Where to buy Captive Bred Mandarins?
 

Anybody know where to get a CB mandarin or 2? Also, anybody have one or more and how is it going with them?

i've heard the ORA ones dont do that well and some wont eat anything but pods once they get home.

if you have time just take a read online as to training your own mandarin. All you need is a little breeder box and some patience for a few weeks. I remember their being a guy on nano-reef that had trained quite a few of them without any failures. The key is to mix the mysis/brine shrimp in with pods daily and slowly start reducing the number of pods in each feeding.

hey if you get good at it then you can probably sell em for $100 a pop or more.

who would pay 100$ for a mandarin?
I have a pair of them that eat pellets...lol
I think I paid 14$ each or something.

I have two males in my 77 g sumpless. No clue whether they are captive bred, but guessing not. First male has been in there for about 4 years (juvi when purchased), second probably year and a half, also juvenile. Thought the second was a female but got it wrong. Couldn't catch either one after second introduced so I was concerned for the life of #2. So far it's going fine with the odd skirmish when they catch sight of each other, but #2 generally knows when it's time to leave Dodge and stay out of harm's way. If I can ever get hold of either one, I'll have one for sale!

#1 started taking Cyclopeeze granules and small pellets off the substrate pretty much of his own accord. I haven't witnessed #2 take any dry food yet, but he's faring well finding live food by the looks of it. Both appear well fed & healthy. I allow the back glass to get quite overgrown with coralline and even.. gasp.. hair algae. This harbours extra pods & I regularly see both mandarins grazing those areas. I also have a fairly deep sand bed and observe them taking live food from there. Since I'm running sumpless, I also have a wad of Chaeto suspended from an acrylic rig on the back rim of my display. This also appears to be an effective refuge for pods etc. So probably not what many would consider an attractive display, but I don't mind & as long as it keeps the critters fed, I'm good. Some day I'll have a basement sump and cleaner display.

ora captive breds target mandarins are $100.

i dont think they are worth a $100 but people seem to be buying them. Lots of lazy reefers :)

I would hesitate to call those who do pay the money lazy, I would guess that most pay the premium to support a more ethical way to acquire fish. I don't know that I would pay $100 each for CB targets, but I would definitely pay a premium for them.

Exactly. Especially when it seems that most of the WC mandarins don't make it. There are certain fish that shouldn't be collected. With the luck that I've had with them, I feel that this is one of the examples.

I followed the instructions on Nano Reef and managed to train my mandarin to eat mysis. When I first got the mandarin it would only eat pods and showed no interest in anything else.

Takes time but can be done.

Even ORA mandarins don't necessarily eat pellets or frozen food. If you are dead serious about a ORA mandarin, make sure you see it eating pellets/frozen food in the store before you pay for it, just like you should for any fish.

Simply get a wild one and feed it some good food. I gave mine caplan egg (masago) and live white worms and they eat all this plus the pods. They really love the white worms, but all of my fish love these, even my darn foxface.