MANDARINS- ANYONE HAVE SUCCESS WITH THEM

[dark waters]

I took a vid of her eating one of the 10 I was able to pick out of my currently feeble culture. I tried to use the food dish but the 6 line demolished them before she could get to it so I dropped one behind the rocks for her. I'll try and get a better one here once my culture is producing better. I'll upload it tonight. I'm off to bed just got off graveyard shift

Ok thanks for your efforts

 

[Goldenvue]

Yep mine eats pe mysis and had it for about 3 yrs

 

[dark waters]

food dish is the best way to go. Pretty sure I've already posted vids of mandarins eating bloodworms and mysis from one but if not here's one from my old tank. I'm still trying to devise a good feeding dish for this tank. I got something on order to try

Ok I'm a believer now....lol.....awesome vid

 

[Jason edwards]

Yea once you can get them conditioned to a food dish they will eat just about anything if you put it in there. It's all routine. Pumps go off it must be feeding time. Takes some work and time for them to recognize thats where the food is but if you start with something live like white worms and mix in some frozen they will grab some frozen too and soon realize it's good stuff. Like hiding vegetables in your kids favorite food lol

 

[jerseypete]

Well I picked this guy up from lfs. He's skinny. Maybe 2in. My tank has tons of pods. Tried live brine last night. But it seemed they were 2 big. He didn't even try for them. But hopefully I can fatten him up. I have a mandarin also who did even give him another look. Hopefully he will see the mandarin eating. My Mandy eats frozen mysis and brine. And live brine.

 

[dark waters]

Well I picked this guy up from lfs. He's skinny. Maybe 2in. My tank has tons of pods. Tried live brine last night. But it seemed they were 2 big. He didn't even try for them. But hopefully I can fatten him up. I have a mandarin also who did even give him another look. Hopefully he will see the mandarin eating. My Mandy eats frozen mysis and brine. And live brine.

AWESOME....BUT FROM MY UNDERSTANDING BRINE IS NOT REALLY NUTRITIOUS FOR THEM.... AND I HOPE YOU GET THE SCOOTER GOING WELL

 

[rjl45]

This is simply not true. I have only ever bought wild caught mandarins and they can all be trained to eat frozen.

I have read a number of training methods, but have not had success with my mandarin. Could share your methods? I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[rjl45]

Yea once you can get them conditioned to a food dish they will eat just about anything if you put it in there. It's all routine. Pumps go off it must be feeding time. Takes some work and time for them to recognize thats where the food is but if you start with something live like white worms and mix in some frozen they will grab some frozen too and soon realize it's good stuff. Like hiding vegetables in your kids favorite food lol

Any suggestions on getting them conditioned to food that will stay in the dish? So far, mine will only eat copepods.
Kind of difficult to get the pods to stay lol.

With mandarin's being creatures of habbit, I could easily see the dish working, once they are conditioned to eat something that doesn't swim away.

 

[dark waters]

I'm all ears on this one too....

 

[jerseypete]

AWESOME....BUT FROM MY UNDERSTANDING BRINE IS NOT REALLY NUTRITIOUS FOR THEM.... AND I HOPE YOU GET THE SCOOTER GOING WELL

No brine isn't the best but it gets them eating other things. It's how I got my first mandarin eating frozen mysis. I put some frozen right where he was eating live brine. After he tried one that was it. He never stopped eating them after that. Live brine is the easiest to get them started on cause its moving.

 

[dark waters]

Hey everyone check this out and let me know your thoughts...

Looking over all info shared on the thread...what do you this of this plan....

1. Creating a separate tank just for a male and female trained mandy. A Male and female will have less chance of fighting...

2. Plumb the mandy tank to receive water from the sump system independently. Make sure the mandy pump has an ajustable flow rate the will not make the other systems flood.

3. In the mandy habitat.... have a section where the mandys can't get to and make to area a copepods farm...as the copepod population grows some will be eaten by the mandys and some will naturally dose the sump and the display tank eventually. Have the copepod section have plenty of nest material such as poly filter or cheato.

4. Water flow and filtration will come from the mandy tank pump being connected to the main sump... the mandy tank water will get filtered again before the it hits the display tank.

5. Im thinking a 20 long would be big enough for them to roam around but small enough to train and monitor copepod dosing.....

6. Along with copepods dosing a regular supply of phytoplankton to keep the pods feed....but not so much it turns the water green of course.

LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS..... AND THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR INPUT

 

[jerseypete]

One of the best thing I use for pod is a media bag filled with the ceramic balls. The kind for canister filters. I had to remove all my rock from my fuge cause of pest majano 's
I put a bag of this just in case. I removed like 30 lbs of rock. I don't know what it is but this bag had 1000's of pods crawling all over it. Many were huge. Like they grew so big they couldn't get out of the bag. I tried the media bag with the live rock rubble and it was ok. But with the ceramic media there was 20x's the amount of pods. Don't know why. I kept in in my sump where there isn't any light. Every once in a whole I'll pull the bag and put it in the display for a while. The first night the red dragnet didn't seem to catch on. Thinking of getting a small dish and placing some media with a not so fine mesh covering the top and see if I can get the dragnet feeding on that.

 

[dark waters]

No brine isn't the best but it gets them eating other things. It's how I got my first mandarin eating frozen mysis. I put some frozen right where he was eating live brine. After he tried one that was it. He never stopped eating them after that. Live brine is the easiest to get them started on cause its moving.

Oh ok gotcha....

 

[jerseypete]

Hey everyone check this out and let me know your thoughts...

Looking over all info shared on the thread...what do you this of this plan....

1. Creating a separate tank just for a male and female trained mandy. A Male and female will have less chance of fighting...

2. Plumb the mandy tank to receive water from the sump system independently. Make sure the mandy pump has an ajustable flow rate the will not make the other systems flood.

3. In the mandy habitat.... have a section where the mandys can't get to and make to area a copepods farm...as the copepod population grows some will be eaten by the mandys and some will naturally dose the sump and the display tank eventually. Have the copepod section have plenty of nest material such as poly filter or cheato.

4. Water flow and filtration will come from the mandy tank pump being connected to the main sump... the mandy tank water will get filtered again before the it hits the display tank.

5. Im thinking a 20 long would be big enough for them to roam around but small enough to train and monitor copepod dosing.....

6. Along with copepods dosing a regular supply of phytoplankton to keep the pods feed....but not so much it turns the water green of course.

LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS..... AND THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR INPUT

Seems like just putting them in a fuge.

 

[dark waters]

Ok cool....a mandy fuse designed only for them...lol....I was looking for thoughts on the design lol...

 

[jerseypete]

Hey everyone check this out and let me know your thoughts...

Looking over all info shared on the thread...what do you this of this plan....

1. Creating a separate tank just for a male and female trained mandy. A Male and female will have less chance of fighting...

2. Plumb the mandy tank to receive water from the sump system independently. Make sure the mandy pump has an ajustable flow rate the will not make the other systems flood.

3. In the mandy habitat.... have a section where the mandys can't get to and make to area a copepods farm...as the copepod population grows some will be eaten by the mandys and some will naturally dose the sump and the display tank eventually. Have the copepod section have plenty of nest material such as poly filter or cheato.

4. Water flow and filtration will come from the mandy tank pump being connected to the main sump... the mandy tank water will get filtered again before the it hits the display tank.

5. Im thinking a 20 long would be big enough for them to roam around but small enough to train and monitor copepod dosing.....

6. Along with copepods dosing a regular supply of phytoplankton to keep the pods feed....but not so much it turns the water green of course.

LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS..... AND THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR INPUT

My fuge is plumbed like this. It has a built in overflow in the back. That drains into the sump. The water feed to the fuge comes from the tank return. Has a valve to adjust flow. It also has an emergency overflow at the top rear that drains into sump. Just incase. This picture is 2 yrs old. It was the first day I started my tank

 

[dark waters]

My fuge is plumbed like this. It has a built in overflow in the back. That drains into the sump. The water feed to the fuge comes from the tank return. Has a valve to adjust flow. It also has an emergency overflow at the top rear that drains into sump. Just incase. This picture is 2 yrs old. It was the first day I started my tank

Nice set up but I want to have the mandy habitat up hight to enjoy like a second display....you know what I mean...

 

[jerseypete]

Yea. That was my intention with the fuge. But it just didn't work out that way.

 

[dark waters]

Yea. That was my intention with the fuge. But it just didn't work out that way.

Ya I think it has to do with physics or something....like 2 to 1 gallon ratio... if anyone know the flow rate formula letting me know

 

[jerseypete]

Ya I think it has to do with physics or something....like 2 to 1 gallon ratio... if anyone know the flow rate formula letting me know

Meaning I wanted it up top next to tank but was limited on space. It's in my livingroom. But it's a well designed layout. Lifereef made the sump fuge skimmer