hey lordroad or to who ever is reading this thread. I have a mandrain goby in my 20gallons tank for two week now. I haven't see him eat any of the food I fed him. He seem to be doing fine, just grazing over the rocks and picking on the rocks. I target feed him enriched brine and roe, but never witness him eating those. After feeding him the enriched brine and roe, a couple of hours later(powerhead and filter turn off) I looked at the places where the roe would fall on but the roe where no place to be seen. My question is, is he eating the roe or what? The roe disappeared after a few hours. I try to look at his stomach but I don't notice if his stomach is getting fat or still the same size. How could you tell??
The Mandarin Candidate
- Thread starter lordroad
- Start date
did you have the lfs feed him before you got him? did you do any research on mandarins before you went to pick him up??? mandarins are for the most part not meant to be kept in tanks, sure a large reef at about 75 gallons would do, but nothing smaller, their food that they hunt in the wild are the pods that live and grow on the rocks, and since they are not bread in tanks, it is hard to ween then onto frozen food. lordroad made sure that the mandarin would eat at the lfs, and he did his research, he was also very lucky to find a mandarin like that, if i were you i would take the mandarin back to the lfs.
Yea, after reading lordroad's threads and did some research, I decided to buy this mandrain and try to ween him into roe. I feel pretty confident that he will eat the roe at one point, but no so sure anymore. I don't know if he is eating the roe or not, he did not come and get it right away, but a few hours later, the roes are all gone. I might have to end up buying pods for him or give him away.
Hi saltwater84, let me apologize first for neglecting the thread. I've had a lot of personal stuff going on lately and just missed it.
First, if you haven't seen your fish eating let's assume it's not eating. My first mandarin was like this and I assumed and it ended badly...
But you say it's accepting frozen brine which is a great sign. Try the mysis or mysid shrimp like kahlua said as brine shrimp is basically water... a good way of doing this is mixing the frozen brine with the mysid and then target feeding. Also you can try direct target feeding into an olive jar dropped into the tank so the mandarin can have a buffet so to speak, before the crabs and snails get there.
Also, I disagree about giving him away. I am cynical when it comes to LFS's and mandarins and buyers, so I would have only given my fish away to people I know personally in a reef club who I know would provide a better chance for the fish. LFS's will likely just sell him to the first person, no questions asked, and the chances are the fish would have been better off in your tank than in someone else's as you understand their feeding requirements.
Begin by mixing a little of the mysis in with the frozen brine. You can use a cheap plastic measuring cup and some tank water to do this, and gradually increase to mysis as you watch the mandarin eating.
Good luck with your mandarin...
(You could also try pieces of marine cuisine, Cyclo-peeze ((frozen variety)), or even bloodworms, as all of these will offer some form of the proper nutrition.)
First, if you haven't seen your fish eating let's assume it's not eating. My first mandarin was like this and I assumed and it ended badly...
But you say it's accepting frozen brine which is a great sign. Try the mysis or mysid shrimp like kahlua said as brine shrimp is basically water... a good way of doing this is mixing the frozen brine with the mysid and then target feeding. Also you can try direct target feeding into an olive jar dropped into the tank so the mandarin can have a buffet so to speak, before the crabs and snails get there.
Also, I disagree about giving him away. I am cynical when it comes to LFS's and mandarins and buyers, so I would have only given my fish away to people I know personally in a reef club who I know would provide a better chance for the fish. LFS's will likely just sell him to the first person, no questions asked, and the chances are the fish would have been better off in your tank than in someone else's as you understand their feeding requirements.
Begin by mixing a little of the mysis in with the frozen brine. You can use a cheap plastic measuring cup and some tank water to do this, and gradually increase to mysis as you watch the mandarin eating.
Good luck with your mandarin...
(You could also try pieces of marine cuisine, Cyclo-peeze ((frozen variety)), or even bloodworms, as all of these will offer some form of the proper nutrition.)
Thanks your advices and replying Lordroad. I have try doing a mandarin dinner with the roe before by using a jar, but it didn't work so I'm going to try it like you said. It is weird, the roe outside of the jar seem to disappear within a few hours, I don't know who is eating them. Anyways, I am so gald he is eating brine. I have a scooter blenny and he is eating brine, mysid, and pieces of krill. I hope that my mandrain will accept those food as well.
The mandarin is still kicking, and so am I.
First, some up to date pictures:
And now a very high res picture...
My roe supply has dwindled and I've found it very tough to find it in this area. The online retailers I've contacted have either refused to give me the ingredients on their products or the language barrier is so bad communication is impossible. I've unfortunately had to begin using a product that is much more processed than I'd like, but the mandarin, as well as his girlfriend the clownfish and numerous inverts like an open brain coral and starfish, seem to show no adverse affects in the week I've been giving them this new stuff. Only time will tell, however...
In the meantime, if your mandarin eats roe, do the best you can to grab the unseasoned variety... unfortunately, "unseasoned" still contains yellow and/or red dyes, but the salt content is minimal and there shouldn't be any MSG or soy. A lot of fish food actually contains soy so it probably isn't that bad.
I've also learned that roe will go bad over time, at least that's what I think. When you reach the dregs of the box of roe, I've found the eggs don't seem to have the same nutritional punch as they did when you first cracked the box... my mandarin needs a lot more to be plump and spits out more eggs. Maybe the ones on the bottom are mostly water and dye... who knows. This is all really conjecture and I'm just going by what I've observed circumstantially.
Now that I'm using a processed roe product I'm very conscious of letting the roe settle in a small cup of tank water before sucking it up in the turkey baster. The roe will fall to the bottom of the baster while the dyed orange/red water will stay at the top... I shake the eggs out of the baster, getting as little dye into the water as possible.
Unfortunately, despite what you may hear or what some manufacturers/distributors will tell you, all available frozen sushi roe is dyed in some form, according to what I've learned from a chef as well as my own experience. But there's a lot of crap and chemicals in fish food, even the premium stuff, so hopefully it's not too bad.
I know a lot of these crazy-*** mandarin threads like mine dwindle over time as the author will disappear for some reason or other. I'm sorry again for my long hiatus in updating but I promise I will keep things going here on this subject... thing is there really hasn't been much to tell, as the mandarin himself goes.
I'm still trying to get a really good "cheeky" shot like I have in my avatar but as of yet I've had no success.
First, some up to date pictures:
And now a very high res picture...
My roe supply has dwindled and I've found it very tough to find it in this area. The online retailers I've contacted have either refused to give me the ingredients on their products or the language barrier is so bad communication is impossible. I've unfortunately had to begin using a product that is much more processed than I'd like, but the mandarin, as well as his girlfriend the clownfish and numerous inverts like an open brain coral and starfish, seem to show no adverse affects in the week I've been giving them this new stuff. Only time will tell, however...
In the meantime, if your mandarin eats roe, do the best you can to grab the unseasoned variety... unfortunately, "unseasoned" still contains yellow and/or red dyes, but the salt content is minimal and there shouldn't be any MSG or soy. A lot of fish food actually contains soy so it probably isn't that bad.
I've also learned that roe will go bad over time, at least that's what I think. When you reach the dregs of the box of roe, I've found the eggs don't seem to have the same nutritional punch as they did when you first cracked the box... my mandarin needs a lot more to be plump and spits out more eggs. Maybe the ones on the bottom are mostly water and dye... who knows. This is all really conjecture and I'm just going by what I've observed circumstantially.
Now that I'm using a processed roe product I'm very conscious of letting the roe settle in a small cup of tank water before sucking it up in the turkey baster. The roe will fall to the bottom of the baster while the dyed orange/red water will stay at the top... I shake the eggs out of the baster, getting as little dye into the water as possible.
Unfortunately, despite what you may hear or what some manufacturers/distributors will tell you, all available frozen sushi roe is dyed in some form, according to what I've learned from a chef as well as my own experience. But there's a lot of crap and chemicals in fish food, even the premium stuff, so hopefully it's not too bad.
I know a lot of these crazy-*** mandarin threads like mine dwindle over time as the author will disappear for some reason or other. I'm sorry again for my long hiatus in updating but I promise I will keep things going here on this subject... thing is there really hasn't been much to tell, as the mandarin himself goes.
I'm still trying to get a really good "cheeky" shot like I have in my avatar but as of yet I've had no success.
Well, the mandarin is alive and well, and it's been some time since I started him on the MSG roe.
From what I can tell there are no adverse effects on him or anything else in the tank, from a brittle star to a sexy shrimp. So it looks like msg is harmless for some marine life.
I lost the other fish in the tank, a true perc, due to a jumping incident. I think the mandarin is able to forage better now he's the solo fish but he doesn't appear so much at the front of the tank any more.
From what I can tell there are no adverse effects on him or anything else in the tank, from a brittle star to a sexy shrimp. So it looks like msg is harmless for some marine life.
I lost the other fish in the tank, a true perc, due to a jumping incident. I think the mandarin is able to forage better now he's the solo fish but he doesn't appear so much at the front of the tank any more.
TRE, sorry to hear about your mandarin. I remember how bad it felt when I found my first one stuck to the powerhead intake.
Let's see, I will have had mine for two years by the end of June.
I'm keeping the tank in my bedroom (the dumbest place to have a tank, only reason I did it was it was the only place in the house I knew would not get direct sunlight save the basement) and will soon move the tank to a finished room in our basement. Then I'm planning to add one of those hang on the back fuges and scrap my HOB penguin.
Lol, sure, dbacks
Did you read the editor's introduction in that issue about mandarins? I thought it was great... honestly I was amazed they'd come out and take a stand like that on such a controversial thing. I think it's just what the hobby needs too.
I need to post some more pictures. I have a constant green hair algae problem due to the daily heavy feedings I do... but the corals are thriving. The damned pink polyps I put into the tank less than a year ago have swarmed and conquered all my SPS... the clam and open brain are doing great and seem to be no worse for the wear with all the feedings. I think the heavy presence of halimeda helps with the nitrates along with the 20% water changes I do weekly, or try to do.
But the liverock is covered in green hair and I have to manually prune twice a week. I'm hoping once i strap on the fuge the halimeda will finally outcompete it.... the interesting thing is my chaeto has stagnated its growth and the halimeda is the only macro that's growing right now.
Also, still nothing with coraline growth.
And damn, when did our saltwater section get dropped to the bottom of the forum?
Let's see, I will have had mine for two years by the end of June.
I'm keeping the tank in my bedroom (the dumbest place to have a tank, only reason I did it was it was the only place in the house I knew would not get direct sunlight save the basement) and will soon move the tank to a finished room in our basement. Then I'm planning to add one of those hang on the back fuges and scrap my HOB penguin.
Lol, sure, dbacks
Did you read the editor's introduction in that issue about mandarins? I thought it was great... honestly I was amazed they'd come out and take a stand like that on such a controversial thing. I think it's just what the hobby needs too.I need to post some more pictures. I have a constant green hair algae problem due to the daily heavy feedings I do... but the corals are thriving. The damned pink polyps I put into the tank less than a year ago have swarmed and conquered all my SPS... the clam and open brain are doing great and seem to be no worse for the wear with all the feedings. I think the heavy presence of halimeda helps with the nitrates along with the 20% water changes I do weekly, or try to do.
But the liverock is covered in green hair and I have to manually prune twice a week. I'm hoping once i strap on the fuge the halimeda will finally outcompete it.... the interesting thing is my chaeto has stagnated its growth and the halimeda is the only macro that's growing right now.
Also, still nothing with coraline growth.
And damn, when did our saltwater section get dropped to the bottom of the forum?
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Wow i'm late on this but congrats on getting published in TFH lord, thats awesome! I read the article but didn't even notice...heh oops! Also missed a local clubber's article on breeding SW cardinals recently....i have to be more observant! I'd love to get some pics in there someday.
Glad to see the mandarin is doing good!
Glad to see the mandarin is doing good!
Well I have a pic. I'm going to link it here as it's somewhat large. Watch out trekking through the jungle...
EDIT: The glass is filthy. Been holding off on razorblading it as I'm only going to move the tank soon and kill two birds with one stone.
EDIT: The glass is filthy. Been holding off on razorblading it as I'm only going to move the tank soon and kill two birds with one stone.
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