How do you feed Mandarin fish?

This is a question we are often asked as many hobbyists regard this fish as difficult, when actually it is easy to keep Mandarinfish in captivity. Mandarins have very small mouths for their body size, and aren’t good at breaking up pieces of food either. The good news is that feeding Mandarins is actually quite easy. We recommend feeding them 2-4 times per day using frozen Copepods in the UK. In a mature tank with plenty of live food for Mandarins feeding 1-2 feeds per day of frozen Copepods is usually more than enough. If kept in a new sterile tank with no live food then we recommend feeding 3-4 times day again using frozen copepods. Food larger than Copepods may be taken by large Mandarins, but, only Mandarins over about 3” long have mouths large enough to eat frozen Mysis. Even so feeing copepods to Mandarins is better.

Blue Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus).

An excellent fish for small to medium sized reef aquariums. We import most of our Mandarins from the Philippines where they grow much larger than the more commonly seen Indonesian specimens. Mandarins from the part of the Philippines we get them from, may get to 4” or more. We wean all of our Mandarins onto Frozen Copepods, and Frozen Cyclops, before they leave the shop. we recommend feeding on these two feeds at least 3 times per day. In an established reef tank this can be reduced to two feeds per day. Mandarins have small mouths and so often will not take other foods, so we recommend ensuring one of these two foods are used. Unless otherwise stated all our Mandarins are male, we very rarely get females.

SIZE

From 1” to 4”.

COMPATIBILITY

Reef safe with all corals. Males may fight, so only add 1 male Mandarin per aquarium. Avoid mixing with other Dragonets such as Scooters. As with most small fish, large predatory fish may try to eat them. As with most small reef fish they may jump if startled so a tight fitting lid with no gaps is recommended.

UK DELIVERY

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