Manderin piggin out on formula one!!! Picture

[louey louey]

My manderin fish pigged out one formula one and I got a picture... manderin

The pictue is not the best. But at least one of the nine picture turned out ok. He ate about 20% of that chunck that you see in the picture. I guess he filled up and moved on!

I've only seen him eat formula-one once before. I've had him for about 6 months in my 75g that has about 140 pounds of LR.

He seems happy and healthy.

I wonder if I should feed formula one more often. I usually use it every 3-4 days.

[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: louey louey ]

 

[reefland]

Very nice and very lucky. Rare find.

 

[fishfarmer]

Have you tried frozen adult brine shrimp? My mandarin showed partial interest sweetwater zooplankton early on. She never touches my homemade reef slop, but when I tried frozen brine for the first time a couple of months ago she made a beeline to it.

 

[Cory]

Louie,

You definitely are lucky. Hey Lucky Louie it kinda has a ring to it. Hope he keeps it up.

 

[louey louey]

I think the manderin fish has survived this long eating the pods, etc. Like I said, I've only see it eat formula one twice. He never showns any interest in primereef or any flake foods that I use. I have seen him eat a few live brine shrimp, but not always. I take this to mean that he's finding plenty of what he likes. I think if you buy a young manderin to start with, you'll have better luck. Not to mention, plenty of live rock. Before I added the manderin, I added 60 ampipods that I bought MO, to help increase and jumpstart the pod population. The tank was only about 5 months old when I bought the manderin.

I know, I know, I shouldn't have added the manderin until the tank was a year old.

 

[EmilyB]

Try Marine Cuisine as well, my mandarins love it, it really turned them on to more nutritious foods, as opposed to brine shrimp.

Since then, they have been taking homemade frozen as well, I include krill and plankton flake in that recipe.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Louey, nice tank.

 

[Grandczar]

Any refugium owners out there that gravity feed there mandarins? Curious if this may be the key. Sorta like keeping kids out of the cookie jar.

hmmm just a guess... think after i build my fuge i may give it a try. Awesome little guys... one of the fish that got me into this hobby.

 

[pupeluv]

louey louey, is that the real color of your tank or is it just the lighting? If that's the real color, I want to know what kind of mushrooms those are and how you got pink/purple sand! Great picture. I'm looking forward to getting a mandarin one of these days.

 

[BROKER]

Not that I have any experience with fish breeding, but do you think it would be possible to breed a Mandarin like louey louey's (that accepts formula one)so that this eating habit would carry over to it's offspring? Is it possible that this paticular Mandarin has adapted to eating things other than pods? Does anyone believe that this could be a genetic trait? We all know it is very hard to take care of one now but it would be cool if someday down the road they could be captive bred.

Almost forgot,louey louey very nice tank!

[ August 11, 2001: Message edited by: BROKER ]

 

[Blue_Mosquito]

I've had my Mandarin for about 4 months now... he'll eat frozen Brine... and picks pods off the rocks... I soak the frozen brine in Kent Zoe, with some tank water then pour it in... he'll pick off whatever gets caught in the rubble and on the rocks... all day long...

He's doing well, grown a touch...

 

[ddavis4um]

Pertaining to photography, I have been doing macrophotography for about 20 years and I recently tried the same techniques on my fish tanks with great success.

If you have a manual camera (the simple kind) and a macro lense, use a flash that is mounted on a pedicle. Good macrophotography has the light at a 45 degree angle to the subject matter and that is how you should position the flash. By using the flash you can set the camera to higher f-stops (f16, 22, or 32 depending on the film type). The higher f stops allows the largest depth of field which should allow you to capture the mushroom and the fish in focus. Lastly, your manual camera should be a single lense reflex type to allow you to focus properly at close range.

My set-up: Nikon FM2 (single lense reflex camera with no automatic settings); a Nikkor 55mm macro lense, a minolta flash (any flash will do), and a beat-up pedicle mount (this slides into the camer mount and can rotate in any direction- the falsh mounts to the top of it and lastly you need a cord to sinc the flash to the camera).

No I need to learn how to post pics to the web and you can see my early results.

dpd

 

[monkeyboy]

I heard about some scientists cloning humans in the winter but if they heard about this mandarin that eats...

 

[JohnD]

louey louey,

Those are some great pictures of that little devil. Both you and EmilyB are very fortuneate to have one that will eat things other than 'pods.

 

[louey louey]

Kelly,

The actinic lights do add a pink/purpleish haze to the photographsm it shows up mostly in the sand. That is not the way it looks to the eye, but that's what the camera sees. The mushrooms are green striped mushrooms and the close-up picture that shows a clam, zoanthids, and mushrooms is fairly accurate of how they look, minus the pinkish sand.

I am taking a photography class and will hopefully learn how to get the color more accurately. We'll see.

 

[Bobzarry]

Just purchased a male manderin this weekend to go with the female I have had about 2 years now. the first few hours almost gave ma a heart atack!!!!. this beautiful docil draganet turned into a she devil when she saw the male. she grabed him by the gil spike several times refusing to let go and dragging him to the bottom (reminded me of a pit bull). I had to seperate them on several ocations. He in turn was non agresive til about 2 hours later when he finaly had about enough and bit back. After that she stoped her agretion and they have been swimming together most of the time. altho now and then he raises his spike and does a little dance (for lack of a better discription).

Anyhow my tank is a 55 with about 75lbs of live rock and a 4 inch sand bed. I feed my tank almost exclusively on flake, and I have a huge pod population. also have a huge population of myses shrimp, and IMO its due to the flake food. aside from the now 2 manderins I also have a red scooter, and they dont seem to put a dent in the pod population.

I also have a nano tank 7gal bowfront that I have set up to be a future dwarf seahorse tank. I have prawns that I cought this past summer in the tank. this tank is also fed on flake, and also has a huge pod & myses population.


bob

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, thanks for joining this post. I forgot all about this one!

The formula one eating mandrin is still alive and well.

I added a fauna kit from Inland Aquatics to my 20G Refugium and highly recommend it.

If you are planning to put a manderin in a 20G, you will have to supplement the pods for the manderin to have a chance. I believe that a 20G is way to small to do this. But if you insist and can afford to add the fauna kits as needed, go for it.

BTH I added 4 mangroves to my refugium this weekend.

Since the pictures in the orignal post I have also change 2-100W aquasuns for 2-175W Ushio's. I need to take some pictures and show-off my tank. Much has changed since then. Most for the better, except the green hair algea.

[ March 04, 2002: Message edited by: Louey ]</p>

 

[silvia]

Hi guys!! i would like to know, what is the best and fastest way to increase the pod population in a 20 gallon long tank, with about 35 pounds of LR and 25 pounds of LS?
also i have a 10 gallon refugim with miracle mud and calerpa. look forward for any suggestion, i would really appreicate it! thank you