Another Mandarin Question...

[fluidimagery]

I have a newly setup 100g... upgrade from my 1.5yr 25gal.

I was up at Greenwich Aquaria (incredible store... definately a must see) with my wife, mother and father in law and the first thing that caught my wife's eye was a pair of beautiful green (redish) mandarins. I immediately told her not to think about it since the tank is so new... later on in the visit we wound up back at the tank with one of the workers there and we were talking about the Mandarin. He demonstrated that they ate Prepared food (arctic pods, mysis and cyclopeeze) and we were sold.

Now... although the Mandarins do eat prepared foods, I've only seen them nibble on the frozen stuff in my tank. Outside of that they are roaming for pods. There is about 60lbs of live rock transferred over from my 25g / 15g fuge and about 60lbs of base rock. The new tank has a 30g fuge which is a transfer from the old setup with a big clump of cheato etc.

I want to prepare right for our new pets so I ordered 5 bottles of OceanPods which should be arriving tomorrow and am wondering how I should dispense them. I plan on putting at least 1 bottle in the fuge which only has a Serpent star in it. Then I plan on creating a rock pile so the pods have a place in the display to :bunnies:

Should I put all 5 bottles in at once? I hear they'll live for up to 3 months in the bottles at room temp. I don't really want to get involved with a culture since I've heard mixed results.

 

[DEEPWATER]

I would shut off the pumps ,then put 2 bottles int he sump and 3 in the tank ,I would also put he bottle in the tank at night time when your fish are resting ,also shut the pumps this will allow the pods to get int he rocks qiuck w.out gettting blown around or become fish food fast that is

Good luck

Ronen

 

[scarf_ace1981]

if the pods live for that long in the bottle i would probably add one bottle every 2-3 weeks.

the rock pile in the display is a good idea. i've heard of people putting pod filled rubble in strawberry baskets and carefully placing them in areas of the tank where they can't be seen by the viewer. the strawberry baskets are havens for pods and allows pods to slowly migrate into the display.

if the mandarins are accepting prepared foods that's always good news. btw we need pics.LOL

 

[DEEPWATER]

if the pods live for that long in the bottle i would probably add one bottle every 2-3 weeks.

the rock pile in the display is a good idea. i've heard of people putting pod filled rubble in strawberry baskets and carefully placing them in areas of the tank where they can't be seen by the viewer. the strawberry baskets are havens for pods and allows pods to slowly migrate into the display.

if the mandarins are accepting prepared foods that's always good news. btw we need pics.LOL

I dont think its easy to keep them alive in a bottle for a long time,,that just with my experiance .2 -3 weeks tops i say in a bottle with room temp .

I also say ,why take a chance ,they wont die if you put all if them in your tank

 

[fluidimagery]

Sounds good, I'm going to pick up a few pounds of some LR rubble tomorrow at the LFS. Does having a BB fuge hurt anything as far as pod production?

I also have Cheato in there but no powerhead. I've read that it's better to have the cheato constantly moving... I have about 600gph going through there from my overflow and 1000gph off the return from the skimmer. Both flow through micron filter socks so the water isn't very turbulent and the cheato stays pretty still.

Pics to come later in my tank thread...

 

[fluidimagery]

They eagerly accepted Sally's Mysis tonight I was happy to see.

I took some pics of them, what do you look for to make sure they're getting enough food?

I took some pics of them tonight... it looks like they're doing some sort dance... maybe they're mating? I can't believe it if they were.

 

[KathyC]

Nice pics, beautiful fish!!
Could be spawning behavior...is the male curving his body around the female?

 

[DEEPWATER]

Nice to see those pics ,they are amazing fish ,One of my fav in my tank

..Sweet looking fish

Ronen

 

[fluidimagery]

Thanks, what do I need to look for to make sure they're getting enough food?

 

[DEEPWATER]

Thanks, what do I need to look for to make sure they're getting enough food?

Just watch that they stay fat like they are ,,
these fish are always on the move .as long as they are moving around ,searching for food ,picking on rock ,they should be fine ..

 

[markasm]

where can you get these pods? i tried keeping manderins but they would not eat any kind of food. My wife also loves the manderins, always asks if our one year old tank can sustain them.

thanks
mm

 

[scarf_ace1981]

BB fuge won't hurt. the cheato in my sump is filled w/ pods, so they will love the cheato. some rubble won't hurt they like that too.

my cheato doesn't tumble and i don't know why i hear that all the time. it seems that when i move my cheto i get little bits of it in the display.

you can tell if they are getting food by the way they behave. if you see them swimming around all the time and foraging for food that is a good sign. once they are very still, it's pretty much downhill from there. you can also look @ their bellies. shouldn't be sunk in

 

[aaron23]

wat a lucky lucky catch!!! they are beautiful jeez, great catch. love the pics thanks for sharing.

to make sure they're getting enough foods watch their bellies. underfed mandarins etc develop sunk-in bellies so look out for that

 

[fluidimagery]

Do mine look alright from the pics? They search all day long... or at least when I'm watching.

Anyone have any pics of what a skinny one looks like? I'm more of a visual learner :lol2:

I have pods all over my cheato in the fuge so I tried shaking some out in the display last night unfortunately there were a bunch of tiny cheato pieces that are now in the display but i can fish them out later.

I got the pods from oceanpods.com, you may be able to find them cheaper than $25 a bottle... if you order more than 4 she offers free shipping. I hope to be getting mine today or tomorrow.

I think "manny" might be working on a group buy.

 

[scarf_ace1981]

mwp @ reefcentral has a 40 page thread on mating mandarins. unfortunately he hasn't been able to raise the fry(even after putting in tons of work into it)

not sure it the link will work but some of the pics are really cool.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=824111&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[ellebelle]

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/mandarins.htm

There's a photo of a starving mandarin on that page. Basically, what you're looking for is the line on their side to completely disappear.

 

[DEEPWATER]

Do mine look alright from the pics? They search all day long... or at least when I'm watching.

Anyone have any pics of what a skinny one looks like? I'm more of a visual learner :lol2:

I have pods all over my cheato in the fuge so I tried shaking some out in the display last night unfortunately there were a bunch of tiny cheato pieces that are now in the display but i can fish them out later.

I got the pods from oceanpods.com, you may be able to find them cheaper than $25 a bottle... if you order more than 4 she offers free shipping. I hope to be getting mine today or tomorrow.

I think "manny" might be working on a group buy.

I dont have a pic of a skinny one ,but here my fat mandarin ,,they should look like him He has been in my tank for about 4 years now

 

[fluidimagery]

Cool, thanks for the pic... I've been looking just below the mouth to see if that was full but it always looks different... :scratchch good to know...

Also Ronen, I have another Rod's food to add to the order for a friend.

 

[emps]

There's a thread on reefcentral on making Pod Condos out of gutter guard that you can keep hidden away in the tank for pod :bunnies: 'ing. Along the same lines of the strawberry baskets but these could be portable. Swap'em out for another condo that's in the fuge.

 

[DEEPWATER]

Cool, thanks for the pic... I've been looking just below the mouth to see if that was full but it always looks different... :scratchch good to know...

Also Ronen, I have another Rod's food to add to the order for a friend.

Cool ,,,can you post it on the thread so i can keep track :backtotop: