New Mandarin

Told myself I was going to wait til I got my new sump/refugium set up but I saw this orange mandarin and had to get it. New fuge is coming online this week and I've added 2 bottles of pods in the last 2 weeks and have another to add when my refugium comes online. Before that I add a bottle every other month so I think I should have a good base population. My chaeto has pods already in it so I'm hoping with the larger area and more live rock in new refugium their numbers will increase and keep this gal happy.

 

Congrats, beautiful fish.

 

yes, I adore these fish. They are so "fairy like"

 

She's already starting to hunt through my live rock. Going to hope that I can get her to eat frozen/pellets but will keep adding pods just incase

 

What size tank? A large enough, established tank and you should not need to add pods. A smaller, newly setup tank, and you will be forever adding pods :-/

 

Very nice. Love the orange color.

 

I've had mine for over 2 yrs and wouldn't survive w/o Nutramar Ova. You should definitely get this frozen food for yours. Mine decimated my pod population within a month despite adding more regularly. I defrost a small square (small amount goes a long way) in a cup of tank water and use a turkey baster to shoot the eggs in the vicinity of the Mandarin. I do this once a day in the AM, and he wouldn't survive long term w/o supplementing with this food. They won't eat pellets or other larger frozen foods....Yours looks slightly thin already...A well fed/healthy one has a slight taper from head to tail, and mine resembles a sausage lol. Good luck, and hope this helps!

 

+1 very thin

 

Thanks everyone for the comments. Ill get some of the nutramar coming right away.

 

Tank is a 57g with 29 gallon sump. Refugium holds 5 gallons with LR and chaeto