Mandarin

mine eats the H2O Spirulina mix, also I have a 90g with fuge and 120+ lbs of live rock that I seeded with pods it's a fat little sausage of a red mandarin

 

I had a mandarin in a 24g that survived just over a year. I have read that mandarins don't get all the nourishment it needs from frozen or preparred foods. Is this false? I had mine weined onto frozen brine and bloodworms and it still died eventually. Imo you need a lot of lr and a fuge or somewhere for pods to breed without being hunted. Also some people may overlook some fishes that may be outcompeting the slow moving mandarin for pods. A sixline wrasse is a great example...they will hunt down and consume pods much faster than a mandarin. Pods need to be replenshied in the dt very often if your going to keep a mandarin alive and well. Just thought i'd throw my 2 cents out there.

 

the only reason mine died was because of a rise from solinity i had it for about 9 months and it was one of the first to go in after the nitrogin cycle was done so apparently its fine. mine is fat as can be had it for about a month maybe two now and hes fine, i didnt have copepods before (as much as i do now ) and it did fine he maybe had 20lbs of LR (this was in my predator tank before it was a predator tank)

 

i've had my mandarin for about 3 years now, went from 20 long, to 40 breeder, to 55 now. Sometimes i see him swimming around the top at night, but never had any problems with him eating or anything... i find it odd that it won't even pick copes off the live rock that you do have... hmmm intriguing.. hope he holds out for you.