How to Train a Pod Eater to Eat Frozen (Mandarin, Ruby Red Dragonet, Greissenger Goby)

[rhdoug]

No, I don’t quarantine my fish, especially one like a mandarin or dragonet. I feed with a turkey baster and would try and gently release some food on the ground near him. He did show interest in the food and began to eat some until the other fish caught on. He began to follow the baster so I led him to the jar and he went in and began to eat. It only took a day or two.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

No, I don’t quarantine my fish, especially one like a mandarin or dragonet. I feed with a turkey baster and would try and gently release some food on the ground near him. He did show interest in the food and began to eat some until the other fish caught on. He began to follow the baster so I led him to the jar and he went in and began to eat. It only took a day or two.

I'd like to go ahead and release him into the DT where he will currently be the only fish and he'd also have a good pod population...I'm just concerned about the crabs I have in there that I'm currently trying to catch...worried they might try tok amke a snack out of him

 

[rhdoug]

Yes I don’t blame you I would worry about that too. I kept mine for about four years but I got a six line wrasse At some point. He quickly discovered the jar and decided it was his Lair and would not let the mandarin in. And no matter what I did the wrasse would harass the Mandarin until he stopped eating. So that was the end of the Mandarin.

 

[DaJMasta]

It's a lengthy write up for my whole process, but I've done it successfully with three mandarins and two ruby red dragonets so far, the ruby reds take a little longer (maybe because of food size?) but the progression is basically the same, and you can expect maybe 2-3 weeks worth of training time.

Their quickest one to eat has been blood worms of the frozen food I've offered in rotation, and when training I try to offer two meals a day of different things and vacuum up the leftovers each morning. A few copepods in the mix can help, especially if they already look underweight. Basically, you keep them in a mesh breeder box in the tank and feed frozen fairly heavily. Once they're not so freaked out at being there or you, they'll do their normal hunting around the space, and you're relying on the confined area increasing the odds that they eat some frozen, and that it happens enough times for them to realize it's actually something they like to eat.

A good sign is when they start acting excited and immediately hunt around after being fed, but your real goal is to see them eating chunks of something immediately after it's given to them - since they will have to spot it in the tank and eat it before other things do. Once they're trained, I feed my tank with the pumps off similar things as I trained them on, and try to target feed a little when possible.

Oh and I haven't had any luck with the blister packed capelin roe either, most of my fish don't care for it.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Yes I don’t blame you I would worry about that too. I kept mine for about four years but I got a six line wrasse At some point. He quickly discovered the jar and decided it was his Lair and would not let the mandarin in. And no matter what I did the wrasse would harass the Mandarin until he stopped eating. So that was the end of the Mandarin.

There's no way I can be sure to get every single crab out though so maybe after just getting a few or several I'll introduce him later this week...I'm getting some pods in the mail to feed him that should be here in a couple days to add to his QT while I try to trap the crabs...maybe I should add a little extra food for the crabs as well after adding the Goby so they aren't quite so hungry? I think that might be a good idea and I'll continue to try to catch them even after adding him

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I've also added a few pieces of live rock to the QT from the DT that likely had pods on it so he's probably gotten a few at least...I just worry about him getting too weak to hunt if I keep him in the QT too long...I would've prepared the tank for him before buying him and had a QT with pods set up but I had no idea the shop was going to get one in stock again finally and it was kinda a "get it now or never" type of situation...

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I think I might convert the 5 gallon QT tank into his own species tank now...I'll add live rock, sand , and I'll add a bottle of pods even though they'll already be on the live rock it wouldn't hurt to boost their original population! Plus maybe I'll get to see him more. Does anyone have an opinion on this?

 

[Alexopora]

My starry dragonet luckily began eating frozen mysis as well a few months back. I have one of those round glass dish that are usually used for feeding freshwater neocariddina shrimps. I would gently squirt some mysis on to the dish and my dragonet would come along and feast.