getting a mandarin to eat

[asylumdown]

Sadly, this was not to be. Little guy was belly up today. He never ate a single thing as far as I can tell, even with live pods all over the place. He may have been much farther gone than I thought when I bought him.

[denny_C]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Sadly, this was not to be. Little guy was belly up today. He never ate a single thing as far as I can tell, even with live pods all over the place. He may have been much farther gone than I thought when I bought him.

was probably the case , if they havent eaten for a long time they lose the ambition to hunt, its sad but pretty common.

sorry buddy if anyone had a chance it was you , he was just destined or to far gone.



cheers

denny

[George]

Sorry about the loss.
Also remember that these fish don't come directly from the ocean to our tanks. They go from the ocean to divers to collection stations to distributors to wholesalers to stores. There maybe even multiple stops within each layers (like a store also wholesales live stock and sells to other stores). I don't think many of these places feed the fish or make sure the fish eat. We don't know how long the fish has left the ocean and in transit.
The best advice I can give is that the old recommendation of seeing a fish eating in the store is still a golden recommendation. As long as you are not looking for a super rare fish, the same type of fish will show up sooner or later. Buy the fish that is eating in the store.

[reeferious]

I mean those orangy capelin herring or whatever fish eggs they put on sushi. they sink to bottom and under water motion roll, frolick around very much like pods and with their natural fishy odor no mandarin can refuse them

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by George

Sorry about the loss.
Also remember that these fish don't come directly from the ocean to our tanks. They go from the ocean to divers to collection stations to distributors to wholesalers to stores. There maybe even multiple stops within each layers (like a store also wholesales live stock and sells to other stores). I don't think many of these places feed the fish or make sure the fish eat. We don't know how long the fish has left the ocean and in transit.
The best advice I can give is that the old recommendation of seeing a fish eating in the store is still a golden recommendation. As long as you are not looking for a super rare fish, the same type of fish will show up sooner or later. Buy the fish that is eating in the store.

Yah this guy came in on an order from Indonesia. I've looked in to some of the huge Indonesian exporters in the past, and from the sounds of it most of them source from all over the coral triangle. None of their websites talk about collection methods, just how fish are treated at their facilities, but I would imagine that their supply networks encompass everything from a couple of guys with a dingy to truly 'professional' outfits. There's really no way of knowing how long a fish was on the collection boat, how it was collected, how long it was at the facility, or what happened to it in between the exporter and the store.

I'm usually really careful about buying fish, I went with this guy over the other ones because it's fins and colours were particularly outstanding. Placed next to the other 3 mandarins of the same species in the store and there really was no comparison. I let vanity beat out of over practicality.