Good to know! It should be. It is close to a year old though and I have noticed a significant decrease in visual pods in my tank. It is a Biota Tank Raised Mandarin that came in eating frozen, and the less I see pods in the tank the more I see it eat the frozen food I feed. At first it would only pick at the frozen food occasionally. Now mixing in blood worms and fish eggs with Mysis it gets real excited during feeding.
I know you’re probably wanting the opinion of the more experienced members of this forum, but I just wanted to say that you have a beautiful healthy fish (imo) and a gorgeous tank set up!! You are an inspiration to beginners like me!
Also, I was wondering what you feed your mandarin? I was considering keeping a single mandarin in an Evo 13.5. Do you supplement copepods from a culture or is it trained on frozen? How often do you feed? Or do you have a link to a thread where you already answered this question lol
Cant tell much from a top view in dark lighting but looks active. Belly should be round opposed to flat
It is so small and still a bit skiddish of me so visually it is really hard for me to tell. I lean towards looking fat and plump - I just know sometimes it is easier to tell yourself something is working in a situation like this even if it may not be. That is why I wanted outside perspectives.
13.5 Evo is too small for a mandarin, in my opinion, unless you're supplementing weekly with live copepods.I know you’re probably wanting the opinion of the more experienced members of this forum, but I just wanted to say that you have a beautiful healthy fish (imo) and a gorgeous tank set up!! You are an inspiration to beginners like me!
Also, I was wondering what you feed your mandarin? I was considering keeping a single mandarin in an Evo 13.5. Do you supplement copepods from a culture or is it trained on frozen? How often do you feed? Or do you have a link to a thread where you already answered this question lol
The mandarin came in from Biota at 1 cm. It had to go in a 5-10 gallon or less. It is still 2cms. Also the ones from Biota get sent out eating frozen and dry foods. They stay around half the size in adulthood and are much easier to keep IMO.
Oh forgot to add theres like 5 minutes of videos on that link. Lots of different angles maybe you just started at not the best timing of the video?
Awesome! They are amazing fish. Sadly very hard to keep. Thank the heavens Biota found a way to tank raise them. I feel like if you have a 50 gallon or larger system a year old at the least you really would never have to supplement pods especially with a Biota one.
Ah- yes, its started 33 seconds from the end. Fish looks good and is actively hunting for food
I am sorry but are you saying you received a 1 cm Mandarin?
Yep you heard it! 1cm give or take. If you measured the width of head definitely under. Body length a little over. I had to precisely measure it while acclimating to ensure it wouldn't slip through the Evo return grind. It was close!
I think fish growth being stunted in aquariums is a whole conversation in itself. After my best friend went to school for Marine Biology and got to work with companies regularly diving in Fiji he inherently believes wild fish can get countless times larger in the wild than ever seen in aquariums, and I believe him.
www.reef2reef.com
I was lucky (almost unlucky) to get it right when it came in from Biota. Gosh I imagine it was alive for like months at 1cm? Not sure about their growth rate but it could not have been over 6months-1year old.
Interesting!
