Dumb Choice Part Two

[killafins]

Okay, I put the Thom, my manderin, in a breeding cage and use an eye dropper to force frozen brine shrimp into it. I am attempting for him to realize that the eye dropper means food and for him to come out for it because my toehr fish don't leave any for such a mellow beast. Do you think i should leave him in this cage while i train him to eat this food or should i only put him in their when i go to feed him; which may stress his life a bit. I dunno, that is the question of the day...
Oh yes, for any one interested in hearing about Moridin, my evil hermit... he is great. i have him in a larger breeding net with a full real clam shell and a couple snail shells for him to scavenge through... i m putting his pellet shrip inside the clam shell and trainging him to find his food there... but things are going good...
So my question of this thread is... should ikeep thom in the breeding square things (its pretty small) all the time while i train him to know this is his food or should i put him in there for feeding purposes only which i fear may just stress him out cuz he put up quite the chase today... thanx

 

[a&m aggie 04']

i think some manderins just cant be trained to take brine. You really need a established tank with adequet pod production for them to truely be happy. Other than that i dont know what to tell you. But if he continues to to not eat, id recommend to take him back or you'll lose him.

 

[broncofish]

IMO the whole thing is a bad idea. These guys are used to eating pods(zooplankton) think of it as small size pedigree for a nice little spaniel. Now you lock that spaniel in a cage and stick a bowl full of huge rawhide ones as his only food source. That dog may be fine, and adjust and just eat the big bones, or that dog might never eat and die after a long stressful torture, or that dog may learn to eath the brine but develope a disese from the stress of being confined, and lowering its immune system. Just my .02 if you do to choose to pursue this could you post every so often on how it goes. I promise not to flame, or knock on it either way you go. Glad to hear about the hermit, warms my heart that you did not flush

 

[zafirablanca]

I agree with Broncofish and Aggie. I doubt that you can force feed or train feed a fish. These fish are known to live for several months as they slowly starve to death. How will you know if it is nourshed, even if it does 'eat' for you? IMO, both the Crab and the Mandarin need roaming space and live rock to move around in/ on to have a reasonable quality of life. Consider returning them to the lfs, please.
Good luck,
-Christine

 

[killafins]

okie, i promised i would keep posted about my mandarin and how he was adjusting to brine shrimp food. now, when i purchased him from my LFS he was eating frozen brine shrimp already so the LFS owner told me not to worry about LR... haha.. later m i too find out that the mandarin is too gentle and docile to move after the food unless it is placed right in front of him but when i place it in front of him he runs from me, lmao. Okay, what i do is put a tiny tiny tiny piece of brine shrimp into a warm water and let it defrost to defend the fish from ick... i then put it in an eye drop and tried to give it to him.
Well today i put him in a breeding thing, its small, and i gave him the food and he went mad over it! It would seem that he didn't eat for a thousand years!!! he ate the really small pieces of course and stuff. So anyway, it seemed to be a success, all i need is to give him something small to hide in so he doesn't get stressed out.
Now i honestly believe that this should work again but the reason why i write is because i NEED other people oppinions all the time. I am caring for life and i am GOING to make mistakes and with help i can prevent killing fish, lmao. To be more honest, i have had great luck with this tank and think its working out just fine.
If you have any comments on this experiment, please inform me so i can change something, add something, try a different food. For my goal is to get him to recognize the eye drop as a source of food, not necessaryly to adjust him to like brine shrimp. I would do live rock if i had some money to do it.
And of course i will admit it, it was a large mistake buying a mandarin, but u must admit... they seem to cast a spell of beauty on u...
--Erik

 

[killafins]

I apologize but i honestly believe i did the best thing for my crab... he climbs all the time, tries to pinch my none stop... we have a loving relationship. The reason what turned me away from the LFS is that A) what happens if he kills fish at the LFS, they may kill him or do the same thing i m doing, B) What happens if someone buys moridin and he kills their crabs just to return him again and risk A-E again. C) Someone buys Moridin and he kills all the fish or something and the owner kills the beast. D) Someone buys Moridin, Moridin kills allt he fish and Moridin goes into the same situation I have him now, or E)Someone buys Moridin and doesnt' know how to care for him properly. I will be completely honest, this hermit crab doestn' clean my tank. I have to feed him. And his situation isn't permanent, i have a 55 gallon tank where i hope to have a lion fish or a puffer fish or something. Something big so that the crab will leave it alone. I will release him in there so that it can live happily. So yes, for the crab I did what i felt best and I got attached to the beast. Thank you for your concern though, it makes me feel good that people think about fish before money.
Of course, some people are forced to do that (like me) cuz i can't afford everything i fish needs... ps... i m quite mad at my LFS for not informing me completely about Thom.
--Erik

 

[chef jaysen]

Have you tried live brine shrimp for your mandarin. Mine thinks its heaven and goes hog wild over it. If you can find some I would give it a shot. Its like .75 for a tub of it here. Plus the other fish love it............................good luck