Mandarin care

[Arnaldo24]

Hello all and thanks in advance for ur help. I have a 72 bow stablished for close to 2 years reef with softies. I have 5 clowns 1 yellow tang 2 pj cardinasl 1 sandsifting goby and 1 watchman. Everything is doing perfect.
My question is. I really want to have a mandarin but i been reading how dificult to feed is. I got my refugium set up but i will need to put the pods in there but how would they make it thru the foam pad before the return pump??.
How often should i add more pods to the refugium or the main tank?? And how should i add them? . Is there any more easy way to succesfully feed them. ??. I dont want to buy 1 so it can die because i didnt do my part right.
Any help and share experience will definitely be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[greybolt03]

Great read....
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/advanced-reefs/139463-some-thoughts-mandarins.html

 

[Dk638]

Mine also eats nutrimar ova frozen food.took it pretty easy. If you add pods to your sump you should be good for a couple of months I would think, I used reef pods by algagen. I'm sure there is more people with more experience then me who will chime in.

 

[Arnaldo24]

Greybolt03. That is a great read my thing is for people less experience with diy projects. Something maybe is already in d market.
Hey bud DK. Skimmer doing awesome by d way. Another of my questions is how they gonna make it thru the foam pad. I can add it to my refugium but then what???

 

[Dk638]

How about cutting like 1/3 of the foam pad off?

 

[Koolaidreef]

Go for it! I added one two months fter transferring everything from the 40 to the 60 gal; it has been thriving over close to three months now. Every month or so my pods reproduce like crazy; the babies are all stuck to the glass in the DT. The key is to turn the refugium lights after a while and they will reproduce. As for the pods in the sump, they will make it to your DT by themselves and are probably already in it. Try using a flashnight a couple hours after the lights have gone out to see them. Hope this helps..

 

[Arnaldo24]

Hey koolaidreef did u put ur pods directly to the main tank or in d refugium??? How often should i get more pods??
And about cutting the foam pad is not a problem as long as they make it thru ??? Are they??

 

[Koolaidreef]

reef

Hey koolaidreef did u put ur pods directly to the main tank or in d refugium??? How often should i get more pods??
And about cutting the foam pad is not a problem as long as they make it thru ??? Are they??

I never spent a dollar on pods. I naturally had them in my tank form lr and Ive seen them both in my display and refuge. Ive noticed a lot of them in the chaeto. If you have an edtablished refuge, they should eventually make it up to the DT with the water flow. Not sure about buying pods and don't want to give out the wrong info. Try the light trick at night so see how much you have.

 

[Dk638]

I have a black porous pad before my return pump section and they make it through, a white fine filter pad would be a little harder for them to get through though. The ova frozen food is a good supplement though, mine is Fat! Glad the skimmer worked out for you.

 

[tunicata]

I just want to stop by to your thread to say that I am glad that you are doing your research BEFORE you purchase.

High five!

 

[Arnaldo24]

Thanks man i appreciate the high 5. I will really hate to kill the fish because of my lack of knowledge.

 

[Buck0land]

Try to buy a captive bred mandarin. They tend to eat pellet food along with the pods in your tank.

 

[Jan]

I have had a mated pair for about 1.5 years now. I paired them myself. I started with a little male and then about 6 months later found a female.

I make piles of rubble rock in the back corners of my DT so pods can reproduce. I've never had to add pods. My mandarins are fat, healthy, very active and mate often.

I like to keep things simple and keep my DT as close to what is found in the oceans.

Here they are doing their thing

 

[Jan]

one more pic of the happy couple

 

[Arnaldo24]

very nice pictures

 

[Imbarrie]

Awesome pics.
I have a pair in my 150. I was lucky enough to find a large male that ate frozen. After that I added a small female and they have been together almost a year. She is always pregnant and they chase each other around.

Doesnt ORA breed these?

 

[Jan]

Thank you. These are my favorite fish.

Yes, ORA breeds Mandarins that eat frozen foods. From what I understand they can be pricey and not that easy to find.

 

[Imbarrie]

But I would gladly pay more for a mandarin that eats frozen and plays well with others than take a chance with the store bought ones.

 

[edd]

i always wanted a pair, but didn't buy them from everything i read about them. didn't want them to starve to death. but after reading this thread, i think i will buy one for now, and see how it does. if it does well i will get it a mate. thank you for the info.

 

[marrone]

Don't just buy one from what you've read in this thread, they're still very hard to keep and even the ones that eat frozen don't usually make it. The ones from ORA aren't fool proof either, most are very small and skinny and a lot still don't make it. You still need to be able to supply them with Pods on top of the flake or frozen food, so before buying one you need to make sure your tank can support one, let alone get two.