I just got a Mandarin that eats prepaired food!!!

[Superman]

I was in Roseville today and I stopped into one of my favorite pet stores, HarMar Pet shop where they always treat me with respect and courtesy. I was looking through there saltwater tanks looking for something unusual and cool. I found that they finally got my order of Queen Conchs in, so I mentally made a note to get some, and then I started to watch a particularly beautiful Mandarin Dragonet scooting around in another tank. My wife was with me, and she loves Mandarins, she pouted, but I held firm that we don't have a tank big enough to keep a mandarin's food supply up to par, or a tank that is old enough to have a fully developed food supply. She kept pouting, so I made her a deal, she would buy it for me only if the Mandarin (a male) would eat frozen brine shrimp. I went and asked one of there newer sales clerks if he would be so kind as to humor us and try giving the Mandarin some frozen brine. The clerk was very kind and disapeared into the back room to get some frozen brine. My jaw dropped when I saw the Mandarin eating the dead brine shrimp like they were candy!!!! So now I am the proud owner of a Mandarin Dragonet that eats prepaired food of all sorts! ON a side note, if anyone is interested in getting a Mandarin that eats prepaired food, I am more than willing to check out other Mandarins at the HarMar pet shop and if you would like I would be willing to buy and ship them to you for a small fee (basically gas money sine I live about 20 miles away from the HarMar pet store.) Let me know, just a thought.

[wanareef]

That's a great find. Don't have to worry about the madrian going hungry.

[francblack]

Yeah My mandarin eats frozen food too. But she also goes on the hunt for the real deal

[jeepjon]

How often do they eat prepared foods...I've always wanted one but I could never afford a tank large enough on a college budget...my 15 gallon just can't make enough pods for a mandarin...

[Ranran]

I find if you start them off with live brine. That they will quickly switch over to frozen. I still run the problem of other fish out competing them. If you have a lightly stocked tank or other slower fish, they are not that hard to keep.
Randy

[jeepjon]

really? Would a royal gramma, two percs, and a sixline be too competitive...the sixline would be probably...and I can't have any more fish, what am I thinking! ! ! I only have a 15 gallon reef! I guess I'll need to get that beautiful 30 gallon cube tank I've been eyeing up in the store

[jeepjon]

but really, if I could have a mandarin, I would give up my sixline for that...although sylvester is pretty cute

[MiddletonMark]

Also remember that most brine is not really the most nutritious of all food ... lacking in a lot of the `good stuff'.

Still, it's good to be able to feed him, let him get some additional nutrition off the rocks.

As for the 15g ... that's a LOT of fish in there in the first place. I'd wait - and realize that you will be keeping reefs for the next 40+ years ... plenty of time to have a couple
My fiance really wanted a Tang in my 58 ... and I've held off there with this same logic - we've got so many years of reefing ahead of us - wait until we have the proper tank size in a few years ... then the Tang.

Some things are worth the wait.

[jeepjon]

yeah...that's so true...I have too many fish. I think its a perpetual problem with a lot of reefers...and I know its a problem with me. I keep up with the water changes and feed small amounts more frequently...luckily the clowns are still only about an inch long.
And about the 40+ years keeping reefs...in four years I'll have my MD and i can afford some tank upgrades. Until then MAYBE a 30 gallon cube as a graduation present if I can get it out of my parents...but until then it will be making the most beautiful 15 gallon SPS/Clam tank you have ever seen! My goal right now is to execute this tank as nicely as possible...even to the level of a show tank if I can. I want a small tank with some beautiful, healthy, large (for a 15 gallon) acros, SPS, and clams with a lot of movement from the fish and color from the corals. I want a tank that people can come up to and be "WOW" I think I'm on the right track, except for too many fish :P

[MiddletonMark]

Just keep in mind the fishes well being ... and that you don't want your tank to look like a LFS [where they're just temporarily housed].

Put it this way ... would you rather be in 2 room apartment with all your parents/siblings/etc ... or would you rather live in a large sprawling house with lots of space to chill?
Healthy, unstressed fish are going to have more interesting behavior and longer lives.
While the `wow' factor is nice, keeping creatures based on desire to impress people is not really that great for the creatures involved, IMO. I'm not trying to put anything on you, but just rather suggesting caution.

[Ray1214]

I have had a mandarin that ate frozen brine shrimp and mysis. Try to vary his diet though. Try bits of krill, frozen mysis, frozen and fresh baby brine shrimp and make sure you enrich whatever you feed him. Too many people buy mandarins assuming frozen brine would meet his nutriotional needs and they will still slow starve away. I use a refugium chock full of pods to supplement as well as rotifers (the larger ones) when i can get them. My mandarin ate flat worms as well , major big plus.

Ray