Any luck training mandarins to eat mysis/fish food?

[Rackyrane]

Hi,
Just wondered if anyone had had any luck training mandarins to eat prepared or frozen foods. If you have, how did you do it?
Thinking about buying a mandarin. Have alot of pods and more than 100+ pounds of LR. Just in case, I want to make sure that the little guy has enough to eat.

[Waxxiemann]

mine will take blood worms, but that's it so far. I didn't do anything special, he just took them right away. If you have tons of pods, you should be fine.

[seapug]

Try P.E. Mysis. My mandarin wouldn't touch frozen food until I started using the PE. Chowed on them the first time I tried it. No more skinny mandarin that sleeps through the Pod swarms at night.

[snorvich]

Just because a mandarin can be trained to eat mysis does not mean it is nutritionally adequate for survival.

[seapug]

Mandarin's natural diets (pods) are very high in protien and fatty acids. Quality brands of mysis have the highest protien/HUFA content of any fish food you can buy. My mandarins went from pale and sunken to bright and chubby in less than a month, so something is working right.

http://www.mysis.com/pemysis.html

[Guygettnby]

my mandarin loves mysis and the ocassional cyclope cube. after a few weeks he started looking alot brighter in color and less boney, so i have to agree with seapug on this topic.

[rhdoug]

Mine has been doing well for 15 months on mysis, cyclopeeze, a little frozen brine. He eats from his "diner" jar but also goes after loose food in the tank. He lives in a 58 gallon reef.

[Rackyrane]

rhdoug,
how did you get him to eat that? You put it in a jar?

[rhdoug]

This is a small olive jar or something similar and was taken last June. Still using the same one. Do a search for "mandarin diner" or go to melev's website, this is where I got the info, and another BIG THANKS to him for the idea.

I just squirt some (thawed) frozen mix into the jar and he swims in and eats. I feed with a turkey baster anyway, and one day when I was feeding the corals he swam/hopped over and started eating mysis right from the baster. After that he would follow the baster so it was simple enough to lead him to the jar. Ever since then he has been my buddy -- he must associate me with food. I have to shoo him away when I am trimming back coral, he gets in the way looking for food. He has no fear of my hands in the tank at all any more.

[FishboyBT]

so just patience and putting the jar in over snd over again he decided to eat?

[rhdoug]

The jar stays in the tank. I only remove it to clean the glass or the jar itself. It is in the back right corner on a rock shelf and against the glass. It is not visible from the front unless you are really looking for it.

[FishboyBT]

so you just got him to eat from the jar by putting food in ther over and over again?

[rhdoug]

I think I explained it pretty well in the post with the photo...but here it is again. : )

"I feed with a turkey baster anyway, and one day when I was feeding the corals he swam/hopped over and started eating mysis right from the baster. After that he would follow the baster so it was simple enough to lead him to the jar."

[KNIGHT5272]

Hey guys I bought a mandarin for my tank, and was feeding on frozen at the LFS but when I put him in my tank, he wont touch the stuff, I know hes feeding on pods since hes up looking when lights are off, but I have a fear that he will ignore frozen and only eat pods. Though I have a refugium, I want him to be fat fat

[delsol650]

I got my target feeding first on cyclopeeze granuals then moved on to sinking pellets made of krill/vitamins.. He can't get enough of those... won't touch mysis or other stuff.

[ledford1]

Originally posted by delsol650
I got my target feeding first on cyclopeeze granuals then moved on to sinking pellets made of krill/vitamins.. He can't get enough of those... won't touch mysis or other stuff.

A particular brand?

[delsol650]

http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...N=2030063&Ne=2



but start them out with sinking cyclopeeze granuals... I turn off all my pumps and feed all the other fish first.... then feed the mandarin to ensure he gets enough. You can also try the mandarin Diner from Melev'

http://melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

Didn't work for me as my mandarin love to eat out in the open.
but every fish has a different personality

[Rackyrane]

Great info. Thanks Randy--I'm heading over to Melev's site now.

[floridareefs]

All great info. Mine eat mysis, brine.

[kevin2000]

My 02

Most fish including Mandarin will eat live brine shrimp ... start out the Mandarin in a barebottom QT and feed him LBS .. after he accepts the LBS start to soak/gut feed the LBS with some selcon .. the Mandarin will start to associate the smell of selcon with "food". Soak some frozen mysis with selcon and introduce a small amt with the LBS .. once the Mandarin starts to accept the mysis then slowly start the transition from LBS to nothing but frozen.

[Paliya]

I tried getting my spotted dragonet to eat mysis shrimp when I first got her, but was unsuccesful.

After a few weeks, I tried feeding arcti-pods. I was happy to find that she would eat those when she came across them (I would inject some in to a crevice with a turkey baster). Maybe a week after that I tried frozen mysis again and saw her eat a few right in front of me. Now (~5mo's later) she readily eats both.

I'm not sure if the arcti-pods trained her to eat dead stuff, or if it was just a matter of her settling in to her new surroundings. I recommend trying the arcti-pods if anyone is having trouble getting their dragonet to eat store bought foods. Obviously it won't work for every fish, but in my experience it's at least worth trying.

[b0bby1]

someone on here keeps a spotted in a 10gallon. its been over a year and it is the best looking one i have ever seen. it eats frozen mysis.

[iku]

hm.. it's actually not that hard to train mandarins to eat pallets or frozen food.
first just get a bare bottom qt tank (doesnt have to be a qt, but just similar) and let the mandarin stay in there for a while until it gets comfortable.
then as soon as u see it hunting/looking for food, throw in some pallets or frozen shrimps. it may ignore it in the beginning, but sooner or later, it'll more than likely start take notice of the food. then eventually you'll get a mandarin that eats pallets and frozen.

im speaking through my own experience as i acquired a pair that wasnt eating anything but pods to almost only accepts pallets.
however, the female eventually killed the male, so that was pretty sad.

[jasonak]

Wow do you know why she killed him? is this common?

[iku]

apparently it's not uncommon for a pair to seperate, and become teritorial. a friend of mine also purchased a pair (a mated pair as well), and had the same result with me. but her's was the male killing the female.