Reef nutrition

My 90 gallon tank: video update! (with narration this time!)

aqua-nut said:
goldie,

Several places in this thread you mentioned you wanted to get a Mandarin. As I'm sure you know they can be hard to feed. I just read an article in 'Coral' about breeding them. In the article they stress it's possible to train them to eat prepared foods.

The process for training:
While in QT, get them to feed on enriched LIVE Brine Shrimp. Next introduce frozen BS and Mysis shrimp. After they begin sampling the frozen, gradually withdraw the live diet. Once they vigorously eat the frozen they can go into the display tank.

Of course you want to keep them in QT for the full QT period.

Has anybody here tried this?
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Not sure if Jim tried, but he gave me similar information. Hopefully it will work. I was actually thinking of trying to get tank bred mandarins. Not sure how feasible that is yet, but I do have plenty of time to look around before I am even close to ready to get one. Besides, all that time will give me time to find someone or somewhere that sells them, and save up some cash if I need too. Someone mentioned (can't remember if I heard it here or from someone at the LFS) that they had a mandarin and he ate really well after the QT period. After about 8 months, the person woke up, looked at him, fed him, went to work, saw him that night, slept, got up the next morning and he was dead. Not sure what would cause sudden death like that, but really, I would rather get a tank bred one and have a good idea of their history before buying. Hopefully my thinking isn't way off the mark, but again, still learning and doing tons of research.

@Jim, thank you for the advice. That would have been an up and coming question I am sure =) any recommendation for an automatic food feeder? I was kind of hoping to do this anyways, I thought it would be less stress on the fish if I didn't have to open the lid of the hood every time to feed them.
 
I don't have any Mandarins but I have a Macropharyngodon bipartitus which also loves to eat pods. My tank had been up for a year when I got it. After trying a lot of different types of food, it took to frozen shrimp eggs. I fed it shrimp eggs for a week, and every now and then tried crushed flake food, and then back to shrimp eggs, it's been a few months now that I've had it. It is fat and eats everything I throw into the tank now.
 
Lmao!! If only it were that easy. He's hardly home. Besides, he's not as interested in the fish as he is the corals. He can't wait until we put our first frags in there. :) (thank you Jim!)

Would you put the New Life Spectrum in the feeder? Not sure if it would be a good idea to put frozen food in there...but I wanted to double check to see what you all suggested.
 
Frozen would be a no no. It has the unfortunate tendency to unfreeze ;) I guess you could use freeze dried, but i have no experience with freeze dried food. Flake or pellet are probably your best bet.
 
Not_Now_John said:
Frozen would be a no no. It has the unfortunate tendency to unfreeze ;) I guess you could use freeze dried, but i have no experience with freeze dried food. Flake or pellet are probably your best bet.
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yeah, and I thought it might go bad or something. Well, I will put that on my seemingly ever growing wish list LoL. Just when I think I have everything I need, 6 different things pop up LoL. But that will be a good vacation feeder as well. That way the person who comes over doesn't have to worry about the pellet food.
 
+1 on the eheim auto feeder. Robert at Neptunes feeds his new reef tank New Life small pellets and cyclopeze flake and swears by it. His fish look fat and colorful...can't argue with that.

Bookmark www.orafarm.com for captive bred mandarins. I did train a mandarin to eat prepared foods (as John suggested). Remember they are methodical eaters and a wrasse or other fish may swoop in and steal there food. That's why it's important to have a mature fuge when buying one, let alone a pair. I'll end up getting s pair down the line, but I'm waiting atleast a year before doing so...and that's with 500 gallons of water !
 
gimmito said:
+1 on the eheim auto feeder. Robert at Neptunes feeds his new reef tank New Life small pellets and cyclopeze flake and swears by it. His fish look fat and colorful...can't argue with that.

Bookmark www.orafarm.com for captive bred mandarins. I did train a mandarin to eat prepared foods (as John suggested). Remember they are methodical eaters and a wrasse or other fish may swoop in and steal there food. That's why it's important to have a mature fuge when buying one, let alone a pair. I'll end up getting s pair down the line, but I'm waiting atleast a year before doing so...and that's with 500 gallons of water !
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Well, Eheim is on the wish list. I'll have to add the New life small and cyclopeze flakes to my list as well. LoL darnit!!! It keeps getting longer!! It's such an awesome hobby though =)

And that ORA site is so nice! Too bad I am not a wholesaler, but I hope they may be able to point me in the right direction. As the mandarins will be my ultimate fish, I am definitely waiting to get them, as hard as it is. I have wanted one for sooo long. Just knowing that I am on the right track helps though ^.^
 
Erick said:
Sustainable Reefs in San Jose gets ORA stuff in fairly often.
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O.O I am so going to check them out!! And they are open late!! Woo hoo!! I never even knew they existed, thank you so much Erick!!

$155 for a pair? hell, sign me up! I was expecting way more than that LoL.
 
He has a day job and opens his store at night. As for mail order, I don't think he caters to online sales, but I am not certain. The majority of his livestock is aquacultured and maricultured.
 
How come hardly anyone has heard of "Flex PVC?" Is there another name it goes by? I was going to look for some for my return pump, and people give me a funny look when I ask......
 
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