? about my Green Mandarin Dragonet

[tinydove]

Hey All

I was wondering If anyone knows if it is normal for a Green Mandarin Dragonet to eat frozen mysis shrimp? My little guy seems to just love them
I was told that they eat mainly pods in a tank that has been set up for at least 6 months. I was also told of a frozen food called cyclopes (spelling) which I did buy.
Will the mysis be enough for him or should I also give him the cyclopes...spelling?

 

[thomas712]

Best you can do is try and see what happens, you should take note if he eats anything but live pods, if he does your lucky, very lucky indeed IMO, IME.
Let us know if he eats the cyclop-eeze, or mysis shrimp, I suspect the mysis could be a little large for him unless he tears it apart.
Thomas

 

[tinydove]

See that is the thing....he DOES eat the mysis shrimp...he just swallows the lil' suckers right down and he Does eat the cyclopes.....I was wondering if it is normal for them to eat the shrimp. He is getting quiet fat...lol I have had him for about 6 months now.

 

[thomas712]

Well its not normal at all, few and far between is the mandarin that will accept frozen foods, though I've heard that they can be trained. They normally only eat live pods.
Count yourself blessed among the chosen few.
Little Egg Harbor? I've got lots of Quaker records from that area, had lots of relitives from that area from way back.

Thomas

 

[chandler04]

Holy crap, can I have yer mandarin?!?!?!?!? YOu have discovered a super mandarin. Watch out, FBI may bust down yer doors any second now with a net and baggy in hand, lol. Yer one lucky person. VERY VERY LUCKY! Let it eat to its hearts content....

 

[thedraven]

Lucky guy indeed. Its super rare for a mandarin to accept any other foods (besides pods), so consider it a blessing. Then carefully package him, throw him on a plane, and send him to me.

 

[wid]

mine died within the qt period, won take any frozen at all.
Wid

 

[tizzo]

Originally posted by tinydove
See that is the thing....he DOES eat the mysis shrimp...he just swallows the lil' suckers right down and he Does eat the cyclopes.....I was wondering if it is normal for them to eat the shrimp. He is getting quiet fat...lol I have had him for about 6 months now.
He's getting fat on an Atkin's??? What is this world coming to??
You are very lucky and if for some reason you ever have to get rid of him, I got first dibs!!
By the way. You do realize that they get to be about 9 inches long and your tank is just a little to small, so I think you should just send him to me now.
OK, I'm kidding. But at the rate he's chowin' down... maybe he WILL get to big!

 

[donnelr]

Quick question, where can I find the food that we are discussing? Cyclopes or cyclop-eeze? My LFS does not carry this product and I am getting worried that my mandarin has cleaned out my pod population. Any help would be greatly apprciated. Thanks.

 

[schneidts]

Our Psychedelic Mandarin eats lots of different foods. I certainly don't want to encourage anyone, this is NOT common. I could really care less if he eats prepared foods or not, there is a virtual endless supply of amphipods and the like for him to munch on. When we got ours, we did not QT him. A couple articles I've read explain that they have a poisonous slime coat, and they are not subject to parasite infestation.
P.S. I suspect mine is actually a target mandarin, not a psychedelic, but I bought it from here under the name of Psychedelic...either way he's beautiful.