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Melev's Mandarin Diner

melev — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 05:17:48 +0000

Melev's Mandarin Diner melev Tue, 06/30/2020 - 08:17

For a long time my blue mandarin was a very happy fish in my 29g, and would eat prepared foods much to my delight. Since that was the case, I never worried about it. However, in the 280g reef, it was actually being starved to death due to stress by the other mandarins harassing it as well as the voracious Tangs that would circle around it and get every morsel of food off the sand.

That is when I remembered it was able to eat on its own in the past, but this necessitated some alone time. So about 2.5 months ago, I started putting food in a spaghetti sauce jar, and lowered that into the tank. The mandarin could go in and get some Formula One or Formula Two small pellet food, when it was interested. Here is the story of how it all started...back in November 2004:

This mandarin used to eat pellet food in my 29g, hence I decided to make a mandarin feeder today. My tangs are voracious diners, and loved to eat the pellet foods resulting in my mandarin not getting her share any longer.

I used a long empty glass bottle, added the pellets first and then tank water, and gave it a few seconds for the pellets to sink into the bottom of the jar. Then I lowered it into the corner the mandarin tends to visit. As you can see, the tangs were quite interested in the pellets, pecking at the glass quite a bit.

Open For Business

Next thing I knew, the wrong guy got in there, and was caught red-finned.

A few minutes later, the right patron found the food supply, and dined at the all-you-can-eat buffet for about 5 or 10 minutes.

Soon a gentleman caller came by to join her, but never made it past the maître d'. :) About 30 minutes later, the buffet was gone as if it never existed. All that remained were the busboys, a pair of nassarius.

The problem was that the other fish liked that food too, and the smaller tangs would fold up their fins and slip in to get the food and back right out again. I watched my huge Naso Tang hover in front of the mouth of the jar, and wave its fins back and forth to create current which would wash the pellets out into the open where it could eat them. He was very adept at this, as I saw him do it often.

December 15, 2004

So after a month of this, I finally bought an olive jar, as that would limit the size of the fish entering the Diner. I took a piece of acrylic, heated it and wrapped it around the jar to act as handle for easy reach on a daily basis.

I even tried feeding her some newly hatched baby brine shrimp, but that really didn't work out so well. I never bothered trying it a second time.

I've continued to use a mixture of the two pellets every day, and the mandarin is almost back to its original plump self. Keep in mind that I feed newly hatched brine to the tank every day, with the pumps off. This allowed the smaller fish the opportunity to eat, and the larger fish just wade through the food like whales.

January 15, 2005

Other fish still go in the Mandarin Diner, including my Six Line Wrasse, the Lawnmower Blenny, Blue Damsels... but the tangs can only hover near the opening hoping for stray pellets to accidentally flush out.

Various snails and hermits go into the Diner at night, and each morning I refill it for the new day with about 1 tsp of pellets. If there is too much food in the jar, it tends to rot and ferment, and an airbubble collects in the jar. That is a good indicator of overfeeding. Dump that in the sink and rinse the jar out with tap water, and use less food in the future.

I have four Mandarins in my tank, but the Blue ones are the ones that are near it constantly. They travel the tank, but know the food is at the Mandarin Diner daily. There are times I've lifted the diner with fish in it, dropped in more food and let it back down. Other times I'll put the food down on the substrate, and within 10 seconds the mandarin goes right in. It is important that the opening of the jar is at the substrate's surface so they can swim right in.

I'm really glad this has worked out so well, as do they.

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...I'd like to buy a Mandarin!

melev — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 01:21:17 +0000

...I'd like to buy a Mandarin! melev Tue, 06/30/2020 - 04:21

Mandarin fish are probably one of the most beautiful reef-safe fish that are available for hobbyists today. With their graceful meanderings, their colorful markings and gossamer fins, people quickly fall in love with these gentle creatures. Surprisingly, they aren't that expensive, giving the reef keeper even more motivation to acquire one.

There are various types of Mandarins, such as the large blue, red or green Synchiropus splendidus, and the smaller Target or Spotted Synchiropus picturatus. These fish hunt for food all day long, picking at the rockwork for bugs smaller than we can see. At night, they rest. While they rest, their colors fade substantially, so don't worry.

To successfully keep one of these fish, it is best to have everything ready before you buy.

Your reef tank should have already been established for at least six months to one year.
You need to have a minimum of 75 lbs of Live Rock.
I strongly recommend having a working refugium incorporated and teaming with 'pods' of all kinds.

If you have any other pod-eating fish in your tank, such as a Six Line Wrasse, it is possible to starve a Mandarin. They move slowly seeking live food, so faster fish will consume its prey! You may get lucky and buy a Mandarin that eats prepared foods, but many don't and thus your tank will have to provide all of its food naturally.

A few ways are available to improve your success, such as building 'pod piles' or hatching baby brine shrimp. A pod pile is a small collection of rock carefully stacked together so that fish can't get in between them. Some hobbyists will take a strawberry basket from the supermarket and fill it with small bits of live rock, and invert this onto the floor of their tank. The fish can't enter the basket so the pods can propagate safely. As they emerge from the basket, the mandarin can eat. If you don't like the look of a basket, you can pile up bits of rock in the corners, but you may have to re stack them again later as crabs and fish flip them over.

While I don't recommend this as the only food source, hatching brine shrimp is easy and can be done on a rotating basis where you have one new batch each day, providing a constant supply of food. Feeding newly hatched brine is more nutritious because the yolk-sac is still attached. So if you want to generate the potential food source with this method, it will work as long as you keep up with your hatcheries. Having a refugium tied into your system is the best or preferred method, as you'll always be creating new bugs for your fish to eat, where they breed safely and can't be devoured (until they enter the display tank). You will have to feed phytoplankton to your tank and refugium, because the copepods, amphipods and other tiny crustaceans need to eat as well.

So, if you feed your little bugs, they will breed and make more. And this in turn will provide the food necessary to keep a beautiful Mandarin fat and happy. And that is no joke, as a fat mandarin is a happy one.

A few more thoughts.....

These fish don't get Ich as they secrete an oily substance on their bodies. Their skin type and the oils secreted make them extremely sensitive to many medications. What may heal one species will more than likely kill a mandarin. So if your other fish develop ich, the mandarin is not to be put in to quarantine. Which is fortunate because it would starve to death if you did, assuming the medication didn't kill it first.

You can recognize a male from a female because the male has a sharp spike on his dorsal fin. If you decide you want a pair of mandarins, make sure you have plenty of LR to support their food source, and that you have one male and one female. Putting a pair of mandarins in a tank smaller than 125g would probably be a mistake, unless they ate prepared foods. I've watched mine eat Formula One or Formula Two small pellet food, mysis, baby brine shrimp, cyclop-eeze and more, but others have stated their fish accepted nothing but live prey.

1/06/05 - Reefkeeping Online presents a beautiful Mandarin slide show, along with some good comments about these delicate fish. Take a moment to read the text and enjoy the show. January 2005 ReefSlides

1/15/05 - Check out the Mandarin Diner.

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