Mandarin - Captive Bred HERE!!!

[KathyC]

Almost sorry - but that was an easy way to get you to look at the thread :flower:

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum...60-official-raffle-thread-2010-fall-swap.html

Donated by ORA Yay ORA!!

You do NOT want to be the person who didn't drop a ticket into this bucket!!

See Mr. Fish :bagfish:
See Mr. Fish eat frozen or prepared foods :eat:
See Mr. Fish being fat & happy in whatever size tank you have :fish:

Did you sign up for the Swap yet? :bunny:

 

[THEDLO]

damn i got played HARD!!! very nice Kathy

 

[Staaan]

Awesome... can't wait, one of my favorite fish.

 

[richardhmc]

You got my attention!!

 

[Keith P]

Very sneaky Kathy :irked:

 

[cybermeez]

I got a trio of ORA Green Spotted Mandarins last weekend (1 boy and 2 girls). A word of caution for the reefer who wins the raffle for this neat fish. Despite what ORA has said, whether or not they will eat frozen or prepared food is hit or miss.
<O:p
Of the three I got, only the male would eat frozen food right away. One of the females ate a tiny bit of chopped mysis for dinner last night. They are so tiny! Barely 1 1/2 inches and I never thought I'd have a fish so small that I'd have to chop mysis.<O:p</O:p
<O:p
The other female is holding out and has turned down everything I've offered (Nutramar, Rod's Food, rotifers, SF Brand Reef Plankton and the chopped mysis) and she may never eat frozen or prepared foods. She's hunting, though there aren't likely to be many - if any -pods in the tank since it's a newly set up 14g BioCube. So, just be prepared and ready to have to provide a consistent supply of pods in the event it refuses to eat other foods.<O:p</O:p
<O:p
Despite this potential, I highly recommend the captive bred Mandarins. Reefers may still need to go the big tank and live rock route to keep them alive in captivity, but ORA should be applauded for the captive breeding of theses beautiful creatures so no more are removed from the wild.

 

[prattreef]

Robin, I was told they do not take mysis at all, but relish cyclopeeze and chopped blood worms as well as very small pellets-- I'd try the Hikari -S.

 

[cybermeez]

Robin, I was told they do not take mysis at all, but relish cyclopeeze and chopped blood worms as well as very small pellets-- I'd try the Hikari -S.

Thanks for the advice. I'll pick up some of the tiny Hikari pellets. I'd heard ORA had them eating Spectrum and will get a jar of that as well. I'll keep trying. I had one wild caught Mandarin once who was in the tank for over a year before he decided that the Ocean Nutrition pellets the other fish were eating were yummy.

I forgot to mention I also tried cyclops. The boy ate but the girls didn't. I'm going to give the bloodworms a shot next. My loaches love them so I always have some on hand. Not long ago Foster and Smith was having a sale on H2O Life frozen foods so I stocked up on a buch of stuff. Maybe the Mandarins don't like the brand?

The good news is I have a lot of experience with Mandarins and if push comes to shove I can always try them in the 120g when they get bigger. There are plenty of pods living in the live rock there. It's currently home to a nice chunky Blue Mandarin and it has supported several at the same time in the past. The only possible problem is that the current resident is a rather large male and he may not want to share.

 

[prattreef]

Laura at ORA said they were having great success using a small glass jar tipped on its side that they placed the cyclo in so it wouldn't disperse and the mandarins would enter the jar and eat with gusto. When this donated guy comes in on Thurs. I'm going to try the marineland gel based cyclo product. If they take that it will be quite easy to feed them.