filter. 700? can't rember the model number for 65 gal tank

 

ebo jager protieen skimmer for a 120 gal tank if i rember correctly.

 

130 watts pc CoraLife Aqua light

 

salinity 1.023 - 1.025 depending on evap

 

Ammo = 0 tries = 0 trates = 18

[renichms]

What light is on the refugium and how often do you have to pull macro out? Mine requires it every few days because it grows fast. If nothing else, add some ordinary lighting to your fuge and pull out the macro as it overgrows the tank and it might help your nitrates.

 

RN

[offsprg01]

hehe there 38 watts 6500k lighting over the fuge. macro needs to be pulled out every few days in mine as well.

[BKtomodachi]

Take off the canister and tetra! They are making nitrates that fuel your algae, unless you clean them daily or every-other day. Skimming is much more important.

[offsprg01]

one of them gets cleaned each week. i've been running filters on my nano for years with no nitrates. the cause is the over feeding i have been doing with the mandarin. not my filtration methods. my tank is set up to handle a high bioload. hence the filtration. but it's not equipped to handle 5 extra feeding a day.

[Kogut]

Well I got a mandarin today as an early b-day present. The green and blue and orange type. (I call them the regular mandarins) Let him cruise the tank all day... Tossed in a cube of brine shrimp earlier tonight. Pumps off, of course. Pushed a bunch into the back of the tank where he's been hanging out. Was watching him eat a couple of the shrimp while the anemone captured the rest of the cube and ate it. :| BUT! The mandarin does eat brine shrimp! So tomorrow I try small mysis, then if he eats those, the big freshwater mysis shrimp. Hope you continue to have good luck with yours.

[rbaby]

People will tell you that they NEED to eat copepods to stay alive long-term...I disagree...the theory is that copepods just provide nutritious content that prepared foods just cannot compensate for.

 

Copepods are really small, I hardly think they offer much nutritional value. From what I've observed and from what my friends have observed...long term mandarin health and survivability is dependent on how much you feed.

 

They eat like birds...they don't eat much, but they eat often. It's either their stomach size or their metabolism...they just don't consume that much food. The fact is--that with copepods it's a constant food source, they can eat everyday...so it really isn't a question of nutritional content.

 

The reason why my friend's mandy has survived for years in his tank is not because of the copepods, or lack thereof...it's because he feeds OFTEN. This allows the mandy to actually keep consuming...if you will notice, they will only eat a couple of pieces of brine or mysis...then they will stop. If you don't feed often, they are sure to starve to death no matter how nutritious your food source is.

 

Congratulations on your mandy...hope he lives a happy and fulfilling life.

[offsprg01]

thanks rbaby... that was what i was afriad of. well i'm going to cut back on the amount of food i've been feeding. and i'll keepfeding him 5 times a day. if my nitrates don't come down ove the next couple of weeks i'm going to send him to my roomates 120 gallon. but for now we'll see if i can't just get my tank to stablize.

[DiverDave]

Hi all. I'm very interested in this thread for three reasons.

1) I have a great little green spotted mandarin.

2) About 8 years ago I was unsuccessful in keeping a mandarin.

3) I understand that they come from the Pacific/Philipines where the wide spread use of cyanide was/had been employed to capture fish for the aquarium trade. As cyanide destroyes the digestive system of marine fish, my thought is that we are now receiving healthier fish through better capture, which in turn is giving us, the hobbiest, better success in encouraging these creatures to accept prepared foods? I'm very excited and have been successful in my mandarin eating mysis and some brine shrimp. I've had her for 5 months and she's just as fat as the day I received her. Please keep this going as I'm very interested!!!

 

V/R

Dave

[offsprg01]

welcome dave! green spots seem o be easier to get to accept prepare food than striped varities. i'm going to post all my finding once i have time to get them written up and cited ect ect. going to try and do it all professional like. maybe even get mr marks to put it in the fish info page. if you could post tank specs ect ect. how you fed you mandarin. when did it start eating ect ect. you get the idea.

 

the cyanide this is very intresting. never thought about that. can you give me a link or name of a bookthat might expand of that idea?

[DiverDave]

I'm a mobilized reservist who is very fortunate to be in San Diego during my recall. As such, I did not bring all my books with me. After a quick search I've found the two following sites that will give some insight to the use of cyanide on fish (though most of the conversation deals with the adverse effects of cyanide on the reefs (corals) themselves. J Sprung and C Delbeek make some reference in "The REEF AQUARIUM VOL 1" on page 8.

 

http://www.ecovitality.org/cyanide.htm

 

The above site has some information.

 

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/cyani...ts_testing.html

 

This site has a direct reference to BOB FENNER (Robert Fenner) who in his publications may have more direct information.

 

EDIT: 20G tank. 7 months, 300W Florescent (2x50/50 and 2 actinic), Remora Skimmer, 50w heater, iceworks chiller, HOT refugium w/cheato and other misc macro algae.

[impur]

Thats awesome that your mandy is eating finally! I have yet to get my spotted to even take a look at frozen food. She won't even eat live brine, adult or baby!! Very frusterating. My challenge now is trying to get her out before she starves. She just won't eat anything that i put in the tank. Oh well.

[offsprg01]

well i;m sorry to hear that... my best guess is that it's still hit or miss at best. i'm still contemplating taking mine out of my tank as i'm not sure i'm equiped as of yet to handel the extra waste load from the extra feeding in addition to my already high bioload.

[renichms]

Yesterday, I forgot to feed frozen food until after the halide light was off. When I did feed, the result was simply amazing. The mandarin went darting around the tank from bit to bit, literally attacking all he could get. I'd say he relies somewhat on the frozen food with pods as snacks now. He stays to one rock, mostly, so no way he gets enough pods from it, but he has a fat little tummy.

 

RN

[offsprg01]

well t hat's good to hear.

 

on a bit more somber note it look like i'm returning my mandarin tomorrow. my roomates not going home this weekend and my tank can't take another week of risin trates. they are at 26ppm despite my best efforts. nothing is showing signs of stress due to this but i don't wnat to take any chances. my lfs should be able to find him a good home. especally now that he will eat frozen. i hate to give up on this little guy but i can keep feeding him so much.

[impur]

This morning i woke up and starting trying to figure out how to get the mandarin out of the tank. I figured i'd feed the tank and stare at it for a few min. I turned off the seio but left the other pumps on. Brine shrimp, mysis, blood worms, marine cuisine all mixed together and dumped in the tank. After a few seconds the mandarin started chasing the brine all over. I saw her take 3 pieces of brine and one blood worm. She scooting all over the tank looking for the food. Just amazed me, i thought the fish was a goner.

[offsprg01]

awsome impur. i can't take mine back today so he'll have to wait until tomorrow. i sure do hate to give this guy up.

[renichms]

Perhaps a massive water change is in order? Maybe a few in a row?

 

RN

[offsprg01]

already on top of that. but that's not going to slove the problem. just treating the symptoms. i really don't want to get rid of him but i won't endanger my other inhabitants either. we'll see. if my nitrates are starting to hold steady i may not get rid of him. he's just so cool. but i'm afraid they won't. but as it stands now he's going back. :*(

[renichms]

Feed in a seperate container?

 

RN

[Kogut]

Nooo! You worked so hard on the little guy, too! :*( Are you already running a skimmer? I'd suggest adding one if you're having problems... It might help out just enough... Clams are also legendary for munching trates if you can light one. : Good luck, bro!