E
eric b 125
Guest
i've had a mandarin for a few months now. i have a 125 gallon with around 125-150 lbs of LR. the sand and LR were from established tanks and everything was in the 125 for, i'd say, 8 months before the mandarin was introduced. honestly, i thought the fish was happy and healthy... then i saw a happy and healthy one and that pretty much put me into panic mode. my fish wasnt to the point of emaciation, but was on its way. i gutted a HOB filter and filled it with rubble and added 1 1/2 bottles of tigger pods to it, and tried to spot feed the mandarin with the remaining 1/2 bottle. a few weeks have gone by and i've noticed a big change in the mandarin's appearance and behavior. i should have my tank drilled, sump'ed and fuge'ed by years end, btw.
the reason i posted this was because i've witnessed a lot of posts saying you need a lot of established LR and a decent sized tank to have a mandarin. my point is: mandarins eat hundreds of pods every day, whether they are 'trained' to eat frozen foods or not. considering a bottle of pods around here is $20 and there's only a few hundred in the bottle, a safe breeding ground for the pods is also an absolute. feeding the rest of my fish a varied diet of quality foods is expensive enough, let alone adding ~$40/wk on pods for just one fish.
the reason i posted this was because i've witnessed a lot of posts saying you need a lot of established LR and a decent sized tank to have a mandarin. my point is: mandarins eat hundreds of pods every day, whether they are 'trained' to eat frozen foods or not. considering a bottle of pods around here is $20 and there's only a few hundred in the bottle, a safe breeding ground for the pods is also an absolute. feeding the rest of my fish a varied diet of quality foods is expensive enough, let alone adding ~$40/wk on pods for just one fish.
