Webpage up. http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

Marc


Marc Levenson wrote:

I really need to do a webpage on that as well, as everyone has been
asking me that same question.

For a long time, my blue mandarin was a very happy fish in my 29g, and
would eat prepared foods, much to my delight. Since that was the case, I
never worried about it. However, in the 280g reef, it was actually
being starved to death due to stress by the other mandarins harassing it
as well as the voracious Tangs that would circle around it and get every
morsel off the sand.

That is when I remembered it was able to eat on its own in the past, but
this necessitated some alone time. So about 2.5 months ago, I started
putting food in a spaghetti sauce jar, and lowering that into the tank.
The mandarin could go in and get some Formula One *small* pellet food,
or Formula Two, when it was interested.

You can read and see the details he
http://www.melevsreef.com/archives/2...1_archive.html

The problem was that the other fish liked that food too, and the
smaller tangs would fold up their fins and slip in to get the food and
back right out again. I watch my huge Naso Tang hover in front of the
mouth of the jar, and wave its fins back and forth to create current
which would wash the pellets out into the open where it could get them.
He was very adept at this, as I saw him to it often.

So after a month of this, I finally picked up an olive jar, as that
would limit the size of the fish entering the Diner. I took a piece of
acrylic, heated it and wrapped it around the jar to act as handle for
easy reach on a daily basis.

I even tried feeding her some newly hatched baby brine shrimp, but that
really didn't work out so well. I never bothered trying it a second time.

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/1204/feeding_bbs.jpg
http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/1204/...in_pellets.jpg

I've continued to use a mixture of the two pellets every day, and the
mandarin is almost back to its original plump self. Keep in mind that I
feed newly hatched brine to the tank every day, with the pumps off.
This allows the smaller fish the opportunity to eat, and the larger fish
just wade through the food like whales.

Other fish still go in the Mandarin Diner, including my Six Line Wrasse,
the Lawnmower Blenny, Blue Damsels... but the tangs can only hover near
the opening hoping for stray pellets to accidentally come out.

Various snails and hermits go into the Diner at night, and each morning
I refill it for the new day, with about 1 tsp of pellets. If there is
too much food in the jar, it tends to rot and ferment, and an airbubble
collects in the jar. That is a good indicator of overfeeding. I will
dump that in the sink and rinse the jar out with tap water, and use less
food.

I have four Mandarins in my tank, but the Blue ones are the ones that
are near it constantly. They travel the tank, but know the food is at
the Mandarin Diner daily. There are times I've lifted the diner with
fish in it, dropped in more food and let it back down. Other times I'll
put the food down on the substrate, and within 10 seconds the mandarin
goes right in.

I'm really glad this has worked out so well.



Dave Town wrote:

Hey Marc - I just read your blog... tell me about your "mandarin
diner". One of your concoctions ? What do your mandarins eat. I was
under the impression that they only ate "live". Do tell !

Dave Town




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