Feeding Solution for Mandarin?

[Marcellina]

I was just on the Fosters and Smith site and saw this little brine shrimp hatchery that you can place directly in your tank.
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+7954+10692&pcatid=10692

Would this be a good item to suggest to those that keep fish that eat only live foods such as mandarins that arent trained to eat frozen so that they can keep a constant supply of live food in the tank? The baby brine has more nutrition bc of the egg sack the have still attached if I recall correctly.

 

[jadakiss]

ive tried like 2 times to keep that fish n wenyt dead in a week u reallly ned to have a fuge and then u can be able to keep it.

 

[Marcellina]

I agree definitely a fuge or a very big established tank with tons of copepod places to breed is the ideal environment for a mandarin. Or to train them onto frozen mysis, to train on frozen you have to target feed them multiple times a day mixing live and frozen and slowly take away the live, I have successfully trained one but it died when my power went out when I wasnt home over the course of a long weekend. I wouldnt train one again in a small 29G, you not only have to stay on top of feeding them but constantly removing and cleaning the tank and more water changes.

But this in tank hatchery is supplying a constant supply of live food for them, adult brine are not nutritious but the baby brine are. Once the learn where the food is coming from they should hang out by the hatchery and eat whenever they are hungry

 

[Killerdrgn]

sounds pretty cool, but I would want to try it out first to see if it actually works.

 

[Chraddam]

I have had mandarins. They rule. They need pods and established tank and/or fuge. HOWEVER...if you live near a good LFS, and can buy Brines, or can breed Brines, they will live for a long time. I have used the hatchery-works fine. And the mandy will eat anything small, live or frozen. AND they do respond to their owner(a word i HATE to use) very well, after a while

 

[adamt]

I've had luck getting them to eat cylcopeeze. I would imagine that they might be inclined to eat daphnia aswell. I have a clown thats a bit finicky, but i gave him some daphnia and he snapped out of it pretty quick and now he's on new life spectrum along with frozen mysis, and cyclopeeze.

 

[Marcellina]

My mandarin was eating frozen cyclopeeze and daphnia too. I even caught him eating the flakes once in awhile. He did always come out from hididng everytime he saw me, by far my favorite fish.

Once I get my bigger upgrade and have it running for awhile I will try to keep one again and train him. Its just so much more work when you have a smaller tank bc you need to really be on top of the testing and cleaning the extra food and WCs. The in tank brine hatchery just looks like it might be a good solution to keep these sought after fish alive.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

i've use it with my seahorse tank...it works fine but after each batch you have to take it out and clean it...pretty easy to clean though...just hose it off and it's ready to go. if you wanna try it i have a brand new one i'm not using...i no longer have the ponies...they passed on after almost 3 yrs

 

[Marcellina]

Hey Tom, you have everything dont you? lol

I would love to keep a tank with just seahorses one day when the kids are older, they have always fascinated me. Its so sad about yours. How long do they usually live for?

If you arent using the hatchery anymore I would love to try it out. Thanks!

 

[tomtoothdoc]

Hey Tom, you have everything dont you? lol

I would love to keep a tank with just seahorses one day when the kids are older, they have always fascinated me. Its so sad about yours. How long do they usually live for?

If you arent using the hatchery anymore I would love to try it out. Thanks!

ummm yeah...i have a lot of stuff. i'm a hoarder....lol.
the seahorses are awesome...they need their own tank. it's not that hard to keep....it's actually easier to keep than the mandarin...all captive bred ponies (most for sale are) eat frozen mysis. i think they would be easy for you if you're around to feed them sever times a day. i fed mine twice a day and i use the in tank hatchery for their snacks. they live for almost 3 yrs...i think they died of old age....the female died first and the male died a few weeks later (my wife said he died from loneliness/broken heart):sad2:
when you upgrade, you can use the cube for a seahorse tank.
for the bigger breed, i heard that the full grown ponies live for 2-3 yrs. in captivity? 3-5 yrs in the wild? the dwarfs live only 1-2 yrs.
you got it....the hatchery is yours. gotta go dig it up from the storage bin....lol

 

[mr_X]

some mandarins will eat prepared foods and frozen, but some won't. if your mandarin only lives a week, it's not a food issue. it's something else.

 

[ryangrieder]

my mandarin is going on three-four years. started with pods, then got live brine, then frozen brine, now anything at all i feed it will eat. i just very slowly switched over.

 

[acrocrazy]

ive had luck soaking new life spectrum sinking formula in water that you are defrosting mysis shrimp in then i slowly weaned them off the mysis and got them to strictly eat pellets