I have a Psychedelic Mandarin that has been in my 60g with about 80 lbs of live rock for about a month now. He is a mysis shrimp pig and is happily getting quite fat.

I got mine from Oceans where they had a few of them. I had them feed the tank some mysis to see which, if any, were eating prepared foods and a couple of them took it right away (one of which is in my tank now).

To play it safe I would ask the LFS you plan to purchase from to do the same. that way if your pod population is not sufficient or dwindles at least the fish will be supplementing its dietary needs with the prepared food.

Good luck, they are a great fish :cool:

Well, here's a stupid confession.

I bought a green spot mandarin last week from Wai's... I asked him to feed the tank , he fed them, the mandarin ate (like a little piggy too!) I was so happy to see them eating prepared foods... so I bought one... figuring my pod population was of no concern if it was eating prepared foods. BIG mistake.... I get it home, in the tank.. and within minutes it begins cruisin' around the tank hunting for pods... picking everywhere.... I figured it was just instinct obviously and thought nothing of it. Well.... if it's instinct is to hunt, then it's instinct is to eat pods (duh) ... and if it's in a display tank... of course it will take prepared foods if it has nothing else to eat!! Now my Mandarin is picking constantly.... sometimes it appears tojust be eating algae though. I have tried feeding it (hikari) mysis, and brine (so far) with little luck. My tank is 20g... don't freak on me ! I fed him some frozen brine yesterday and it appeared to snag a few pieces ... so knock on wood. If anyone has some kind of suggestions to give the tank a good boost of pods for the time being, I'm all ears.

My plan is to soak food in garlic extract ... and if this doesn't work... I will try ordering pods online, OR hatching brine shrimp... I was told the pod population in my 20g would be wiped out in 2 months tops.

I'm in need of help as you can see :D But the Mandarin IS fat... and it's very healthy...and I definitely would like to keep this fish if possible using the options I have available. If all else fails... I'll have to say Good-Bye :sad:

There is an exelent article in this years marine fish and reef keeping annual.

Ummmm may i ask why???? I have a 6line wrasse and a Mandrian :cry: :cry:

Also Get a nice big Fuge and load it with Live rock,sand and macro. You will have pods in no time in that puppy.

because it is rare that the 6 line will not kill the mandrin.

Steve

O i have both in my tank :eek: :eek:

Steve is right. My Mandarin and sixline got along great, until one day the Sixline started attacking the Mandarin, and tore it up badly. :evil:

I thought the problem was the Sixline would consume the Mandarin's food supply.

At first - then the harassment starts, then the attacks. The 6-line will tend to seek to eliminate its competition eventually.

...they are wicked little beggars - recently had one rip on a well-established Yellow Tail damsel, but it didn't kill it - I guess because they don't compete for the same food source.

in my past experience i had not had any problems keeping those 2 fish together...

in fact i just purchased a little sixline and a mandarin... my only fear is that when i add them to my 180 my leopard wrasse may harass the 6 line.

it would be my belief that in a large enough established enviroment (my 180) there would be ample room and food source to prevent/curb any over aggression.

FWIW, i had previously kept them together in my 125 a few years back.

HTH.