Red mandarin
 

I added a red psychedlic to my 30G about 3 months ago. (he was added after my 6-line jumped, who used to eat lots of pods). The mandarin was relatively skinny at the time, but not starving. He went nuts on my pods initially. (my set-up has been running for almost 4 yrs now, in various tanks). About 3 weeks ago he started eating the frozen brine that would settle in the corners and low flow areas. But now he openly comes to the front of the tank, up there with my clowns, to feed. Needless to say he is fat and healthy... And my favorite to watch!

I have a 45 gallon corner tank with a pretty simple setup. I have had my mandarin for 2 and a half years. I was very lucky to have my mandarin eat frozen foods.

I have a 72g with a mated pair, I even found a few babies with the flashlight tonight, they were swimming around inside the barnicles I got for my blennies. Dont expect them to last long but its kewl to see none the less. Female eats frozen but the male is still learning I think, I have a fuge full of macro algae and even stuffed some chaeto in the overflow to help with copepod growth.

I just tried a method mentioned by s.tan with the frozen bloodworms. My male green mandarin dragonet gobbled them up eagerly. I used a turkey baster to target feed him. Turning off the power heads helps too.

I have a 200g tank with about 250lbs of live rock. My setup is only 3 months old so I kinda jumped the gun a bit. He was eating frozen brine at the lfs so I was more comfortable with it. Still I would recommend being more patient then me and waiting for your tank to mature, like 6 months at least. I may get him a mate but not for a while yet.

How can you tell when your pod population is high enough? I think the whole reason I went reef was for a mandarin, but I don't want to jump the gun and have a small Greek tragedy in my tank.

Window Maker, I think if you shine a flashlight at your tank and see lots swimming around you have enough. How big is your tank and how much liver ock do you have?

Got a red living with my Darwins in a 10 gal, fat as hell and the darwins allow him near the spawing pot.

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...c/40c692d1.jpg

Loves pellets too :mrgreen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfPLPShwB9A

Found my green femal after 3 months in my 90, thought she was gone.

The love white worms right from our shipper.

I'm pretty sure mine eats red flatworms :)