Preparing for a Mandarin

I would'nt do if I were you. I attempted one a couple years back in my 55 (similar setup as you have). I had waited until well over the one year mark to get mine. It was doing very well for a few months. It got to be very expensive to keep adding pods to my system. Over time the pods diminished and the mandarin starved to death. Once again my opinion is to stay away from this fish. To be honest, I am even a little hesitant to try this in my large system today. It's a tough fish to house in an aquarium.

If you choose too, there is some great advice in the above posts.

 

no disrespect taken Vinny, ill try to post a better picture, had him for a little over a year now after a wondering BTA got shredded by my skimmer and killed a few inhabitants, including my old mandarin that iv had for roughly three years.

iv never been able to get my hands on a species that takes prepared foods here however. could you elaborate a little more when you say "indentions round the head" I'm not questioning what you are saying but the more signs of malnourishment i can clearly understand the better.

 

he is real sneaky...

couple more shots

P.s: sorry for the mini hi-jack OP

 

Mine were always incredibly shy as well Swiss. Hard to observe them.
I never got mine to eat anything prepared long term but they were always wild caught.I did however have some success weaning them in small holding tanks.Getting them to eat is only a part of the battle and ime they would stop accepting prepared food for whatever reason after introduction to the display.People who dose phytoplankton have a far better chance of rearing the types/sizes of edible pods they obviously need to survive.Jerry has had good luck feeding his with the Nutramar and I am not saying it can't be done just very few have success for longer then a year or so.I will look and see if I can find the picture of a fresh wild caught speciman and you can see what I mean.

 

Can't find the pic but this one is fairly large. Yours appears to be good size.Just not plump. Just try to keep and eye on them but pictures really help to compare there"bumps".

 

ah, i think i see what your saying about the head. he is one of the little guys I'm more concerned about and one of the first i check every morning. anyway so far so good (knock on wood)

 

@D3monic ,great videos.

 

great stuff demonic ever had fry?

 

such cool videos! Love your slug or what is that that also loves the food dish?

 

I know all to well the feeling of cultures crashing at the worst times :S. what did you feed the little mandarins? thats pure awesome!!!