Mandarin now eating pellet food

[TulsaReefer]

I've had a mandarin for almost a year now, and he's been doing pretty well overall. Usually out and hunting, but has never been interested in anything I fed the tank. But over the past few days I began to soak the pellet in Selcon again, something I used to do, but had quit for quite a while due to soaking the food in garlic to treat a low level ich infestation (which I'm glad to say seems to be gone now, no signs in over 2 months). Then I noticed the mandarin was active in the area where the food leftovers were sinking. And when I looked closer, I noticed the mandarin was spitting out some of the pellets, but then sucked it back up. The pellets are the small (1mm I think) Thera-A pellet food, soaked for a few minutes before feeding in a few drops of Selcon. Today I tried again just to confirm what I saw, and sure enough almost immediately after adding some food, the mandarin was out and hunting the crumbs of food as they floated by across the sand in the current. He ate a few and seemed to be pretty excited about it, and spent the next 15 minutes combing the sand in that area finding a few more morsels. I have no lack of food for the mandarin, my tank is pretty infested with gammarid amphipods and other critters which have up until now kept him pretty healthy.

And because he was out for so long in one area, I was able to finally snap a decent photo of him:



As you can see, the hermits were also out cleaning up the scraps as well. Not much goes for long in my tank without being eaten.

[jjmcat]

Awesom Lee!I wish mine would have.

[TulsaReefer]

Fed the tank again tonight, and at first the Mandarin was off somewhere else in the tank. After a minute or two though he came swimming to the area below where the food drops, and began swimming around looking for pellets. Sucked down a couple of nice sized pellets and then spent a little more time looking around for more, but there isn't much left after a few minutes, the other fish and critters finish it off pretty quickly.

I'm really thinking I may try to set up a little feeding station for him, I saw once on Melev's site where he used an olive jar, since it's small enough a Mandarin can swim in but the larger fish can't. Put food in the jar, sink it to the bottom, and the Mandarin can take it's time and get a good meal. Now to go find a jar of olives, or some other jar small enough the other fish can't get in.

[mskohl]

If he's getting a few pellets every time you feed, he's probably getting enough. Especially if you still have pods in the tank. Fish tummies are about the size of their eyes.

*wish mine was* Time for the new year's resolution.....

[TulsaReefer]

Yeah, your probably right, and I definitely still have pods in my tank. My wife thinks it a little creepy when I look in after lights out and there are hundreds of little critters scurrying around to get out of the light. And he's not bad sized now, not fat, but not skinny either, and is pretty full along the back. My other fish are actually fat, to the point I sometimes wonder if they need to go on a diet. The little tubby Flame Angel makes me wonder sometimes if he's going to get too fat to swim.

[james37128]

Beautiful picture!

[SoonerReefer]

Lee

I just had a thought, a pimento glass jar would work perfectly. They are all very small. How large a diameter would the top need to be? Let me know as we are anxious to see the feeding station for your mandarin. He is beautiful. I have heard the blue ones are the hardest to keep. How long have you had him?


Happy Reefing

Lori

[charmander59]

Lee,

Wow! What a great picture!

Wilma

[TulsaReefer]

Good idea, next time I'm at the grocery store I'll take a look around and I'm sure I can find something. I'd guess that a jar that is around 1 1/2 to 2 inches would be good, large enough to allow him and in and out, and yet small enough to keep the flame angel out. I may even have something around the house if I look around a bit. Of course he may not like going into a jar, but the way he pokes around all the little caves and such I doubt it would bother him too much, and a jar under water should be almost invisible.

I've had this Mandarin since around March of last year. And he quickly became one of my favorite fish. Looking back at earlier photo's it's hard to tell, but I think he's added a little size since I got him back then. I really wish I could get a nice picture of him with him fins up, he's got really beautiful colors, and a really nice long "spike" on his dorsal fin (which is why I call it a "he").

[TulsaReefer]

I did get one other shot at the same time I took the last one yesterday:

[TulsaReefer]

Well, seems pretty consistent now, the mandarin has really learned to "hunt" pellet food. He's learning more every day as to where they fall in the current and heads over at feeding time. Haven't set up a feeding station for him yet, I've got about 3 jars that would work, but I haven't emptied them yet, and since he's getting quite a few anyway, I'm not sure if I'll do it more than to just see if it's possible. I doubt he would eat much more even if undisturbed, as he gets better finding the pellets he's getting more and more of them. Also noticed that he's much more bold now with me around the tank, probably since now he associates me with food, which is a good thing.

Now that he's eating pellets, I'm tempted to see if I can find a female and get a pair going. I was worried before that my tank might not support two mandarins, but now I think it would be fine. Hopefully a new one would learn from the old one how to eat pellets too. Now to find a definite female, as my tank probably isn't big enough to support a pair of males if I get it wrong.

[jjmcat]

Gosh I miss my mandarin.Thats a very nice pic Lee.

[bkhd]

Great pics.. I have never been able to photograph my mandarin, he is camera shy!