Manderin Fish

[Cat]

I went to my LFS at the weekend and was admiring their Manderin's, now I know from reading on this site that they commonly starve in smaller aquaria as they rairly except prepared food and once they have consumed all the copods they starve to death. Knowing this I asked a member of staff if by chance their manderins were excepting prepared food. She looked at me as if I had asked a stupid question and replied that they all eat prepared food quite happily, both frozen and dried! They all looked healthy and didnt look skinny at all. So I am now wondering about getting one. Does this really seem to good to be true?

 

[YoFishboy]

I too have heard that some mandarins will take prepared food, yet still "starve" because the prepared foods don't have the nutrition that they need. They really need to eat pods from a well established, larger tank with a lot of rock work and a refugium. Although there are exceptions, overall their survival rate is pretty poor.

 

[stephenray75]

If you offer a variety of prepared food they wont starve. I had one for over a year eatting prepared food. Just ask them to feed it infront of you to make sure it eats. dont just take their word. When i bought mine the lady feed it and since it didnt eat she told me to come back the next day. I did and saw it eat some brine shrimp.

 

[FloridaBoy]

My friend, the Mandarin Dragonet is not impossible, just a specialized feeder requiring special care. Be advised, placing them in a community of fast-moving damsels/tangs/wrasses, etc. means they will never get the prepared food, even if they do like it. They reason? they are S L O W.
I have observed these in the wild; they are often located in quiet lagoons with little competition, and they feed constantly. Unless they are going into a large, 100 gal-plus established reef under a watchful eye, I discourage most aquarists from even experimenting with Mandarins; not because they are impossible, but the fact is, they are imported and sold to far too many beginners only to slowly waste away, (similar to Cleaner Wrasses, Moorish Idols and Rock Beauties) you see this fuels demand for more imports of delicate species/specialized feeders and this type of pattern must be broken to avoid further restrictions on all wild caught species in our hobby.

 

[Max]

I'd make the lfs show me prove it prior to purchase. Just ask them to feed a small bit of dried foods and see if it eats it. I bet it won't IME it will usually take a lot of work to get these guys to adjust to other foods. Frankly most lfs have neither the patience or sufficiently trianed employees to do this.
Also as other posters have said they aren't quick and you'll have to make sure they get enough food. They also usually eat pods pretty much all the time. I'm not sure if one larger meal a day would be enough and much more will cause water quality issues. It's nice if they can be trained to take some supplemental feeding but, that's really all it is .
The best way to keep these little beauties is in at least 40 gallon ,"if well established with lots of l.r. a 50 is much safer" Even then a well establish fuge would help to increase your pod population. Be carefull about other additons as well because lots of other fish will eat pods and it can't handle the competition. You can also order pods off line or culture them if you are really interested in this guy and can't meet it's needs other wise.
hth
Chris