Food training

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Unfortunatly, your fish is going to die. You likely arent going to get the fish to eat in a breeder net, will probably never get it to eat flake. I would suggest returning it to the store or giving it to a friend. Once the fish starts to starve, they will not recover.

Starving is a tough way to die.
 
He's been eating in the tank as is. Usually only the brine I put in there, but he eats. Plus there are NUMEROUS cases of people training these guys in a breeder net to eat other food. It may never eat flake but enriched brine and mysis along with pods he'll be just fine
 
Plus i've read a ton of success stories feeding them with Nutramar Ova. ORA uses this extensively with their mandarins
 
I had a buddy that bought a green from liveaquaria in GREAT condition.

Thing ate mysis, brine, and NLS like a pig, and still starved to death. They need to be able to constantly graze/hunt in my mind to survive.
 
Fleshy You are 100% correct. Newby aquarists make this mistake often. I made it myself.

Unless you have a steady supply of hundreds of pods per day the fish is doomed to starvation. The mandarin literally spends every minute of the day eating. Its impossible to generate enough pods in a small tank to sustain the fish. Even if you were to get it to take a few brine shrimp per day, or a few pieces of mysis, the fish is built to eat continually throughout the day. And a small tank isnt even going to provide even a small portion of the fish's requirements.
 
Yes he will stay in the breeding net. There is no set time each fish will take to frozen at a different pace. You will need to leave him in there until he is eating frozen foods very readily. Here is a mandarin diner http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html but pod piles wouldn't hurt to have. And what they are saying about them eating non stop throughout the day is true I feed my guys 4-6 times a day. And don't try getting him on flake go for pellets like NLS instead.
 
NLS is the good stuff...its still an uphill battle. An auto feeder might help get a couple small meals of NLS in during the day when you cant be feeding. Pod supplementation will be a must though.

I wouldnt attempt one of these in a tank smaller than a 125g, and only then if there was a sump most likely with a pod colony. I am building an algae scrubber just for this purpose.
 
I give NLS all the credit for getting my scooter to the condition he is in now. I got mine as the typical emaciated scrawny guy and he was tiny probably 1.5" and now he is nice and fat and around 3" This is the only food he has ever gotten I never had to worry with frozen for him and the female I got about a month ago is doing really well on this as well but she has a lot more recovery to do then my male did. And I don't know how well the auto feeder would do it would all depend on how much food got to the bottom to it but it would be something to look in to. And the mandarin diners are a great thing! I don't have one in my tank now but I am planning on adding a couple as I add more dragonets.

TMartines how is your guy doing? Is it still picking at brine?
 
Yep. Still picking at brine. He's the same "plumpness" he was a week ago when I got him. I've been feeding some brine with every meal. Since the mysis and flakes are bigger than the brine my clowns and goby go for that, while the brine is left for the little guy.

This week I am adding another 20lbs of LR. I'm going hunting for a breeder net today. Do you recommend the net or plastic types? Also do you recommend a certain kind of syringe? I am also going to get another jar of DT's pods this week as well. I figure i'll supplement pods every two weeks

Once he is out of the breeder I'll try the mandarin diner, seems easy enough. I'm also gonna get some LR rubble for my fuge this week and i'm gonna get some extra to make a pile in the tank for a pod pile...
 
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