Mandarins...

[afboundguy]

Just a general discussion about mandarins looking to get everybodies input specifically about captive bred mandarins and/or eating frozen food mandarins. I haven't had a mandarin for 10+ years back when they didn't have captive bred ones or ones that really atw frozen foods so the old mentality was unless you had a large enough set up with copepods (55 with sump or 75+) there was a slim chance of you keeping one.

With the increase in availabilty of captive bred mandarins who eat frozen food more readily what are peoples thoughts on successfully keeping them in smaller set ups? Whats the smallest set up anyones keeping a captive bred mandarin in?

I've always manted another one but still wouldn't feel comfortable keeping one in my sumpless 25 even if it was captive bred and eating frozen because of my old school mentality.

 

[Chris A.]

There’s also another way if you’re willing to
A- pay and get copepods on a scheduled delivery

B- make a copepod grow out

 

[afboundguy]

If I end up getting the AquaMaxx HF-M or another hang on back refugium I could create a spot for them to grow and do the dirty dance lol...

 

[kgstei]

Paul B swears by white worms.

 

[sumant19]

I am in no way expert in mandarins. In fact I got my first (and only) mandarin only in December 2019. So far she is nice and fat and active (for a mandarin).

I feed my mandarin at least 3 types of food

• Pods
• Baby Brine Shrimps
• White worms

Always assume that your mandarin will need pods. Even if it is eating frozen, pellets etc. They may survive on frozen food but to sustain and nourish them you will need live food.

Pods and Phyto -
I started cultivating Phyto before I got mandarin. I used Mercer of Montana phyto culture kit - https://smile.amazon.com/Mercer-Montana-Live-Phytoplankton-Nannochloropsis/dp/B071HBRTWD/

It comes with starter culture and f2 fertilizer.

Once my phyto culture got going, I ordered pods from AlgaeBarn. I then started pod culture of my own in a small 2.5 gallon tank I already had. The phyto acts a food source to the pods.

Every now and then (mostly once in 2 weeks), I run some water from pods culture through a sieve and dump the pods collected in my DT for mandarin to feast.

Baby Brine Shrimp
This is most easy to achieve and I feed them to my DT atleast 3-4 times in a week. I got a dish hatchery https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B079C6BN2B. Fill it up with water with correct SG, dump some eggs and within 24hrs you will start harvesting brine shrimps. The sieve is included in the hatchery, which means you can just lift up the sieve every day to collect the brine shrimps hatched and dump them in the DT.

White worms
I started my own white worm culture after reading Paul B's article about mandarins. It is very easy to do. Right now I only can spare 1 starter culture, but I can give it for free for any paid BRS members. Just PM me.

Full disclosure - I have not seen my mandarin eat white worms. She hovers around them but never saw she eating one. That said, all other fish and shrimps in my aquarium love white worms. I saw my acans eating few as well.

Finally, I also think that my Mandarin eats LRS fertility frenzy. The particle size is pretty small and her tummy looks little fat after I feed it. Again, i have not seen her eating it.. She always disappears in the rock works anytime I feed the fishes.

As a general rule, I like to offer variety of foods to my fish as much as possible. The three things described above helps me to achieve that. I also feed frozen mysis, homemade frozen food (chopped shrimp, salmon and scallops), Nori sheets and BRS reef chilly every now and then.

Hope this helps!

 

[SaltCreep]

I got one of those Biota Mandarins about a year ago. It arrived in a small plastic jar inside the water filled bag.
It was TINY. I mean TEENY TINY. I was worried it would get eaten by a crab!
It did not get eaten by a crab.

I loaded my 100g tank with store bought copepods and isopods for a few months. I cultured my own in a bucket for another few months. The mandarin lived and ate.....something.....

I don't add copepods anymore. There are a ton in there.
I do culture phytoplankton at work and dose the tank daily with maybe 5 ml of dark green algae. Seems to keep the pods around.

He still seems fat and happy. I have seen him eat flake food!
In a 25 you would have to keep a close eye on it and be ready to dump in pods if it starts to look skinny.

 

[this is me]

Buying captive mandarin in hope that they will eat frozen/prep food is futile. You must have a plan on its natural food(pods) for their survival if you're planning on getting one.
Manderins are one of the most easy fish to keep IF they have food. They're immuned to ich and other diseases due to their thick mucus layer and very easy to get them to spawn. IF YOU HAVE THEIR FOOD. 99.9% of them dying is because they don't have enough food. Otherwise, they're easy to care for.
I miss my pair. It's easily what I missed most about after breaking down that tank.
I will get another pair when the new tank is well populated with pods.

 

[afboundguy]

Thanks for all the info guys. Pretty much confirmed what I was originally thinking that my 25 isn't sufficient to keep one even if they are eating frozen. I had a LFS say they had customers keeping them successfully in a 16 gallon tank. I'll just have to use that as a selling point for getting a larger tank in the future...

 

[this is me]

You can keep them in a 5 gallons if you buy pods for them every few days.

 

[afboundguy]

You can keep them in a 5 gallons if you buy pods for them every few days.

That's a good point but if I could afford doing that it would probably be cheaper to just get a bigger tank

 

[nilaydeshmukh]

Make sure that your tank has a cover. Just a suggestion. I am not sure if others have had the same experience. . . I had a healthy mandarin for several months that jumped out of the tank and found her dead on the floor. I east expected this fish to jump out. A couple of months later, I got another one, she was also healthy, active and would eat brine shrimps (I used to add pods intermittently) . She too jumped out! I have a rimless tank and don't like the look of a cover to top . . . . I haven't dared to get a replacement yet.