fishymissy
Member
I don't have one, and really, I don't plan on one either. It's just that this has kinda been bothering me, the whole mandarin only eating live food thing. Why couldn't you train one to eat "dead" foods....just like you train a lionfish, or any other wild caught animal that is used to live foods?
Here's why this has me wondering. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a diamond gobie. Cute little thing that proceeded to cover everything in the tank with sand. While he was still in that tank, he never once tried any of the food the other fish were eating. Didn't even look at it. Now, I'm sure he was getting some of the food when he scooped up the sand, but he never attempted to take the food while it was in the water column. After a little while, I couldn't stand him covering everything so I moved him into his own little tank (10g with sand and filter media from the main tank). The only decor is a fake cave. At first, when it was feeding time he would just ignore the food, then after a couple of days, he seemed to notice the food floating around. A day or so later and he was taking the food while it was still floating around. I'm wondering why you couldn't do the same thing with a mandarin. Has anyone ever tried to do this with one? Perhaps the key is a small tank with only the mandarin in there while training.
Any thoughts?
Here's why this has me wondering. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a diamond gobie. Cute little thing that proceeded to cover everything in the tank with sand. While he was still in that tank, he never once tried any of the food the other fish were eating. Didn't even look at it. Now, I'm sure he was getting some of the food when he scooped up the sand, but he never attempted to take the food while it was in the water column. After a little while, I couldn't stand him covering everything so I moved him into his own little tank (10g with sand and filter media from the main tank). The only decor is a fake cave. At first, when it was feeding time he would just ignore the food, then after a couple of days, he seemed to notice the food floating around. A day or so later and he was taking the food while it was still floating around. I'm wondering why you couldn't do the same thing with a mandarin. Has anyone ever tried to do this with one? Perhaps the key is a small tank with only the mandarin in there while training.
Any thoughts?
