Mandarin

[jcdeng]

Hi, Just bought an ORA mandarin from NERAC VII and I got a question. How long does it take for the fish to begin feeding? Mine just stays/swims around in the corner, an open area, and doesn't go near the rocks where all the pods are. could it just be stress or could ORA's training be so good that it only recognize frozen and not pods as food (highly doubt it).

Thanks

 

[thirty5]

When did you put it in the tank? YOu said that you just bought it! The fish may hide for a bit to get used to its surroundings..

 

[marrone]

Here's is some info from a recent thread which should help. It does seem to take a little while for it to start to eat.

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/119768-ora-blue-mandarin-rant.html

 

[jcdeng]

yesterday when I get home I put him in.

 

[thirty5]

If you only put it in yesterday, I would not worry. Most fish will hide when brought into a new tank.

 

[jcdeng]

yeah, I know, but he is not hiding at all, hes out at the open the whole time for me to see. Which seem very odd to me. And I am not trying to get him to eat frozen, cuz thats why I been growing pods all along and now I have pods all over my tank and I need him to get rid of some of them

 

[marrone]

It's not odd for a Mandarin to be out in the open from the get go, as opposed to other fish that will hide when first placed into the tank. I'm sure he's hunting around the tank picking at things, also, there are different types of Pods some of which are too large for the Mandarin to eat.

 

[thirty5]

You don't want him to get rid of them... How old is the tank, and what size is it? Do you have a sump with Macro? A single mandarin can strip a smaller tank of pods pretty quickly.

 

[jcdeng]

55g, and I have a HOB fug which has more pods than in the main tank. BTW, do hermit crab eat pods when theres no other food source around?

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

ORA mandarin's behavior are quite different from the wild caught in general(at least when they are new to the environment.)

You can see them in Mike' frag tank in NERAC that they are swimming around everywhere and even check out people once a while. When they are kept in the show tank, you can even see them laying on top of each other. They do not act like the same way as the wild caught since they are captive born and thus may not develop the behavior of the wild caught at young age. I cannot say for sure how they behave years later because I never have theirs more 1 year before some one bought them. The only one tank bred mandarin in my tank for over 2 years is not from ORA but frequently come out to check on people too.

 

[jcdeng]

ah, wingo, didn't know you have a mandarin. He didn't come out to check me out last time lol.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

probably he thinks you are not cute. lol

 

[jck16]

I know this hasn't been updated for some time, but I'm really curious about the progress of your mandarin, keep us updated. I made that other thread that was linked to by marrone when I first got my ORA mandarin and he wasn't eating frozen so I'm wondering how your experience turned out.

 

[jcdeng]

little guy is still alive, I didn't feed it at all, just leave the pods to fulfill their life purpose.

 

[duke62]

starting to think ora mandains just are not worth the extro 30 bucks. bought my mandarin 6months ago for 15 bucks and he has eaten everything since i put him in. seems like ora mandarins are a hit or miss as well

 

[marrone]

I think they're all hit or miss, with more misses than hits.

 

[LongIslandAndy]

They do seem to eat Nutramar Ova

 

[jck16]

little guy is still alive, I didn't feed it at all, just leave the pods to fulfill their life purpose.

But that defeats the purpose of having an ORA mandarin then in my opinion. I mean, I bought mine just for the fact that they should be eating frozen because I don't have a 100+gal tank that has a huge pod population. I mean, I don't mind replenishing the pods once in awhile as a treat but specifically to feed the mandarin is a bit much.

Definitely try the Nutramar OVA and see if it'll go for that.