Cute little mandarin

[Europhyllia]

Nothing.
I only have a pair of ocellaris, a pair of mandarins and a few PJ cardinals in my 125g.
I have two little 'coves' in my rock work. One was claimed by the clownfish the other one is where I put the grazing station. It's nice to finally have 6 feet of tank instead of just 3'!
If they wanted to come in it would be okay too. My main concern was to be able to leave the food in there and be able to get it back out after a few hours.
In tanks with bigger competition the size of the hole would keep some fish out

[snfkotara]

That is really cool!!!! Ace can we have a grazing station class someday.

[mabel_photo6]

Whoa hey! I want one of those!!
I bought my Mandarin from Gabe's a while back and she was skinny.
She still lives! But still skinny. I do have a bunch of copepods and amphipods all over.
She also eats brine shrimp and I turn the pump off so the food settles down.
But of course everyone eats it up fast.
Did that grazing station work?!? I would totally buy & try one!

[Europhyllia]

Whoa hey! I want one of those!!
I bought my Mandarin from Gabe's a while back and she was skinny.
She still lives! But still skinny. I do have a bunch of copepods and amphipods all over.
She also eats brine shrimp and I turn the pump off so the food settles down.
But of course everyone eats it up fast.
Did that grazing station work?!? I would totally buy & try one!

Mabel I started my Mandarins out in a 10 gallon tank to train them onto frozen food. Only after they were 'good' about going after the frozen food and had regained their body condition did I place them in my 125 gallon tank.
It's important that they know (and want) frozen food before introducing the grazing station because otherwise they really have no motivation to go in there.
Mine know what he Kent Sea Squirt is for and get excited when they see it for example. I got them to come to the grazing station by putting the sea squirt down the grazing station's clear input tube.
That's when they got the idea food's in there so they are interested in getting in there too.
I only got it home last night at 7PM and I only saw them picking at the acrylic but not finding the holes.
I am sure it will take time. Maybe I'll take one out and place it in the 10g with it.
Them wanting to get at the food and trying to get in is definitely encouraging.

[mabel_photo6]

Interesting. Well mine actually does get excited about the brine shrimp. She starts searching for the ones that have fallen to the floor near her. Update on the thread if yours gets in there.

[Europhyllia]

Well mine actually does get excited about the brine shrimp. She starts searching for the ones that have fallen to the floor near her.

Should be easy to fatten her up then! Either switch to a more nutrient rich frozen food like Mysis or enrich your brine shrimp with Selco/Selcon or both. Mine love Hikari bloodworms.

[mabel_photo6]

Thanks EuroMom. I'll see if I can get her to eat bloodworms and Mysis shrimpies!

[corkyGramma]

"chris" gets all three at every meal: brine, mysis and blood worms but I notice he goes for the blood worms first