Mandarin eating frozen food!

[ahmoser]

I just saw a Mandarin eagerly eat a mix of frozen mysis, brine, and reef plankton at my lfs(all of which I currently feed my tank). I think I'm going to try her in my 29 biocube. I am sure I will get flamed for this bigtime, but she is very healthy and fat and like I said she was eating very eagerly! They said they have been feeding her like this for 2 weeks. I also have pods in the DT and a refugium in the back. I am curious to hear comments....... :jumping:

 

[lxoxsxi]

I am, self-admittedly, the last person on this forum to give advice, but here is my initial thought...
If you have pod support in your tank now, I envision the Mandarin starting to feed on them, and dropping the supplemental/frozen/etc habit it has. Then, it won't be long until your pod population is decemated and it begins to starve.
If you plan to go this route, maybe look into doing this to be prepared for the worst.
That page loaded last night fine, but pictures aren't loading for me at the moment, hopefully you can load the page.
EDIT:
Also, the February 2007 issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist has an article on nano-reef mandarins if you can find that issue still.

 

[ahmoser]

I have read that before and am prepared to do so if I need to. It looks like a great way to produce pods. Thanks for your reply, I had not thought that it would stop eating frozen food if introduced to pods. Thanks!

 

[nygel]

it wont stop eating frozen, it will continue this, i have two dragonets in my AGA 29g. Still, supplement some pods and such. if it starts to get skinny, pump in some food. easy task.

 

[ahmoser]

How long have you had them?

 

[nygel]

my scooter for 10.5ish months and the mandarin for 3.5ish. scooter is the example that its good cuz its fat, mandarin is new so I cant say I've had super success with it. But it's doing well currently.