this is good news.

Unfortunately these aren’t the psychedelic mandarins. The target ones just don’t compare…

Good, but really not that shocking, ORA has a good track record of milking the market to maximize profits, wouldn’t surprise me that they also require that you buy 25-50 other “junky” fish just to qualify for your two mandarins.

Plus in the grand scheme of things I doubt ORA has much of a supply as it stands, I mean these things don’t exactly breed like clownfish.

Got mine today from saltwaterfish.com and they are small and very shy. Many people report difficulty in feeding them.

I would like to say that stores are not required to “buy 25-50 other “junky” fish just to qualify for your two mandarins.” In fact, ORA has very reasonable minimum order sizes and shipping fees.

I would like to say that stores are not required to “buy 25-50 other “junky” fish just to qualify for your two mandarins.” In fact, ORA has very reasonable minimum order sizes and shipping fees.

Meaning that anyone can get their 2 mandarins with any order placed as far as I know.

I would suspect some of the “feeding difficulties” may be stemming from a certain amount of “operator error”. Just because these fish may now be eating prepared foods or even pellet foods (i.e. the smallest Spectrum Pellets may be a great choice), if the food is getting blown away, eaten by other fish, or disappearing in a gravely substrate, well, forget it as far as the mandarin is concerned.

Being captive bred takes away two key elements. It takes away some selective wild harvest pressures, and it takes away the difficulty in training them onto prepared foods when they’re wild caught. It does not make them willing to swim up into the water column to snatch food in the current, nor does it make them suddenly fierce, aggressive competitors for food.

In other words, they still have particular care needs that should be provided. They didn’t go from “Expert Only” to “Beginner” just because they’re captive bred

I would suspect some of the “feeding difficulties” may be stemming from a certain amount of “operator error”. Just because these fish may now be eating prepared foods or even pellet foods (i.e. the smallest Spectrum Pellets may be a great choice), if the food is getting blown away, eaten by other fish, or disappearing in a gravely substrate, well, forget it as far as the mandarin is concerned.

Being captive bred takes away two key elements. It takes away some selective wild harvest pressures, and it takes away the difficulty in training them onto prepared foods when they’re wild caught. It does not make them willing to swim up into the water column to snatch food in the current, nor does it make them suddenly fierce, aggressive competitors for food.

In other words, they still have particular care needs that should be provided. They didn’t go from “Expert Only” to “Beginner” just because they’re captive bred

Well said Matt. +1 Jim, ORA is a pleasure to deal with. We sold our first two Mandarin the day after they came in, we were able to order two more the following week without hassle. ORA’s minimum order is VERY reasonable.

What took so long? My first 2 were sold before I opened the shipping boxes! Now I have 2 cuties to watch here at the shop so we’ll see how they do.

What took so long? My first 2 were sold before I opened the shipping boxes! Now I have 2 cuties to watch here at the shop so we’ll see how they do.

Cayman, I like the target mandarins much much more.

Well, I may have to retract or at least temper my above statement regarding “user error” as at least one reliable / trustworthy fishy friend of mine has said no, in fact, there’s some truth to these claims that they’re not eating “anything”.

HMM. ORA, time to step up and let people know WHAT they’re feeding on when they leave your care!

My local store cannot even fill the pre-release waiting list, let alone the post-release one.

Maybe it’s time for the Matt-s and other breeders to step up to the sustainable plate and crank up the commercial productions.

My local store cannot even fill the pre-release waiting list, let alone the post-release one.

Maybe it’s time for the Matt-s and other breeders to step up to the sustainable plate and crank up the commercial productions.

Huey, still working on my new larval system as time allows….not enough time! And if it gets up, likely I’ll do undone stuff first (like my Neopomacentrus nemerus or Serranus annularis).

Matt,

We already listed everything that we are feeding them when they leave our care, it is certainly not a secret. Ova is by far their favorite, followed by bloodworms then daphnia. If you gave them the opportunity they would eat artemia until they exploded. They also eat small pellet foods. Each fish is individual and its likely that they will prefer to eat some of the foods listed more than others, we can’t say that every single one eats each type of food, we have many thousands of these guys and they are in big group tanks.
Remember, these fish have been eating ONLY the foods that we listed since March. The biggest and most robust 10% were pulled out for sale in July.
I think that they just need more time to settle in. When we took them to the Global tradeshow I was nervous because they didn’t eat for days. Most of them hid behind the rocks and it was quite difficult to show them to retailers. I think it was to be expected, it was the first time they had been transported and they were put into a temporary setup with barely cured live rock. When we brought them back to the farm (and ran them through quarantine after leaving our facility) they settled back down, got comfortable and started eating again within a few days. All of those fish are alive and well, most of the blues are showing spawning behavior on a daily basis now.

We took a video the other day of these guys attacking Nutramar Ova. When we feed them this stuff they will actually rise to the surface where the boldest will start to feed, when it hits the bottom they attack it like a pack of dogs. I think this shows that they do have a really strong feeding response when they are comfortable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZEGItO4zZU

Matt,

We already listed everything that we are feeding them when they leave our care, it is certainly not a secret. Ova is by far their favorite, followed by bloodworms then daphnia. If you gave them the opportunity they would eat artemia until they exploded. They also eat small pellet foods. Each fish is individual and its likely that they will prefer to eat some of the foods listed more than others, we can’t say that every single one eats each type of food, we have many thousands of these guys and they are in big group tanks.
Remember, these fish have been eating ONLY the foods that we listed since March. The biggest and most robust 10% were pulled out for sale in July.
I think that they just need more time to settle in. When we took them to the Global tradeshow I was nervous because they didn’t eat for days. Most of them hid behind the rocks and it was quite difficult to show them to retailers. I think it was to be expected, it was the first time they had been transported and they were put into a temporary setup with barely cured live rock. When we brought them back to the farm (and ran them through quarantine after leaving our facility) they settled back down, got comfortable and started eating again within a few days. All of those fish are alive and well, most of the blues are showing spawning behavior on a daily basis now.

We took a video the other day of these guys attacking Nutramar Ova. When we feed them this stuff they will actually rise to the surface where the boldest will start to feed, when it hits the bottom they attack it like a pack of dogs. I think this shows that they do have a really strong feeding response when they are comfortable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZEGItO4zZU

Awesome information Dustin, thanks for posting it! I think it’s important to reiterate the need to republish such care information again and again, as clearly many people overlook it or miss it.

I think it’s really critical to point out the level of CURRENT shown in your video (aka. “none”). Without a low flow setup or the explicit creation of a feeding station for these fish, the food gets swept away in your typical reef tank, and that could be part (or all) of the problem for the general consumer who’s just tossing them in a reef and saying “they don’t eat”!

Matt,

The water flow and air stones were shut off while the video was shot. They are kept in reasonably high flow conditions when compared to clownfish but nothing like the average reef tank.

I was really worried for the first few days when i did not see my little spotted mandarin eat anything. But on the third day, it began to nip at the spectrum pellets, and then when I finally got some OVA from my LFS, that was it. Now it gets 4 feedings with syringe shots of a mix of Ova and spectrum pellets….it just eats and eats, and I think it really has filled out and grown a bit bigger and more robust since I got it three weeks ago (knock on wood!). I think it has to get comfortable first, and then, it will begin to recognize you as you fuss over it. If you just toss it into a reef tank without any care or attn to it, and expect it to fend for itself like a wild fish, then it will perish. It is no longer a hard fish to keep, but it is now a domesticated fish that needs your attention and care. You have to invest the time to feed it good food, and in return, it really does recognizes you. Mine swims right up to look at me when I peer into the tank, and it rises up to find my syringe when it sees me with it during feeding time, and it’s only been 3 weeks with me. It has no fear of the human hand. Great pretty little fish. mike