Food training

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Raised on pretty much an exclusive diet of NLS for over a year.
No dosing or added pods, etc. Buddy of mines tank, lost the fish when the tank crashed a few yrs back. He was so bummed he got out of the hobby shortly after.

swgoby1a.jpg
 
Now that guy looks fat and happy... Ok i definitely need to get some NLS... Where can I get some? my lfs doesn't carry it
 
That is one nice and happy looking mandarin! And petco now carries NLS if you have one close to you or if you cant find any locally saltwaterfish.com carries it.
 
So, good news. I feed my tank tonight and i put in mysis and a little bit of brine. I've gotten into the habit of turning off the powerhead and fuge while they were eating in order to coax the mandarin to eat. Well i sat there and watch the mandarin eat piece after piece of mysis. He waited for it to fall all the way to the ground and just picked it off the gravel and rock... And he was eating some big peices of mysis too...
 
I couldnt believe it when petco started carrying that stuff. Its the best food out there. Between that and them switching to QM for their wholesaler, they are making some pretty cool moves.

That being said, its still petco.

There is a guy on this site that will sell you NLS in a lil 3# bucket for like $45 shipped.

I think the next time I buy some pellets, I am going to do that...Ill freeze some or sell it cheap to my friends to cover my own costs.
 
TMartinez;5044750; said:
So, good news. I feed my tank tonight and i put in mysis and a little bit of brine. I've gotten into the habit of turning off the powerhead and fuge while they were eating in order to coax the mandarin to eat. Well i sat there and watch the mandarin eat piece after piece of mysis. He waited for it to fall all the way to the ground and just picked it off the gravel and rock... And he was eating some big peices of mysis too...
Click to expand...

Thats amazing man. Fleshy you should tell your friends to start selling mandarins which eat prepared since they seem to be lucky. I'm sure they'd sell like hot cakes for 100 each ;)
 
This is I think what I was talking about...thanks for the link.

2mm thera...5# of goodness. That will be happening. That is so cheap! $60 shipped!

shua71;5045200; said:
Thats amazing man. Fleshy you should tell your friends to start selling mandarins which eat prepared since they seem to be lucky. I'm sure they'd sell like hot cakes for 100 each ;)
Click to expand...

I think some of it is luck...I think some of it is collection manner if you get a wild one...and I think the biggest thing is that this fish is a very passive feeder, and needs to be able to hunt 24/7 dang near. People who arent feeding their tank constantly cant really keep this fish. Auto-feeder for sure it is sounding like. Or you just majorly overfeed into a "mandarin feeder".
 
TMartinez;5044750; said:
So, good news. I feed my tank tonight and i put in mysis and a little bit of brine. I've gotten into the habit of turning off the powerhead and fuge while they were eating in order to coax the mandarin to eat. Well i sat there and watch the mandarin eat piece after piece of mysis. He waited for it to fall all the way to the ground and just picked it off the gravel and rock... And he was eating some big peices of mysis too...
Click to expand...

That is great news! And that is a good call turning of the pumps to help the food settle.

FLESHY;5045202; said:
This is I think what I was talking about...thanks for the link.

2mm thera...5# of goodness. That will be happening. That is so cheap! $60 shipped!

I think some of it is luck...I think some of it is collection manner if you get a wild one...and I think the biggest thing is that this fish is a very passive feeder, and needs to be able to hunt 24/7 dang near. People who arent feeding their tank constantly cant really keep this fish. Auto-feeder for sure it is sounding like. Or you just majorly overfeed into a "mandarin feeder".
Click to expand...

Dang I'm gonna have to think about buying spectrum like that! That is an awesome deal! And I would agree that it is partially luck. And I feel collection/transportation has a big part of it. One of teh methods used to collect mandarins is to use a mini-spear gun and that can't help them at all and the longer it takes for them to get from the collector to our tanks the harder the battle to get them to recover. There are so many I see that are just a bag of bones that are just doomed to die sadly.
 
Went to Petco today and got a net breeder and some NLS "Marine formula: and put the mandarin in the breeder. I put in half a syringe full of mysis in the breeder along with abour 6 pellets of NLS. Within 5 min all the mysis was gone however the NLS remains. I'm gonna wait to see if he eventually eats it.

I've seen him eating in the tank but I got the net breeder as reassurance he was eating. Plus I can fatten him up. Any advice on how to get him to start taking the NLS?
 
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