Mandarin dragonet and his appetite

[Reeflover4ever]

Hi, I have had a mandarin in my 13.5 gallon for a few weeks now. It is very colorful, active and appears healthy since he is ALWAYS eating and his stomach makes him look like what other mandarin's probably call "heavyset"! I am just trying to figure out how much food this thing actually needs? He is CONSTANTLY on the hunt - I mean this guy seems to despise copepods! It is only a 13.5 gallon tank so I guess I am looking for someone with experience with these fish. In about 3 weeks I have gone through 2 bottles of copepods (supposedly approx.1200) per bottle. I thought these pods would breed in the cracks and crevices but I dont know and that is why I am here. Thanks for your help.

[OrionN]

13.5 gal will not be enough forage space for a Mandarin. He will wipe out your pod population in no time. You have to spend a lot of money to get pods for him, Hatch pods for him, train him to eat frozen, or get to a larger tank.

[Reeflover4ever]

Thanks Minh, I have been able to get him to eat a small amount of frozen brine shrimp and pieces of frozen mysis but it so far it is hit and miss. I will be spending the money for now because he/she has way too much personality to get rid of. On another note I am working on getting a custom tank over 75 gallons but the space I have for it is 36" wide x 18" deep but up to 5 feet tall. Just not sure where to get it made yet. Thanks for the advice.

[ca1ore]

Most of the pods a mandarin eats are tiny, so they have evolved to basically be hunting for them constantly. The challenge thus is to be able to provide a reliable enough supply. The assumption is that a large tank is more likely to sustain adequate pod populations than a small one. I had a Mandy in my 265 for four years, but then my pod population crashed (not sure why) and it quickly starved.

[Reeflover4ever]

Hey all, just wanted to thank you both for the info. On the Mandarin, he's doing very well (moves often, hunting, healthy looking and personality). I started feeding the tank froxen food Cyclops. He loves them and it seems the corals looked better after a week or so also. The Mandarin also eats brine and mysis when the other fish get fed. I watched him start on a tiny piece of squid but he spit it out after tasting it a couple times. moo

[Reeflover4ever]

Excuse the misspellings and "moo" at the end... phone has a mind of its own