|
|
|
|
#1
11/29/2006, 03:19 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Do you have a Green Mandarin fish?
Hi.
I am considering purchasing a Green Mandarin fish, but i have heard rumors that they can be quite difficult to feed. Do you have experiences with mandarin fishes eating frozen and dry foods? Also.. how do a mandarin fish do in a tank with alot of current? and is it compatible with blenny's? or do they fight? |
|
#2
11/29/2006, 06:48 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Mandarins do ok with a lot of flow. However, feeding is another story. Although it is possible to get them eat frozen, most do not. They feed off tiny copepods living in your tank. Therefore, you must have enough established live rock to generate enough food for your mandarin. Most recommend having a tank up for at least 6mo to provide adequate pod availability. However, your tank size, the presence of a refugium and amount of established LR will really determine your ability to keep a mandarin.
|
|
#3
11/29/2006, 07:07 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
What size tank and how many lb's of rock do you have? Also, do you have a refugium for pod to grow?
__________________
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge, some just gargle, but most are rabid. |
|
#4
11/29/2006, 09:07 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Do you have a Green Mandarin fish?
Quote:
 I would definately listen to the fact that they are a more difficult fish to keep, only because I am constantly hearing of ones that don't live and I was constantly worrying that it wasn't going to make it. The one I bought was very healthy looking and still remains that way. She has never been sunken in on the sides, and eats frozen foods. I have seen other ones that you can visibly see that they most likely are not thriving and are sunken in on the sides. It's very sad to see, but I wouldn't recommend buying those because unless you see it eat frozen foods, I would assume that it is doomed and/or it should be purchased by someone who has an older tank with lots of pods. I also have a tail spot blenny and the mandarin does just fine with it. They have been right next to each other quite often and don't seemed bothered at all.
__________________
Carole Melting! |
|
#5
11/29/2006, 09:39 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Many will recommend 100 lb's live rock per dragonette and others such as Anthony Calfo recommend a minimum of 200 lbs live rock per dragonette. That's only provided you have no other pod competitors ESPECIALLY wrasse's.
What happens is they starve to death slowly over about a year to a year and a half w/o adequate copepods. Even when they look good you can't say it's a sucess for over a year.
__________________
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge, some just gargle, but most are rabid. |
|
#6
11/29/2006, 10:30 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
 That's sad! Well, I will keep my fingers crossed for my little one! I might have to set a mandarin diner after all!
__________________
Carole Melting! |
|
#7
11/29/2006, 10:33 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I've tried two over the years in a 110 gallon reef tank with over 150# LR in a well established tank and they never lived really long?
Supposedly a fudge will help a lot! I don't run one. |
|
#9
11/29/2006, 11:00 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Actually, its one of the best fishes i have had.......I have had one now for about 8 months and had great luck...my little guy even made it through a big ich outbreak....Live rock is definitely key to their survival, mostly from a hiding perspective but I have seen the biggest factor being the what food competitors you have in the tank. My mandarin is a 75 reef with two blennies, two clowns, potters angel, a kole and hippo tang...... Make sure you watch your feeding to make sure enough food makes it to the bottom or lays on the rock......The mandarin will come out after everyone else feeds and pick up the remainder....
Good luck if you decide to get one!! |
|
#10
11/29/2006, 11:20 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I can tell you of our Stoner & Lenny- Green & Scooter.
We Started this hobby specifically for mandarin. Well after a lot of waiting and research we decided we were ready to put theory into practice so we went to several lfs looking for our mandarin, we must have looked at 30 or 40 over a period of weeks until we found one that would take prepared foods at the lfs. AND SNACTHED HIM UP! He and are scooter blenny have done well grazing on pods in our tank but are always front and center at feeding time. Foods they both will eat in our case includes 1.Pods 2.Blood worms 3.Miyis shrimp 4.Brine shrimp We have had them for 8-9 month's and stoner is a fat happy mandarin. If you have any specific ? Fill free to ask.
__________________
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. |
|
#12
11/29/2006, 03:09 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Word of caution - do not treat mandarins with any copper based medications...wish I had know that little tid-bit before...
|
|
#13
11/29/2006, 03:51 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
just fyi, my GS mandarin never touches the food i feed, he lives entirely off of the established life on the live rock. My tank was up for nearly 3 years when I got him. Don't count on them eating regular food...
|
|
#14
11/29/2006, 03:53 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
|
|
#15
11/29/2006, 09:51 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
__________________
Carole Melting! |
|
#16
11/30/2006, 01:08 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
A link from the home page...
http://www.reefcentral.com/modules.p...showpage&pid=3 An awesome fish, but make sure you can meet it's needs BEFORE you bring one home. This is true of all livestock, for mandrins it goes double.
__________________
You'd think a plumber would have a sump. |
|
#17
12/01/2006, 12:38 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
never count on being able to train one to eat prepared foods as a mainstay of their diet. This is pretty uncommon and pretty unnatural. This is just a guess but I would have to believe that their digestive track is designed to digest tiny little pods and not large pieces of mysis ( couple hundred times the size of a pod) or other prepared foods, which means even if they do eat it they might not really get all that much nutrition from it.
Mine will eat prepaired foods if it just happens to fall in front of his face but he certainly wont seek it out like the other fish at feeding time. however feeding them can be as simple as throwing a hang on fuge, like the ones CPR makes, on the back of your tank with some cheato and LR rubble . No reason to try and fight nature when the solution is so simple. |
|
#18
12/01/2006, 12:50 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I think there is a lot of over paranoia about Mandarin feeding out there. Saying that Mandarins need 200lbs of Live Rock each seems like ridiculous hyperbole quite frankly. Assuming you don't have competitors for pods as food in your tank what matters is if your reef is geared towards generating pods, not the poundage of live rock.
Live rock is important, but a tank that has a lot of macroalgaes and bottom surface area can feed a mandarin with much less then 200lbs of live rock. Having rubble zones where pods can safely reproduce where the Mandarin can't get to them is key. |
|
#19
12/01/2006, 01:26 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
i have a mandarin thats been in my 125 for about a 1.5 years. he has made it through two moves and a change over to a bare bottom tank.he is healthy and i seem him grazing on the rocks all the time.mine will not accept any food put in the tank.when i fist got him he started to suck up do to a lack of pods. switched over to a fuge and got some pod packed algae from a fellow reefer and in no time he was fat and happy. by the way i bought my tank used. it was o four year old fowlr but still no pods until i got the fuge.
__________________
54 corner bb/zoa dominated. |
|
#20
12/01/2006, 02:52 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
__________________
The Sand People are easily startled, but they will soon be back, and in greater numbers. All statements have been peer reviewed. |
|
#21
12/01/2006, 07:46 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
And those numbers are already considering no competitors especially wrasse's. |
|
#22
12/01/2006, 07:55 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
So hardly any Mandarins make it in tanks that have less then 200 lbs of live rock is what you're asserting? I bet there's actually quite a few people that disagree on the 200lb mark :| Do they need a lot? Most definately, but it seems such a sensative issue to some that IMO they exagerate the requirements in order to basically scare people away from them.
They are difficult fish to keep and maintain, they require effort, but you do not need to convert your basement into a giant aquarium to accomodate them. I would wager a vast majority of Mandarin deaths in the home aquarium are related to impulse buys, ignorance, and laziness rather then a lack of a swimming pool sized aquarium full of LR. |
|
#23
12/01/2006, 08:49 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Well I never went with 200 lbs myself. I would agree with at least 75-100 that is very well established. And I also feel as well that when they say 200, it's because we always try to push it and they know we'll try it with less. I personally have 2 with about 225-250 lbs of rock but it's only been a little over a year with my pair so I can't comment much on the long term yet. I also have a sump larger than my display though and about 1/2 my rock is back there.
But at 2 lbs of rock per gallon that opens most up people with 90 gallons or larger if they go with the higher recomm. even. I would probably push a 55 with 100 lbs but I'd be nervous. I def. wouldn't do a pair with that low amount and still look for one with diverse eating habits. Some people have found that they like various forms of roe. I have some shrimp roe from the same asian market I get my nori from but I haven't witnessed them eating any directly. I also have some black something roe from the grocery store that I haven't witnessed them eating either. I know that after I feed either one that they are moving in high speed around the rocks but they may just be feeding on the pods that are coming out in response to the food. My clownfish, nass. snails, pistol shrimp and serpent star def. like the black caviar!
__________________
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge, some just gargle, but most are rabid. |
|
#24
12/01/2006, 09:22 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Haha actually there is an Asian market that shares a wall with one of my LFS, I think I'm going to stop in when my LFS gets Mandarins and see if they'll let me try to feed them some shrimp roe to see if they take it
|
|
#25
12/01/2006, 09:47 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I do see what TheORKINMan is saying. You should be focused more on an environment that is suited for pod reporduction rather than actual lbs of rock, x amount of surface area, etc. Someone with a gravity return fuge with macro and LR rubble is going to be better off than someone with rock everywhere in the main tank (though a nice even balance of both is optimal).
|
|
|
Linear Mode
