Mandarin giving me a hard time

[tony1021]

is it just me or do manadarin fish not eat? I always see him skipping around from rock to rock and picking at stuff but when I feed my other fish he never eats. I've tried pellets, brine, and mysis...I've even tried target feeding him and nothing.

Is this normal of these fish?

 

[jrp1588]

mandarins usually only eat the copepods found on your liverock. It's recommended to keep them in a large tank with lots of live rock because of this. Sometimes they will grow accustomed to more traditional foods, but you shouldn't count on it.

 

[tony1021]

lol...that explains it then...thanks!

i think i got a good amount of lr in my 55 gallon tank so it should be fine

 

[jrp1588]

actually it's recommended to keep them in 100gal tanks or more with lots of LR. They are supposed to be really good at decimating your copepod population. If he starts getting skinny, you might want to look into buying live copepods to supplement the pod population.

 

[melosu58]

You`ll need to get some pods to add to your tank. They will deplete a 55 pretty quick.

 

[tony1021]

sounds good...will do, gonna buy some at the lfs on my next visit

 

[Innovator]

Mandarins can be rather picky, but I've found that initial QT allows you to overwhelm the animal with food and basically force it to feed on prepared. Those that do not eventually eat in a QT probably wouldn't survive long in a display anyways. To keep them fed try a menagerie of live brine shrimp, live mysids, live copepods, and mysis. Offer more frozen mysis than live foods and if the mysis seem too large you can always crush them up a bit

 

[dannyb]

Mine past recentaly, Had him for about 3 months. In a very well established 55gal tank.

Its annouying, because u try to feed them everyway possible but they just will not take it.

 

[tony1021]

went to the lfs today and no one had any pods...going to call a few tomorrow and see if anyone has them...

i've tried feeding it brine and mysis and its just like dannyb say "they won't take it"...its rather frustrating...

thanks for all the help

 

[austinsdad]

Mandarins eating food are the exception IMO.

3 months, in a 55g, now dead. Sounds about right I think as a 55 may not sustain one.

Good luck!