Blue Manderins..

[sneaky ferret]

Thank you, I will take your advice. I am thinking of getting a brine shrimp cullture happening. I dont live far from the ocean & I was considering checking out the mulltitudes of small shrimp that live in the sand at a spot I know. Just a bit worried about diseases. Was also thinking of looking for somthing I could potentialy culture from the ocean. Some species of mosquitoes breed in brackish water as well, do you think that wriglers would be ok...?

[pat8you]

I would probably stay away from taking thing out of the beach and ocean. There are a lot of diseases and parasites and such that you could contaminate your tank with.

Lots of people use a pod pile to help boost their population. That might help you keep the one mandarin fed.

[ezy33]

I kept a pair in a 30 gal with no problems. Of course it had a 20 gal sump and a 5 gal refugium. I suspect you have two males or for some reason he wants a devoice,

[melosu58]

You will need a good pod population.

[cmor1701d]

Brine shrimp are not very nutritious. Mandarins need copepods and amphipods and lots of them. You will need a good sized refugium to cultivate them in. You can get a detrivore kit from IPSF.com, InlandAquatics.com, eBay, and other sites.

You should get some from different sources to get variety.

It does sound like you have them sexed properly, but there's no guarantee they will pair up.

[sneaky ferret]

My aquarium shop actually took her back, Whew. They wont normally do that. Unfortunatlly as yet I hav'nt located a supplier of captive bred pods in Australia. I'll see what I can find when I look some more. As bio/enviro lab. nerd I would enjoy geting a pod/macroalgea culture happening, & I am going to start researching how I can do it right now. Thank you all so much for your help!

[pat8you]

Good to hear you took him back. It may be possible if you start culturing and breeding pods. It seems to me that a little research and patience is the key to a happy aquarium. Best of luck with your mandarin

[cmor1701d]

You normally get pods along with LR, especially fresh uncured rock. That would be a good starter colony, but you would need a much larger tank.

[SkinnyPete]

My advice, try, try, try to feed him frozen food. It took mine 5-6 months but eventually she started eating frozen brine, and then mysis. Don't give up on the frozen. Most won't seek it out and there are many ways to "trick" them into eating it - but, it's well worth the effort. Especially for a 50g. If you can somehow work a fuge into your system...and not one of those small hang on backs (tried one of those and failed miserably) that would very helpful too. These guys just need a huge pod population and most recommend at least 75lbs of LR for 1.