Mandarinfish diet

[mandarin blennie goby 2]

Hello,
I just Bought 2 Mandarin blennies from saltwaterfish.com ,i would like to know what is the normal diet for a Mandarin Blenny aka Mandrin Goby ?
Thank you,
Mike.

 

[jacksonpt]

oish... you really should have researched this before you bought them. The feed on copepods... a small, white bug-like creature that may or may not be living in your tank. Most mandarins will eat only pods, so if you don't have enough, they will starve (some mandarins have been know to eat brine shrimp, no guarantees though). How big is your tank, how long has it been running, do you have any LR, if so, how much???
It's crucial that you have lots of pods for your mandarin to survive... having 2 mandarins will only make it harder. It may be worth looking for an LFS near you that will take them off your hands for you until you know more about them.

 

[wrigley11]

Okay on the Mandarin questions... you have two options.
1. Give the fish to someone else or a lfs so someone who can take proper care of the fish can have them.
2. Supply them with live food that they will eat. This is a lot of work, but is the only thing you can do if you plan on keeping the fish.
Since you already have the fish there is now way you can actually build up your pod population to support two of them. If your tank does not have live rock you wont even have a population to start with.
So we need to supply them with something else. I have heard of them eating frozen mysis shrimp but I've maybe seen 1 out of a 1000 do it ( the pair is in my reef and you can not have them ) so you'll have to supply them with food.
There are two that I know of that work... The live adult brine shrimp - the larger ones, someone help me out with the name here - and black worms. Both most be alive and both have problems.
First the Brine Shrimp - They have no real nutriental value so you have to gut load them with something. Must people use Selcon that I know. The other problem is you have to find a lfs that sells the stuff because the smaller one that you hatch really are more work then they are worth. You can grow them and keep them alive but it's a lot of work.
The second one is black worms: they are easy to keep - in the frig in a small sealed container, make sure to change the water they live in each time you feed them because they live in their own waste. Not exactly something you want to feed your fish or put in the tank. The other problem is black worms can come with leeches that you really don't eant your fish eatting.
There is one other problem that can come with using any of the above food sources. Mandarin fish are not whales and shouldn't look like one... this land foods tend to fatten the fish up to much. This will cut down the fishes life by more then half ( the fish should live 7 - 9 years but most that are supplied with land based foods die in 3).
That's about all the help I can give... if you use any of the foods I mentioned just remember to not over feed the fish and you should be okay.
If you can not do any of the above trade the fish in at a lfs or something. They are beautiful fish but have special requirments that are not easy to meet.
Hope this helps.

 

[wicked_clown]

Guess i should feel lucky then...My mandrine eats brine.

 

[krusk]

How often this Copepods reproduce?
I have about 80 lbls of Live rock in my tank
and I have 1 green spot madarin
Is it enough or should I get more live rock?
Thanks

 

[kevinkennedy]

I was wondering if any of you had tried feeding your mandarins blood worms... mine has been living off a diet of blood worms for quite some time, I just turn off the filter and drop the frozen worms in and when they fall to the bottom they go crazy over it!!

 

[wrigley11]

Blood worms - black worms are still land based food. I can see them eating it, but if they eat frozen feel lucky.
The problem you still will have id fat buildup in your fish. This will cut the fish's live span by half at least.
And about pods reproducing... If you have 80 pounds of live rock and you mandarine looks healthy don't work about it.

 

[fshhub]

pods reproduce very rapidly, i forget exactly, bu it is lide weekly, they do reproduce fst enough, if you have an setablished tank, with 80 lbs, that is plenty in most cases for one, 2 i'm not sure, it more depends on lthe pod population and if the fish takes food too,
watch them, if one or both are not eating, or getting slim, put one in each tank(if possible)

 

[robert d]

my mandarin goby wats bloodworms like they are going out of style. We have had him for several months. Didn't notice him doing this until a few months ago. We have plenty of live rock and never noticed him eating bloodworms before. He eats them like crazy now!!