dragonets
Contents:
- [BM] These are the fish I think I want, what do you pros think?
by rader/sleaze.ssec.wisc.edu (Steve Rader) (15 Jul 92)
by rader/sleaze.ssec.wisc.edu (Steve Rader)
Date: 15 Jul 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
rtc-at-sgfb.ssd.ray.com (Custer) writes:
|> |> Mandarin Fish 1 15-20
|> |> quoting Emmens "They are slow feeders on live food of all types and tend
|> |> gradually to starve if not properly cared for."
|> |> The aquarium dealers say they don't have difficulty with them.
|> |>
walter-at-optimla.aimla.com (Walter Hunt) writes:
|> This is the one that made me follow up. I REALLY want to know why people
|> insist that mandarin fish are hard to keep.
Me too. The dealers that I like around here say it's because they are either
cynide caught or they sit to the brink of starvation in dist. holding tanks.
They say about 50% come in so thin that they are surly cynide caught or
malnurished.
|> 1. They taste bad to other fish. Nothing will eat them. (I've known one
|> to get "tasted" by a snowflake eel, but he spit him out after a quick taste.)
|> 2. They eat copepods and algae. So the lazier you are (the more algae on
|> your glass) the better they eat.
|> 3. I had to put mine on a diet, cause a friend of mine kept joking on
|> him for being so fat.
|> 4. I have never had a "reef-style" tank, and my water quality has never
|> been up to those standards.
|> 5. My current mandarin doesn't seem to understand what live brine are
|> for. But he is happy to eat frozen Prime Reef, and smack the Tang around if he
|> gets there first.
|>
|> People keep saying they will starve to death. Well, I've had mine for
|> about 1.5 years and moved him to different tanks twice, and he ain't given up
|> the ghost yet. So when is the "imminent death of the mandarin predicted"?
Three of the four mandarin fish I've owned died from jumping outa' their
tank either when my tomato clown was chasn' 'em or when it was very hot
(88+ F water.) I kept two (sequentually) in my fish-only tank for ~2 years
with no problems (other than constant harassment by the clown.)
Yes, mardarins in my reef do spend all day eating (almost micro) organisms off
the live rock.
However, every one of these mandarin readly ate/eats prime-reef and frozen
brine shrimp.
IMHO, the trick to keeping a mandarin (past respectable water quality)
is getting a very healthy specimen.
You can tell the health of a mandarin by checking their gurth when they
are in dealers tanks. If the mandarin is _in_any_way_ thin then wait for
another--good fish stores won't sell emaciated mardarins. What you want is
one that almost looks too fat.
Steve
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Steve Rader rader-at-ssec.wisc.edu
A Unix Guy __o __o
Space Sci & Engineering Center -\<,-\<, Go Greg!
University of Wisconsin, Madison ( )/---/ ( )
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