more mandarin questions

[lilismom1]

in another 6 months to a year i would really like to get a mandarin. i was asking my lfs about the ones there if they eat prepared foods or not. they said no but showed me a canister of pod eggs that they add to the water to hatch new ones. has anyone ever heard of this stuff? more importantly does it work? my pod population has recently exploded, tons of them even during the day, but it would be nice to know if there was a back-up plan should they be depleted. i hope to add a fuge in the near future, what else do i need to do in order to keep a mandarin responsibly?

 

[sumphead]

I think the key to keeping a mandarin is not just the tank size but also the amount of LR and hospitable invironments for pod propogation as well as competition for the mandarin. Meaning keeping any other pod eaters at a minimum. A fuge is a good addtion as pods can grow free of predators. I have one and wasn't sure i wanted to keep him because he came with a used tank purchase. But since I see him eat often and is quite charismatic. And GORGEOUS!

 

[scuba_steve]

imo most all fish will eat pods!! when i turn the lights on in the am the first ones out are my 6 chromis and they start picking at the glass after the bugs !! so a hard thing to do unless ya just keep tangs or what not !! if you see bugs during the day on the glass then imo ya have alot more hiding in the rock so you prob be ok with him as long as its healthy when ya get him !!

 

[HoopsGuru]

Unless the tank is very large, I think it would be hard to support a pod population with a mandarin, they literally eat all day long. On anything smaller than 100g, I would advise you plumb in a suitable refugium. These can actually be quite eye-catching and be another interesting piece of your display.

As for the "pod-eggs", I am going to guess that they are simply brine shrimp cysts. While a novel idea, brine shrimp are not nutritious enough to feed mandarins (or most other fish for that matter). If they directly told you they were "pod eggs", I would question any other information from them as well.