Keeping Mandarins in Nano's 2

thats an amazing fish and a beautiful tank

 

@Leigh: Thank you very much. Your compliment means a lot

Week 6 update on Dilly: He is doing wonderfully! He has grown in length!! Very active and alert and shows interest in any and all foods I put in. He even chases down the flakes I put in for the other fish

He is turning into quit the lil hunter. What a joy to watch! Today he found out just how fast an Amphipod is. His greedy lil self decided to go after 1 that was a wee bit to big for his mouth but I think he just got caught up in the hunt~lol. He didn't get it but it was fun to watch.
I continue to feed him 2-3x daily. I've begun soaking his food in Selcon, 1x weekly. I'm also trying him on Rods Fish only. Would be way cool if he takes to it, as it has everything in one package. So far he just looks at it~lol.

 

7 weeks and all is well Dilly is eating about 6 blood worms a day. It's easy to count using a feeding tube. He's getting better at catching food on the fly. Actually watched him snag a blood worm while it was free floating. Good job Dilly! Still not sure if he's eating pods or not. Guess the only real way to tell would be to cut down on number of times I'm feeding him a day and see if he gets skinny or if the pod population drops. But I'm not willing to cut down on his feedings.

 

I'm glad you are making it clear how much work you are putting into this animal. So people don't get the wrong perception that anyone can keep a mandarin in a nano. It takes a lot of dedication and it's obvious you are willing to put in the effort. It shows throughout your tank!

 

I concur, he's getting top-notch care, he looks great!

I can't wait to get one...

 

i wanted one of these so bad but everyone says there difficult so im gonna put it aside for now i guess...looks really cool tho

 

I had no ignorance when I bought Dilly. I researched for 3 years before making my decision. Regardless what some may think, I did listen to all the advice. But no one knows me, better then I do. I am retired, don't go out much and spend many many hours a day just looking and caring for my tank and all it contains. I knew this fish would require a lot of maintenance.
I spend $28.38 a month on 1000 Tisbe copepods. Which I split up between fuge/tank. I've got 3 available sellers of these pods. I've bought the Hikari frozen blood worms/brine shrimp in bulk. I've bought Rods Fish Only. New Life Spectrum Pellets Thera .05. Cyclopeez Wafer flake which I soak for hours before feeding. Nutrama Ova and Selcon.
I try something different every day at least 1x a day. I'm still working on the best way to feed him. Always thinking I would like to eventually stop the tube feeding, but only for my own convenience don't ya know~lol. But I am prepared to continue if need be. Just seeing him snag a worm that was free floating was very encouraging to say the least.
Anyways, yes this has been quit the challenge!! NO it is not for everyone!! Yes there is a big difference between a wild caught Mandarin and a captive bread/raised Mandarin. If you want to keep a Mandarin in a nano it is possible. Do I think it would be easier if I had a bigger tank? NO I don't! Especially with a captive bread. Thing with the cb Mandarins is that with Dilly, he seems to be lacking in the natural ability to hunt and eat pods. Hopefully this will change If it does, I am prepared!

 

Nothing could be further from the truth actually. CB Mandarins do not lose their natural instinct to hunt.Maybe yours doesn't hunt because it has nothing to hunt?Or it has become dependent on your feeding it? From the pic of your tank there is very little space to allow it to do so. From what I have read here you have been feeding several times a day,tinkering with feeding apparatus, and such. My last Mandarin which I had for 8 years in a 90 gallon aquarium. I did absolutely nothing except my normal tank maintenance. No addition of pods and no target feeding. To say what you are doing is easier then just keeping this fish in a large tank with an adequate population of pods is not accurate.
The population of copepods in a reef system is often food limited by the amount of natural microalgae that the reef system produces each day.(Meaning bigger systems are better at keeping adequate populations of pods without polluting the tank further with added microalgaes)) If you supplement with microalgae you increase the amount of available food, and hence the population that can be supported. When additional pods are added the amount of food required immediately goes up. Unfortunately many people don't add additional microalgae so the existing copepod population end up with a food shortage and quickly starve.Unless you are adding Phyto plankton to the tank on a daily basis you will not be able to increase the pod population.Buying them on a regular basis will be the only way to truly get any substantial population of pods.
Think its great that you are putting in alot of effort but this can be easily avoided by a properly sized aquarium.
For these and other reasons I strongly suggest anyone reading this particular thread that the best way to keep this fish alive and healthy is to put it in the right enviroment.

 

I removed some posts here. Keep it clean or take it to PM. We are trying to maintain a positive environment here. If you can't post in a positive manner, then don't. Thanks

matt

 

I started dosing my tank with pyhtopheast a couple weeks ago, not much just a few small squirts every 2-3 days, and I immediately saw a pod explosion. Before I would see a few pods on certain algae patches on the rock if I looked real hard, now I see hundreds of them on every rock, on the substrate, on the glass at times, just EVERYWHERE and all different sizes from real small to relatively large.

I wonder if you had enough rockwork in a smaller tank with enough smaller sized cavities to act as an in tank fuge where pods could reproduce and grow but the mandarins would be to large to cram into and you dosed with phyto daily to help the population, jsut maybe your pods would reproduce fast enough to feed a mandarin??

I really like the guys and would love one but am afriad that once I add a mandarin or wrasse the population will be wiped out in a matter of days and I will never see one again. I do not have the time to devote the time and money like nanareefer does here and feed 2-3 times daily.