How to train mandarin?

[MMacro]

I bought a mandarin yesterday and my lfs recommended that I get a breeder box to train him to eat pellets/flake/frozen. How long should he stay in the box if he refuses to eat? I have lots of pods in my display and refugium for him to eat but just wanted to make sure he got enough to eat after they ran out. He is still very small.

[MondoBongo]

the chances of "training" them to reliably eat pellet or frozen are about nil.

pods will always be the main food source, anything else is strictly supplementary. i would highly suggest building a PaulB style feeder, or diner, adding in some pod piles, making sure your refugium is productive, culturing pods externally, and tracking down some nutramar ova, but aside from that you will likely not be helping them by isolating them from their food source.

this method of training holds little to no value in my opinion.

[snorvich]

The OP has a mature 75 gallon tank which should be sufficient to maintain a single mandarin. Training is irrelevant. Mandarins cannot compete, but all will all eat frozen if they can get it before the other fish do.

[MMacro]

Thanks guys, she is in the tank munching on pods right now. I will see if she eats frozen or bbs tomorrow.

[Whiterabbitrage]

Be sure there are pod piles in your tank. That helps a lot. And 1+ for PaulB feeder.

[ShannyG]

One thing I do when feeding is turn off my powerheads. The flow slows down and the frozen bits sink to the bottom quickly. My red scooter seems to get a bigger serving that way. After about five minutes I turn them back on and the stir up anything he hasn't found for the other fish to eat.
Edited to add: all the fish learn quickly that when the powerheads go off it's feeding time. That way my dragonet is 'on guard' before the bits even start to hit the sand.

[Paul B]

I trained mine with a whip and chair, now they can jump through flaming hoops. It is just hard to keep those hoops on fire underwater as I have to keep lighting them

[Code4]

My local fish store, 4 hours and one state away, just got in a shipment of mandarins. Baby brine shrimp hatchery set up. Working on Paul's feeder tomorrow. Then a day trip to get my new best friend later next weekend. And pods in the tank.

Code4

[prickles]

Originally Posted by Paul B

I trained mine with a whip and chair, now they can jump through flaming hoops. It is just hard to keep those hoops on fire underwater as I have to keep lighting them

have you tried napalm?

[Rob6311]

In my case I went to my LFS and saw a very small mandarin, and I mean very small about the size of a quarter, and the LFS claimed that it ate frozen mysis shrimp, which didn't really matter a whole lot because I do have a bunch of Copepods. But after a few days having it I noticed her litterally chasing the mysis I dumped in the tank, she also eats the pods but I was very surprised to see him eat the mysis as well. And I think the key to this whole situation was the size of the mandarin I think the younger the fish the easier it would be to "train" it. Also I've noticed that the mysis has to float basically right in front of its face for it to see it as well so you should put enough in to have it float to the bottom

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by Rob6311

In my case I went to my LFS and saw a very small mandarin, and I mean very small about the size of a quarter, and the LFS claimed that it ate frozen mysis shrimp, which didn't really matter a whole lot because I do have a bunch of Copepods. But after a few days having it I noticed her litterally chasing the mysis I dumped in the tank, she also eats the pods but I was very surprised to see him eat the mysis as well. And I think the key to this whole situation was the size of the mandarin I think the younger the fish the easier it would be to "train" it. Also I've noticed that the mysis has to float basically right in front of its face for it to see it as well so you should put enough in to have it float to the bottom

All (healthy) mandarins eat mysis. No training required.