Feeding Help

[Learning_The_Hard_Way]

The kids talked me into a Mandrin Golby this weekend and I got some Cyclopeeze to feed him.  I put a little in and it went everwhere in the tank for about 6-10 min.  How much do you typically put in how often?  The LFS reccomended sticking the frozen bar end in the water waving it around then putting it back into the freezer.  I forgot to ask how much is needed. I feed some froaen blend every other day and flake sometimes on the odd day. I am trying to not feed that much, but the kids pound me to feed them constantly.  Is 1 time a day too much? I think its a pretty light feeding (only floats for 2-3 min).

I have:
2 clowns
1 BH tang
1 Yellow tang
1 BSJawfish
1 6 line wrasse
1 coral bueaty
2 cleaner shrimp

Thanks,
CJ

[Reefd Up]

First off, is the mandarin actually eating the cyclopeeze?  Mandarins are extremely picky eaters in most cases...and will only usually take live amphipods.  Getting them to take prepared foods can be challenging.  Here are some links to help.  Mandarins are not only picky, but they're slow moving, so they need a special spot to eat where their food won't get stolen from them.

http://microcosmaqx.typepad.com/matt_wittenrich/2008/12/miniature-mandarin-beer-mug-diner.html

http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

[Learning_The_Hard_Way]

Its hard to tell if hes eating it but hes been all over the tank picking at things.  I think hes eating.  I like the idea of getting the beer from the mug in my system then feeding the fish with it!!!lol

[UDJustin]

he is probably picking around for food. I imagine you have some bugs growing in your tank that he will eat at first but unless you have a well established refugium or actually get him to eat prepared foods he will most likely starve to death soon.

[Reefd Up]

Chances are, that six line wrasse is going to compete with the mandarin pretty heavily for picking at the rocks and glass for pods.  I think giving your mandarin a nice quiet spot to eat is the est thing you can do for him.  

[cyberwollf]

I got one recently and only lasted 4 months. But it was also being picked on. Best advice would be to read melevs page on the mandrin diner. I finally trained mine to go into the bottle and eat frozen brine etc, but she was already too far gone to recover.

It's one of the worst impulse buys. Shame too, cheap and look geat. I'm ganna bet your tank is way too young to supply enough copepods. And what do exist will stay very low population due to the 6 line.

If I had it to do again. I'd pull it out and keep it in a 10g untill I taught it to eat out of a diner. Start reading    also AS sells live copepods in the interm.  Good luck!

[Reefd Up]

Oh, I definitely also would NOT recommend dipping the frozen cyclopeeze bar in the water.  That'll cause some of the unused cyclopeeze to thaw...then it'll refreeze...and you'll end up with freezer-burned cyclopeeze that probably isn't really suitable to feed to your fish.  Best thing to do is just take a small chunk and thaw it in the refridge...then feed it.

Another thing, watch how much you feed cyclopeeze.  It's fairly high in phosphates.  What else are you feeding? 

[Rayman]

has anyone else her tried this, that is amazing . I must admit i to can be feed from a beer mug .

[Learning_The_Hard_Way]

Its going to be a learning curve for sure.  You have to let the kids get some fish to get them into it too.  It was pretty cheap really, but I dont want to kill anything either.

My feed schedule is:
Day 1 feed 1 cube Spirulina (brineshrimp and Mysis)
Day 2 Feed 1 tiny pinch Omega one proten flakes
Keep the rotation going.
Its beeng working so far and eveythings growing nice.  The hammerhead frags Slandis gave me are starting to have offshoots too!!!!

Now with the new fish and Cycloeeze im not sure how often to mix that in?  the fish loved it, everything in the tank came alive looking for that stuff you should have seen all the crabs, thought most of them died, nope!

[HUNGER]

i under feed my fish i only feed every other day