Blue Mandarin

[joshgabel]

can they really live on frozen mysis or must they have pods?

how do i start a pod population in my tank? in the display or refugium and let them get sucked into the main?

[Juiceman]

If you have actual live rock, thats a start. You can also supplement with bottle tigger pods (Live pods to seed your aquarium) My ORA Spotted Mandarin eats Mysis, but my Wild Blue Mandarin does not.

[mFrame]

Yes, they can live on mysis, the trick is getting them to eat it.

You either need to find one that is already eating mysis (ORA spotted mandarins are raised eating mysis), or train one to eat frozen. I've had quite a bit of luck with mixing tigger pods (expensive) or brine shrimp (cheap) with mysis at feeding time and slowing transitioning to all frozen foods. It also helps drastically if there is another mandarin in the tank already eating frozen. They can actually teach each other.

As for pods, your tank needs to be established at least 6 months and have lots of areas that can cultivate pods. Building small rubble piles in corners or your overflow can provide pod protection to help build up your colony. Also keep in mind that other fish that will compete with the mandarin for the pods can be bad, so you probably don't want super-fast, active wrasses and such in the tank. Mandarins are probably my favorite fish, so let them be the star of the show and not have to compete for food.

[innate1]

I would buy a bottle of tiger pods every three months and waited a year before buying my mandrin. By far my favorite fish.