An update on my Mandarin

[Beckmola24]

Well, I've had her almost a year now, and she's doing well. I wanted to share something that I think is really neat. Since being in with the seahorses, she now chases food. Before, the mysis had to be right in front of her fins for her to eat it Now she swims up into the water column to get the food and chases it down. The one male seahorse is her favorite. She likes to hang out with him. It's so cute when they look strait at each other. She's learning good habits from her buddies and seems very happy.

I'm glad to have kept her going for a year. Her color is good, she's got a good belly and she is actually responsive to me when I look into the tank. She never hides and is always out in the open.

Oh BTW, I don't want to hear that Mandarins are difficult to feed because of their small mouths cause some of the mysis pieces she tackles are HUGE.

 

[liveforphysics]

Thats REALLY cool!!!

I love to hear stories like this, keep up the good work!

And just to clarify, your mandarin actively hunts down swimming shrimp that are just free in the water collum and gulps them? What species of mandarin is she?

 

[Krish]

Nice Becky! Really cool...

 

[Beckmola24]

She is a Spotted/Psychadellic Mandarin. She actively chases down FROZEN shrimp that are floating in the water column. She's a good fish. I really like her.

 

[jammet]

I have thought about keeping a mandarin for a while, i think I would like a larger setup than what I can afford at the moment before I get one though. They are a beautiful fish, I hope you the best of luck with yours. Hopefully for me some day the wife will let me buy that larger tank.

 

[Beckmola24]

OMG! For some strange reason I decided to put some Spectrum pellets in my 37g. I think I was hoping that it would occupy my cleaner shrimp while I fed the seahorses. Well to my suprise and absolute delight, my Mandarin started gulping down the pellets that had fallen on the sand!!! This is great because she really has to compete with the seahorses to feed on Mysis, but since the seahorses don't eat pellets, she can get her fill. I'm really excited over this.

 

[cwby416]

YAY!! Congrats on your discovery!!

 

[Krish]

Hey that's cool Becky! Nothing like getting your fish to eat!!

 

[Beckmola24]

Hey that's cool Becky! Nothing like getting your fish to eat!!

Yep! Especially when 90%(more or less) of Mandarins out there only eat pods!

 

[Krish]

Yeah...That's how it was with my arowana I once had. I trained him to eat only flakes, blood worms and pellets to the point where if I put a feeder gold fish in the tank for the freshwater barracuda, he'd just swim past it!

 

[gregb]

Lets charge our glassas to Becky& her Mander. Hip hip hooray.

 

[Beckmola24]

I thought I'd post another update on my girl She has become extremely outgoing and friendly with people and my seahorses. I noticed today that she looked like she'd swallowed a melon I think today, she figured out that I use a feeding trough with my seahorses and is now stealing food out of it!! That is just awesome to me. She is the best and is ever growing. She eats Spectrum pellets and any frozen food that is small enough for her. I've had her for over a year now which is decent for a mandarin. I'm sure a lot of her success has to do with her eating habits.

 

[Krish]

That's great news Becky! When she gets photogenic try and snap a shot

 

[Beckmola24]

I have a pic of when I first got her. hold on a sec and I'll find it.

 

[Beckmola24]

Ok, here's a pic I took the first day I had her. She is being acclimated in kitchen bowl... and yes, I did wash it afterwards

I love her coloration and love her neon orange eyes (which you can't see too well in this pic...)

 

[Krish]

Cool! Pretty fish!

 

[brady816]

thats a very nice looking fish.

 

[Angelscrx]

She looks looks like my girl. Mine does a little dance at night before the lights go out. I come home from work and sit in front of the tank to relax, she comes up to the front glass zips back and forth real fast for a few minutes then says good night and heads off for the night. Awesome fish.

 

[Beckmola24]

My girl does the same thing before the lights go off She always comes by to say goodnight to me. I've heard people say their mandarins hid all the time, but not my girl. She is out in the open 95% of the time. The other 5% she is looking for pods in the rocks.