ORA spotted mandarins

[alienbob113]

My LFS has 2 ORA spotted mandarins, i was wondering what experience people have had with them eating flake / pellet food. ORA claims they eat prepared food on their website, and while both of my tanks have a solid pod population, id rather be able to pick one up with the added security of it eating prepared food. I've currently got a 20g w/ 20g sump thats got a ~8g section fuge section with macro, lr rubble, and a huge population of pods for the size of the tank. It's got 2 occelaris clowns. Would i be able to add an ORA mandarin? 2 of em? It would be awesome to have my tank stocked with 2 mated pairs of fish.

Or

Ive got a 75g w/ 20 sump, similar setup, similar pod population. It holds:
1x saddleback clown
1x melanurus wrasse
1x tomini tang
1x rainbow firefish

Im fairly certain i could house a pod eating only mandarin in it based on my pod pop, but again would rather have 2 of them. Would that be doable in either tank?

[kelrn98]

I would wait to see if they eat food at the LFS. Then u will know.

[alienbob113]

yeah i definitely plan on having them feed them first at the store. But if they are eating say NLS pellets would 2 of em be feasible in a 20g w/ 2 occelaris?

[Bretts05jeep]

I have one in my 150 that learned to eat frozen on its own in about two weeks and with in about two months it would eat anything.

If you put them in your 20 gallon and thay dont eat prepaired food I would move them to the 75 gallon so they dont run out of pods.

[sponger0]

I would wait to see if they eat food at the LFS. Then u will know.

This means nothing. Once a mandarin is moved, it can possibly deny to eat due to stress. Thats how mine died after having him for 6 months then moving him to a bigger tank.

[Ron Reefman]

I'd be very careful with this purchase. I think ORA is a great organization, but I take the claim of eatting flake or frozen food with a grain of salt. JMHO.

I had one in my tank for 4-5 months and it died of starvation. And that is in a 75g tank with lots of rock and macro algae (and only 2 clowns) attached to a 180g reef and a 32g refugium and a 32g frag tank! There is no way you can have enough pods in a 40g system. A mandarin will eat every pod in your system in a week or two. You would need to buy live pods and breed them in a seperate system.

[snorvich]

ORA mandarins have mixed results. Do a search. In my opinion in the tank cited, the odds are not good.

[alienbob113]

ORA mandarins have mixed results. Do a search. In my opinion in the tank cited, the odds are not good.

That in reference to the 20/20 tank or the 75/20? Either way im in no huge rush to get a mandarin, i was foolishly coerced into buying one from a garbage LFS for my sumpless 10g and felt awful starving him, so I'd rather just not purchase a fish that id have a potential of just murdering. I'd be more than content with keeping him/them in my 75g if there has been a good history of them surviving (esp with just pellet or mysis), but my major concern is finding a way to assure they actually get food without completely overfeeding, since my other fish are such pigs.

[tst400]

Havent seen mime eat anything!!!!!

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[ecvernon]

Just got mine to recently eat Nutrimar ova from a submersed baby food bottle. But even though he is an Ora mandarin he still goes through my pod population. Maybe they ate prepared foods at ORA but after being reintroduced they will go right back to the available pod population. My friend had a smaller tank without sufficient pod population we seen the mandarin pick at some OVA but it still began to get skinny then eventually stopped eating and died

[Kyleben]

I had a target mandarin that ate bryne for 4 months then just stopped eating and starved. Check our my mandarin forum....mandarin diner experiment you might get some answers there. after a year of "research" and testing I think it is impossable to keep them without a GIANT active fuge (above tank works better than sump) also there was a guy on www.nana-reef.com that was featured TOM and had a red mandarin that he fed something weird. they are just fickle fish, that is the one known fact. Message me if I can be of more help

[jinks]

I would think that without the pods to feed it you will have a hard time getting food past the other fish without over feeding. Seahorses that are captive bread will eat frozen but you would still starve them in a normal tank.

[scarface70706]

I'd be very careful with this purchase. I think ORA is a great organization, but I take the claim of eatting flake or frozen food with a grain of salt. JMHO.

I had one in my tank for 4-5 months and it died of starvation. And that is in a 75g tank with lots of rock and macro algae (and only 2 clowns) attached to a 180g reef and a 32g refugium and a 32g frag tank! There is no way you can have enough pods in a 40g system. A mandarin will eat every pod in your system in a week or two. You would need to buy live pods and breed them in a seperate system.

ive always admired your setup lol:thumbsup:

[alienbob113]

Thanks for all of the advice. It looks like for now I'll stay away from them.

[sponger0]

Thanks for all of the advice. It looks like for now I'll stay away from them.

Hope this didnt scare you from owning one. It was just to understand their needs are much higher than most fish. Mandarin are best kept in system designed and planned to hold a manadarin

[alienbob113]

Not too much. There are so manyother fish I'm interested in that are far easier to care for that I'm quite alright with holding off for now. I'm not happy with my fuge in my 75g right now anyway and I don't really have the option of building a display fuge, nor do I want to be spending tons of money on pods