I have a question about the Green Mandarin?

[reiple]

I forgot who gave this suggestion (anecdotal of course) but it seems workable ----

"place some PVCs buried under your LR between the LR and the DSB. For pod haven. this way pods will populate your tank and not exposed to predators."

another --- create a pod tank.

"dump in a small tank skimmate and seawater. allow pod to populate. harvest. low flow only and expose to sunlight. remember to put a heater."

and as you know already....no wrasse, seahorse, etc,etc. which will compete with your mandarin. lots of LR in your tank and ref.

[msn711]

Very good suggestions...maybe the wrasses can wait...fairy wrasses aren't cheap by a long shot, and it'll be hard to pull of a harem to really get the full effect of having a supermale around. I'd hate to get say a scott's velvet and have it lose the colors for lack of females. More thinking and planning to do.

[PeTe PoLyP]

I know that a mandarin has a diet of pods in the aquarium. My question is....Will they eat live baby brine shrimp? Has anyone ever tried this?

[ReefSilly]

Well i have one i just bought 5mon. ago i called my self doing some homework but as i have been reading some of the forums i now see it was a mistake! Her name is mandy and i but here in my 55 reef. I have tried every kind of food plus live baby brime shrimp she will not eat anything i offer but critters on rock. I had lots of pods at one time but have not been see any lately so im worried about what she gonna eat now! I ask my dealer to get me some live black worms but he said if she want eat the live brime shrimp that she want eat them either. Its gonna break my heart if she starve to death. Some of the reading i done said they would it frozen foods but not mine.
Any help for the both of us would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!

[blue_monkey]

Some mandarins will adapt and eat live or frozen foods. The trouble with brine is that they have very low nutritional value unless they are "gut-loaded" with vitamin enriched foods. You can inprove your chance of sucess with a Mandarin by building "pod piles" in your aquarium. These are piles of rubble that the pods will find safety in and reproduce. Refugiums are another good way to improve the pod population and food supply. You should also avoid wrasses and other pod-eating species in your system since they will diminish the Mandarin's food supply.

None of this ensures success. The best approach is to wait until you find one at the LFS that will eat frozen foods and is not starving at the time.

[cheeks69]

Even if they accepted brine which is a good possibility it really has no nutritional value and without a constant source of pods they will still starve unless you can teach them to accept prepared foods. They really need a very mature tank with alot of LR to survive.

Maybe adding a refugium were you can grow pods without fear of predation would be a good way to provide a constant food source for them.


Feeding a Mandarin part

Feeding Mandarins part 2

[ReefSilly]

I do have lots of live rock (100lbs in the 55) and also a 6 line wrasse that eats all kinds of worms thats why i moved him out of one tank to my reef tank the worms were getting out of hand but his done his job so maybe i move him back now and get a refugium any good ideals are links on one!!
Thanks for helping
Love my fish to much to just let one die!!!

[phil519]

As an interim solution you could buy pods online to help repopulate until you get your fug up and running.

[ReefSilly]

Well I'm gonna buy some pods im gonna start looking now

The 6 line is there to stay i cant get him with out takeing the whole tank apart and i anit doing that!!!

[wyliecoyote]

I've never been able to introduce a mandarin into a talk that had a six line wrasse in it. The six lines have always beaten the mandarins to death in a matter of days.