Live food is worth it!!!

[afboundguy]

Gives me great validation that all my hard work doing 7 strains of phyto, 3 strains of pods, white worms and hatching BBS worth it when I catch this on camera!!! Amazing that I have a breeding pair of mandarins in my 35 gallon DT with 55-60 total gallons!!!

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[Kymot]

That’s awesome, how long have they’ve been together?
i tried this early this year as i introduced a female to a male mandarin. He accepted the female and did the ‘dance’ for a couple of days and then suddenly turned on her. Not sure what happen really. I hope your pair will breed, will be super cool to see.

 

[Mixed Reefer]

Gives me great validation that all my hard work doing 7 strains of phyto, 3 strains of pods, white worms and hatching BBS worth it when I catch this on camera!!! Amazing that I have a breeding pair of mandarins in my 35 gallon DT with 55-60 total gallons!!!

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I agree. Live food is way better. Mandarins need to eat to be happy. Eat today live tomorrow! Nice work @afboundguy

 

[afboundguy]

That’s awesome, how long have they’ve been together?
i tried this early this year as i introduced a female to a male mandarin. He accepted the female and did the ‘dance’ for a couple of days and then suddenly turned on her. Not sure what happen really. I hope your pair will breed, will be super cool to see.

I've had the Biota captive bred mandarin for about 5-6 months and had bought a male and female pair but the female disappeared. I've had this wild caught female for maybe 1-2 months and she was skinny when I got her from a LFS but the male taught her to eat frozen and pellet food and she fattened right up!

In the few times I have been able to watch the tank for more than a few seconds these past few weeks I've noticed they have been paying much more attention to each other and acting differently (in a good way) so that's what prompted me to set up the camera and glad I did!

I have an online vendor that I have been working with for advice and getting various phyto strains who is willing to sell me Parvo only pods if I sign a waiver saying I won't sell them since they know I'd just be using them for culturing and I said I would easily sign that so we'll see!

And not sure most people would be willing to try and raise their own Parvo pods it's a pain in the rear based on all the research I've been doing and reading about how everybody's cultures crash quickly!

I agree. Live food is way better. Mandarins need to eat to be happy. Eat today live tomorrow! Nice work @afboundguy

Thanks! It is way better and clearly worth the work! I appreciate my tank more when I do live food as I feel more connected to it and it was amazing vindication when I saw the footage!

 

[GiannisK]

Did the captive bred male accept frozen/dry from the beginning or did he have to be trained as well?

 

[TPhan]

U should get into culturing mysids.

 

[GiannisK]

Will you attempt to raise any eggs?

 

[Kymot]

My male mandarin for some reason doesnt like mysis but go crazy for frozen brine shrimp and off course pods.

 

[afboundguy]

Did the captive bred male accept frozen/dry from the beginning or did he have to be trained as well?

Within 2 days of me getting him from Biota he was eating frozen and TDO. They have them trained on prepared foods before they ship and I am guessing the 2 day delay was due to him getting used to tank.

U should get into culturing mysids.

I want to and I've researched it but it's even more complicated than Parvo pods as they are extremely cannabalostic from what I've read and you have to keep a mesh screen up and push the flow to one side of the tank to keep the babies from being eaten.

I may still do that if I can find a good supplier of live food down the road. I have found a few places online they're just out of stock right now.

Will you attempt to raise any eggs?

I do plan to eventually. I am going to start with getting a Parvo pod culture stable and in the meantime I am trying to track when they mate and at what time so I can get the eggs one night once I set up a larvae and broodstock setups.

My male mandarin for some reason doesnt like mysis but go crazy for frozen brine shrimp and off course pods.

My male has eaten frozen mysis but not sure if the female as she's much smaller. They both eat frozen brine shrimp but their favorite is definitely TDO pellets! I feed them a variety of 3-4 different pellet foods.

 

[TPhan]

Ive been researching growing mysids as well, it is labor intense.

Order Online - USMysids

mysids.com

 

[GiannisK]

Within 2 days of me getting him from Biota he was eating frozen and TDO. They have them trained on prepared foods before they ship and I am guessing the 2 day delay was due to him getting used to tank.

I want to and I've researched it but it's even more complicated than Parvo pods as they are extremely cannabalostic from what I've read and you have to keep a mesh screen up and push the flow to one side of the tank to keep the babies from being eaten.

I may still do that if I can find a good supplier of live food down the road. I have found a few places online they're just out of stock right now.

I do plan to eventually. I am going to start with getting a Parvo pod culture stable and in the meantime I am trying to track when they mate and at what time so I can get the eggs one night once I set up a larvae and broodstock setups.

My male has eaten frozen mysis but not sure if the female as she's much smaller. They both eat frozen brine shrimp but their favorite is definitely TDO pellets! I feed them a variety of 3-4 different pellet foods.

I wish Biota had the target mandarin. ORA breeds them but they seem to always be out of stock wherever I check.

 

[afboundguy]

Ive been researching growing mysids as well, it is labor intense.

Order Online - USMysids

mysids.com

Yes they are. I definitely want to try it at some point as I am a tad into love food and mysis are generally considered to be one of the most nutritional frozen foods. It will happen eventually just not sure when!

I wish Biota had the target mandarin. ORA breeds them but they seem to always be out of stock wherever I check.

I wish I had more room and more scientific ability as it would be cool to try and cross breed a target and green mandarin. Catch eggs and sperm from each type and try and mix them. Doubt it would really work but would be cool to try!