Hello, I'm getting a mandarin fish from an established tank who eats primarily live brine and some frozen although he's often too slow to get to it before other fish. Are there any sort of copods/pods that I can grow within the tank? And is there any easier way to feed him from within the tank as opposed to harvesting from outside? Thank you!!
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So let me ask this how old is your tank , A mandarin is a very fragile fish ,
they are almost impossible to keep alive in new tanks , they need a sustainable supply of pods ,live brine ,live mysiss , you may be lucky to get him to eat pellets and frozen but most of the time the other fish over power them for food , other times with no notice they will just stop accepting frozen pellets and such , I had to raise pods ,brine ,and mysiss I bought these for over a year and had a bill of over $1500.
I did this till I was able to sustain a steady amount of feeders
and it was a lot of work,
almost 90% of mandarins put into home aquariums starve to death it only takes 5 days with no food , the average mandarin eats between 1500 to 2000 pods a day as they are constant eaters , most tanks cant produce this many pods that fast and dwindle down to none ,
remember its not just the mandarin eating the pods it's also all the other fish and inverts ,
...I'd like to buy a Mandarin! | Melev's Reef
delux23 Mandarin fish food
I have no pods in my tank and I have had my green mandarin and spotted mandarin for 3 months.. Don't ask how but I got them to eat formula 2 flakes and brine
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so far your just lucky that he accepting frozen pellets and flakes
they can and will just stop eating with out notice they need there natural diet also,
mandarins diets do basically consist of pods , the other foods are just a plus but they get there nutrition from the live foods ,
most don't get the luxury of a mandarin eating other foods
a mandarin can be eating these foods and still starve because its lacking there natural nutrition of pods
just realize is it worth risking that pretty little fish life from not supplying its natural foods
like I said I raised my own live feeders and that alone was a lot of work
just because he is eating frozen flakes and pellets don't mean there healthy
none of those foods provide any of the nutritional values they require ,
These are one of the most fragile fish in our hobby respect them
Remember I'm not just telling you this , I"m looking out for both you and your fishes best interest
