Mandarin Question...

Okay I know there are a few Mandarin buffs on here. I bought one from a LFS about 2 months ago. Placed him in my QT and attempted to get him to eat prepared foods. I got him to eat live brine easily. But he never would take anything else I offered him. I got tired and impatient and went ahead and put him in my 125. Been in there about 3 weeks. So far he has gained some weight. He was really skinny when I got him. My question is will I run into a problem with him running out of food? 125 DT with a 60-70 gallon sump-fuge.

 

You should be OK if you do not have any other fish that will compete for the pods the mandarin eats.

 

Current stock

Majestic Angel
Blue Hippo Tang
Yellow Tang
Purple Tang
2 Blue-Green Chromis
2 Clowns

Shouldnt be a problem right??

 

You should be fine. You can always seed your fuge every month or so to keep the population up. Ulva is loved by pods as food.

 

Thank you. I noticed tonight my Mandarin is gaining some wieght (bought him because I felt bad for him). When he was at the LFS he was really skinny. Didnt seem to get any better on the brine. So thats why I placed him in the DT.

 

However, now that I have him he is my favorite fish. Very interesting to watch. I see now why they are called the Butterfly of the Sea. He never stops moving. Always on the hunt for food. But he remains skiddish of me.

 

They do seem to be shy. If you are a presence at the tank a lot it will acclimate to you and not be so skittish.

 

u just have to end up with a good one. i went to a meeting where julian sprung was speaking and they commonly have parasites and will refuse to eat anything (thats what he said) but i never have too much problems. i usually wait to put them into an aquarium that has been established for 6 months or more with good live rock so there is a copepod population. my psychedelic mandarin used to literally eat feeder guppies. i would get bored and feed all my fish guppies so i could watch them chase them. my mandarin took down a pretty big feeder guppy it was freakin awesome!!!

 

then again i fed them beef jerky a couple times, and i ate some of their live brine shrimp. lame dinner with your fish lol

 

Are you drunk? ;-)