Has anyone bought ORA captive bred mandarins?

[Korrine]

http://glassbox-design.com/2010/ora-mandarin-goby-captive-bred/

If so, how's it doing?

[MCCOOL]

The lfs I worked at, at the time, got 2 target mandarins in, right after they went on sale.
Both refused to eat (even nls pellets off a barebottom tank) and starved.

[Korrine]

wow! I can only find one spot in google shopping search that sells ORA mandarin. That's why I was wondering.

http://www.google.com/search?q=ORA+captive+bred+fish&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=ORA+captive+bred+fish&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=shop:1&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wf&biw=1024&bih=564&fp=b69933d19f024e3b

[MCCOOL]

I think Divers Den gets them occasionally.

That was the first week or two they went on sale, so hopefully some have had success by now. I was certainly excited when I saw they were being offered. (reasonably too, around $35)

[Toddrtrex]

Here is a long thread about them (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1820955&highlight=ora+mandarins)

[small alien]

I picked up a male target from my lfs. Had it about a week. Not eating much. Maybe some roe. They had it at the store for a bit and it's not terribly emaciated so it must have been eating something at the store. They were sure but feed pellets, mysis and roe. I was hoping for more vigorous eating right off the bat.

[snorvich]

My luck with them was bad. I ordered a pair, they did not eat despite having access to mysis and NLS pellets in addition to fish eggs. Never again for me.

[5380]

I picked up one yesterday. Mine is shy and not eating pellets, very weak prey drive. I have seen my pods come out of the rockwork grab a full sized spectrum pellet and drag it back to the safety of the rock. I believe that if I watch long enough I will see a pellet carrying pod run right past the mandarin.

[small alien]

I picked up one yesterday. Mine is shy and not eating pellets, very weak prey drive. I have seen my pods come out of the rockwork grab a full sized spectrum pellet and drag it back to the safety of the rock. I believe that if I watch long enough I will see a pellet carrying pod run right past the mandarin.

That is very funny in a not very funny way.

Just watched my target chow down on roe for 20+ minutes. Hopefully he's getting the hang of it. It does seem a bit ...I don't know if" dumb" is the right word. Manderins always have kind of a blank look.

[scubasteve06]

I've heard that they don't eat pods and 90% of them won't eat pellets or mysis. I have trained my starry dragonet to eat mysis and brine shrimp and was so excited tonight when I watched my mandarin come into the hole my YWG 'lives' in and start eating brine shrimp with them. I have been trying mysis for a while now and my starry got the hang of it right away while the mandarin thumbed his nose for weeks. I decided to try brine shrimp(frozen cube) tonight. The starry went right for it along with the YWG even more vigorously than with the mysis. My mandarin came over to see what the fuss was about and pecked at a piece and went crazy! So happy for him, but I wouldn't try a captive bred one yet, until they get this process down more. They just don't scourge for pods like the wild ones do, and they are already so weak from hunger that they won't take to prepared foods IME from what I've read. Never owned a captive one, just my one wild male.

[Korrine]

Thanks for the link. Seems the thread just kind of died at the end. ORA doesn't list mandarins as being bred there...not that I saw as of today.

[LobsterOfJustice]

I work at an LFS - we got one in and it never ate anything and starved.

[wdt2000]

I won a pair at MACNA. One died on the trip home, the other is fat and happy!! Loves frozen brine, not sure what else it eats in the tank as there are lots of seahorses in there with it so the pod population has to be depleted.

I plan to move him to my reef once I remove the carpet anemone so it can graze all the pods it wants.

[logo89]

I don't have any first hand experience but what from what I have read the targets are more likely to eat roe and the blues are more likely to take nls but I would assume each fish would be different. I do plan on getting some though once they have the process down a bit better.

[olemiss reb]

My pair of blues eat NLS small pellets with vigor since I got them on 8-3-10. They have come to recognize the turkey baster as dinner and swim straight to it when it goes in the water. They started eating frozen mysis about a week ago, but seem to prefer the pellets if given a choice. I had an ORA target that never ate, returned it to LFS, another RC member bought it, never ate, returned it, starved at LFS. My LFS does not order them any more unless it is a special request and he does not guarantee that they will eat. My pair has eaten since day one but are the only blues that my LFS received so I do not if they are more likely to eat or if I just got lucky.