Mandarin

[B-Dawg]

My finance wants to put a mandarin in my 100 gal. I have aobut 90lbs of live rock with a 4 in sandbed. The tank has been running since May. Do you think he will survive in my tank? I have heard that they are very finicky eaters and they mainly eat small featherdusters. Thanks in advance

[prof]

What else do you have in the tank? If you have other goby/blenny type creatures they may be feeding on your 'pods. Essentially removing a mandarins possible food source. Some people have had a little luck getting mandarins to eat other food but I would not count on that.

You should be able to see 'pods cruising around your tank at night. I find them under everything in my tank. I can flip a rock over and watch them scurry away.

Good luck, and welcome,

Dave

[GaryP]

My six line wrasse chows down on pods, but fortunately I have him eating frozen stuff now.

[rocketeer]

I got an amphipod breeding kit from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms.

http://www.ipsf.com/#anchor219582

Before, I couldn't find any amphipods unless I looked for five or ten minutes at night. About two weeks later, when I look in the tank at night there is no place I can look that doesn't have an amphipod on it.

I think mandarins eat those. I've had my mandarin for about a month in my 120 gal. Although I've heard that it can take longer than a month for a mandarin to starve. We'll see.

The kit consists of some seaweed you can put in your refugium, if you have one, about a dozen amphipods and some food for them. It's real simple. :)

I'm trying to breed copepods too but cannot find a starter culture.

Jack

[Henry]

You also may want to talk with one of the lfs, see if they can find or have a mandarin that accepts bloodworm or other types of food. I think someone else got one from cb pets that was feeding on bloodworms. This may take a while to find one, but IMO it is the best option for a long life.

I have one right now that is in a ten gallon nano, that is nice and fat. S/He will go after some of the invert banquet stuff as well, not that I would recommend a diet soley consisting of this.

Henry