Personal Experiences with pellet feeding Mandarins

[matt_vasko]

Specs:
55 gallon
75 lbs live rock (20lbs purchased live the rest added as based about a month ago)
3 inch sand bed (Live)
Water Parameters - Good haha


I am interested in adding a Mandarin Dragonet, I have done a lot of research on them and the opinions seem to be split. While concurring on the difficulty of feeding, some techniques seem to be successful. I feel my tank is not yet est. enough to sustain food for the Mandarin, but I'm working on it haha. I know they can be fed brine shrimp if they are treated, and will even eat pellets but my question is how successful would i be in getting one to eat the pellets? In your opinions

Additionally, I have a sand sifting star and know that they can effectively deplete the pods and facilitate the lack of food for the Mandarin. Will I ever build up enough pods for a Manadrin while keeping a sand sifter?

Finally, would purchasing a smaller mandarin be beneficial in training him to eat pellets?

[matt_vasko]

i.e this method
http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

[mattpenn]

i have had a mandarin for about 2 years and never went out my way to feed him i guess he its leftover brine shrimp the others dont eat or pellets i dont know

[matt_vasko]

how est. was your tank when you added him and what tank mates did you have?

[buddsels333]

The smaller the mandarin the easier it probably is to train, but it depends on the mandarin you want. The green mandarin is more finicky than the spotted mandarin. Both of my mandarins eat brine shrimp, but they won't eat anything else that I put in the tank. They just watch it float by. So from my experience I don't think that they would be too easy to try to pellet train. But if you don't have enough copepods in your tank, you can always buy freeze dried copepods.

[matt_vasko]

freeze dried copepods? awesome So, the spotted Mandarins are less picky eaters?
Thanks

[buddsels333]

Yeah. You can buy them online, brineshrimpdirect.com. They sell them in many different sizes, and my mandarins eat them with no problem. So if you want the green mandarin just buy the copepods and it'll be fine. I have a spotted and a green mandarin, that's all I do special for them, so they eat those and they eat brine shrimp.

[Bennihanna]

?????? http://www.wetwebmedia.com/mandarins.htm

Personally I think it is a bad idea to put a dragonet into a tank without substantial micro fauna.

[czieler]

I would wait til tank is 6 months w/ live rock..or until you can shine a flashlight in at nite and see a buttload of pods swimming around.

[matt_vasko]

what about the sand sifting star? Does having him in the tank prevent me from est. a lot of pods??
I'll wait but i might be wasting time considering the star is consuming my pods haha
Thanks

[Jadinop]

The sand sifting star is probably not the best idea however it won't be a problem for long. They require a much bigger sand bed than you have and will most likely slowly die from starvation. I don't believe that the star and mandarin will compete for food due to the different areas they inhabit in the tank.

If you need to purchase live food to ensure that the mandarin will live, check out this place.

http://www.aquaculturestore.com/

Just to throw out my personal opinion, your tank is too small for a mandarin.

[czieler]

I had two mandarins ( one was a target ) in my 65 gallon tank successfully...and only lost one when he swallowed an air bubble and had his butt float over his head for three days before dying.

I waited until I had the tank for 7 months before adding one, and added the second after 9 months.

I had A LOT of live rock though ... and a thick sand bed.... I also had a huge piece of dead pipe organ .... which made a great breeding ground for pods.

[tsouth]

I wouldn't risk it unless you plan on feeding him live copepods every month or two. Brine shrimp will not successfully maintain the nutritional factor that is needed to keep these fish alive.