LFS has a Mandarin! But ...

Apparently, they weren't at all experienced. Mandarins don't eat flakes unless taught, which usually takes a decent while.

You can probably do it, if you have a refugium or rock rubble area for the pods to breed in.

 

I'd say the sooner he's out in a well suited tank, the better chance he has.

 

I didn't end up going over there today. Though the staff member said the owner would be in tomorrow(Friday), so I think I'll take a trip over then and talk to the owner. Maybe feeding it some live brine will convince him its ok to sell. They are actually kind of a religious christian fish store (odd combination), so they are very against any cruelty to animals and do honesty try to keep everything alive and well, just some of the staff members don't know any better.


They do have some reef tanks and I bought a rock from them once which was covered in pods so I'm sure they have some pods, just not sure if they put the logic together. The tank it was in had a few rocks, but with soo many fish in there, I doubt any pods existed. Hopefully with a little luck tomorrow, I'll be coming home with a friend =D.

 

I say go for it. I also say that I am extremely against teaching mandarins to eat flake food. Partly because of the nutritional value, because they do need pods, and they do need the nutrition that only pods can provide, but also because of their eating style. Mandarins are like hummingbirds, they have to be eating 24/7 around the clock. When they hunt pods, they do this just fine. But when you switch them to a prepared food, it doesn't work right. With prepared foods, a mandarin can only eat when the owner feeds it. Which is normally once a day or once every other day. Once every other day is a big step from eating around the clock every day. A mandarin could still starve to death from eating prepared foods on a weird or extended eating schedule. I don't care how much you feed it at one time, it's still not the same as it eating by itself when it wants to whenever it wants to. And even if you do feed to 5 times a day or something to overcome that obstacle, you still have the nutrition issue.

We're planning on supporting a mandarin in our 46 reef (about 70lbs of rock) by supplementing with a special pod farm. I've seen mandarins supported in tanks as small as a 29 using supplemental pod farming, so you'rs going into a young 90 should be fine. Give it a few months to a year, and you'll probably no longer need the pod farm and your tank would be mature and large enough to simply self sustain the mandarin.

 

They owner still won't sell me the Mandarin till they get it to eat. Uhg this is frustrating in some respect. They put some LR in there with some pods(so they say, didn't see anything but could be some), but unless they are sitting and starring at the tank I doubt they will notice him eating anything. I stayed there for about 20 minutes and he was definitely looking around the rock, so he could be hunting.

Either going to go back today or tomorrow after work. To be continued...

 

The way my mandarin eats is by waiting until the pellets are on the bottom of the tank, then eating them like pods. So it's hard to actually see them eat, even if you're looking. You gotta really pay attention.