ora mandarins

you will prabably have try and wean it onto prepaird foods

hey i dont want to hi-jack this thread, but what does ORA stand for?

I am aware of the new ORA Mandarins. I think they have only been available for a couple weeks at most. I read on the ORA website that they do eat prepared foods. Hopefully yours is still in the adjustment period. Good luck! I assume you have copepods in your system.

I'm glad you posted about this...I want one but I certainly want them to eat frozen more than they rely on copepods.

I can't find them at all on the ORA website...

Sorry, I can't find it on their site either, but this was send to y facebook page:

Back in March, we told you that ORA announced captive bred mandarins, then a few days later, we showed you the ORA captive bred Mandarins at the Global Pet Expo in Orland. Well, ORA has now released their first batch of 100% aquacultured spotted mandarins. Again, these captive bred mandarins have been trained to feed on frozen foods and pellets. Since the mandarins are still growing, ORA recommends that you feed at least twice daily. These young mandarins are best kept in a peaceful reef community.

From ORA:

ORA is pleased to announce the initial release of our first batch of 100% aquacultured Spotted Mandarins (Synchiropus picturatus.) Our biologists have been hard at work developing the methods to breed and raise these beauties.

Even though they are some of the most attractive and popular aquarium fish in the hobby, many wild-
caught mandarins are difficult to feed and despite best efforts, most of them fail to thrive in aquariums.
ORA has eliminated this heart-breaking problem by training our captive-bred mandarins to eat a variety of
commercially available frozen foods and pellets. Now the average hobbyist can enjoy the convenience of
finding readily available (and affordable) food sources for their exquisite ORA dragonettes.
Caring for ORA Mandarins isn’t as simple as throwing a cube of frozen food and a pinch of pellets in the
aquarium a couple of times a week. At approximately 1.25”-1.5” in length, ORA’s Spotted Mandarins are
still growing and have voracious appetites. We recommend frequent feedings – at least twice daily. Some of
the frozen foods that they readily accept include: finely chopped Hikari Blood Worms, Nutramar Ova (prawn
eggs), fish roe, and baby brine shrimp. They are also accustomed to eating New Life SPECTRUM Small
Fish Formula pellets.

Our experience has shown that these young fish begin to grow rapidly when they are kept in a reef
environment. We believe that while our mandarins can survive on 100% commercial diets, they will thrive in
an environment that offers them a combination of frozen, pellet and live foods.

ORA is tremendously proud of the mandarins we have been nurturing for almost one year. We admit, we’re
also feeling a bit protective of them and we want every single one of them to be successful in their new
homes. It is important for everyone to understand that ORA’s mandarins have led a sheltered existence in
the hatchery and they are very naive. We wish to caution all hobbyists that these baby mandarins are not
yet “reef-smart” and should not be kept with fish large enough to eat them or show aggression to them.

We have been amazed to observe that even at this small size our mandarins are reaching sexual maturity.
In the future we intend to offer pairs, but at approximately 1.5” it is difficult to distinguish a female from a
subordinate male with any certainty. Despite their petite size, we’re sure you’ll agree that ORA’s Spotted
Mandarins are some of the prettiest fish ever produced. They have colorful masks and their green scale-less
bodies sport exquisite circular patterns of turquoise, royal blue, orange and black.

BTW-I have seen them listed on the SWF page for sale...

I didn't have any problem supplementing my mandarin with frozen, It is actually trained to a plastic pipette. I stick the pipette in the water and the mandarin swims up to it and eats out of the end of it. It is however the only fish in the aquarium.

Actually that is just a bonus, the real good thing about it is to stop harvesting so many from the ocean that have a poor survival rate in captivity, if they are raised in captivity they should be well adapted already. If their natural food is available, why would they ignore it and eat pellets, once the pods are depleted, they will probably accept prepared foods. Would you choose hotdogs over steak? I am sure they aren't accepting pellets because they are filling up on pods. Watch their bellies.

The premium price isn't for the prepared food thing... it's that they are captive bred which always demands a higher price tag.

Try This. It may help.

TBH, the first batches of mandarins that ORA is releasing will be the trial phase.....they know the fish eat frozen and pellet in the growout tanks, but it remains to be seen how they do long-term. Personally for now I would treat this like any other mandarin, and make sure there is a backup pod poulation big enough to support the fish. I'm just grateful that these beautiful animals may see at least a decline in wild harvest.

I'll be following this thread with some interest - please let us know if/when your spotted mandarin starts taking frozen/pellets again.

The aquaculture business is something of a catch-22 in many ways. Responsible aquarists will buy the aquacultured animals because, among other things, we can impact our oceans less by doing so. However, uneducated hobbyists or newbies (and let's face it, there's more of them than us!) will undoubtedly still go for the wild-caught - and much cheaper - animals instead. These are the same people who may not research their purchases first, and likely cause the animal's death. Unless we can prove that ORA animals have a MUCH better survival rate due to their improved feeding, I don't see the market for wild caught animals dropping very much. :-/ I would love to get one of these beautiful little buggers for my seahorse tank - at 37 gallons and no 'fuge, it's much too small for a wild animal. Maybe I can scrape the $60.00 together for a tank bred one.

As for myself, I'd say I'm somewhere between an educated hobbyist and an uneducated one. Learning new stuff every day, even after all this time!

+1 novahobbies That is going to be so true with many out there. Also, you can train a dog to eat dog food from when they are a puppy, but if you put a bowl of meat on the floor next to its food what do you think the dog would eat first? The dog is going to eat the meat that is in the bowl because that is what it would do if it were in the wild. It is in the nature of the animal to eat what it would naturally in the wild, then to eat what it has been trained to do. Eating pods for a Mandarin is what is in its nature to do if it were in the wild so it must be in its nature to do this same thing when its is in the home Aquarium. Yes, It has been captive breed but I assume that it was a wild caught pair that produced these off spring., or the offspring that have produced the ones that are no available. I am new to SWF but I have been reading and researching on SWF for over a year before I set up a tank, so you may take this with a grain of salt, but its would only be common sense to think that if you are offering this fish its natural food that it would have in the wild, it would choose that over a prepared food.
Just my .02