Mandarin Goby and Banded Pipefish Feeding

[justinsreef]

What is anyone else feeding there Mandarin Goby or a Banded Pipefish?

I tried mysis today it was not affective and I am going to try brine shrimp live and frozen. I have seen the Mandarin eat off the rocks and sand though, but it is eating. I have not seen the Pipefish eat it follows the food but dose not eat it.

 

[petjunkie]

They both eat pods and can be very difficult to switch to frozen food, the pipefish may be easier. What size tank is this and how much live rock as these fish won't live very long without enough pods to eat and they are competing for them so that's even less.

 

[justinsreef]

They are in a 75 gallon tank and about 125+ pounds of rock.I am seeing the Mandarin eating off the rock alot more now.

 

[promisetbg]

Banded pipefish will not take to prepared foods as a rule. They both need live copepods... have you considered adding a refugium to your set-up? If this is'nt an option, at least try this... place a couple small piles of LR rubble in the back of the tank. Add some live copepods periodically{I do every couple months} and feed them with live phytoplankton. The pods will inhabit the rubble piles, giving them a place to breed where the fish can't eat them all.Mandarins do not eat "off the rock"..they will pick at it in search for the live food they seek. Try feeding piscine brand frozen mysis, cyclop-eeze, rotifers. Frozen brine shrimp & live adults are not a nutritious diet for marine fish unless the live adults are gutloaded with selcon. A better choice is de-capped brine shrimp eggs which come refridgerated. You just drop a tiny bit in, and in 24-48 hrs the baby brine shrimp will hatch. Baby brine is a nutritious source of food as well as the live copepods. Sometimes hobbyists make the mistake of either misidentifying the 'pods' in their tank and assuming they have copepods. Copepods should be added, as I said...to insure they are in fact in the tank at all times.