hope for the manderian.....

[nm reef]

After waiting until a large pod population had established.....I added one to my reef..........right away he was busy picking and eating pods...........this evening I saw him munch 4 brine shrimp(frozen) that I was feeding to the rest of my reef friends............looks to me like hes fat and happy and starting to vary his diet ......kewl....maybe he'll be a long term keeper......makes me feel much better about taking the risk to add him.....and I must say its well worth the wait.....a gr8 fish

 

[grouperhead]

awesome man! i love to hear stories about mandarins doin good in captivity. even better, he ate some frozen brine. you could try mysis with him as well. did you get a spotted or regular? really cool fish, i hope he does great in your tank. bo

 

[nm reef]

Spotted....with outstanding color...........hes close to 3 inches long and benn active and eating since I put him in...........lucky lucky me.......

 

[pufferlover]

Normally the spotted (or what is actually called the Psychedelic Fish) is able to cope better with tankmates and feeding then the regular Mandrinfish. Members of both families feed predominantly on small marine animals, such as crustaceans, that live among the debris on the seabed. In a tank they do well on commercially avaiable shrimps. The ones I have had that did well would eat live, frozen brine, mysis and live blackworms with gusto. There is a lot of question on how much live rock one needs to sustain itself (I have read as much as 135 pounds) but I have mentioned before I had one that lived 5 years in a little 15 gallon tank that had one piece of live rock plus fake decorations period. The live rock was bought with the fish to get it started eating after that it ate what it found in the substrate and what I mentioned above and did great for 5 years so go figure.

 

[the new guy]

I have heard that manderians can produce a toxin if attacked, is that true?

 

[flydan]

Hey NM reef!
I am sooooo jealous! I'm waiting a few more months to get my mandarin and I'm trying to be patient..... It's hard man!
Glad to hear yours is doing well!
Take care,
Dan'l

 

[playtime]

I am sorry to say that I lost 4 mandarines for various reasons since starting my reef. I added another one about 2 months ago and he's doing great. He eats constantly including brine shrimp and mysis and of coarse cop's. I have the regular but would love to get a psychodelic one as well. Congrat's on keeping the first one you purchased, that is great. They are wonderful fish and add so much beauty to your tank.
Playtime

 

[nm reef]

Thx ya'all....we are extremely pleased and glad we waited before even trying to keep one......tanks had 100 + lbs of rock getting ready for one.......flydan......we considered adding one several times but always help back till we crossed at least the 6 month mark.....finally found one I wanted to risk adding after 8 months........the wait and patience was well worth it.....I seriously believe this guy will be around awhile........by the way it ate thawed brine again today.....got him a spot in one cornor where some food always circulates......he just sits there minding his on business and when something floats by he takes his time to check it out then......munch.....real kewl how he gets his share while the coral beauty juv red coris warsse and tomato clown all go crazy flying around to get all they can as fast as they can........manderian just sit there all peaceful and relaxed.....lmao.....