mandarin

I am just wondering about the local interest level in having a mandarin fish and convincing a couple of local stores who sell them to commit to stocking live capepods to feed them. I have decided I will no longer do business with a local store that sells these fish but does not sell the food they need to eat. But a store who does both would pretty much get all my business. I think there is a lot of interest in having a mandarin in our tanks but many people have done their homework and refrain from buying one because they know it will starve in their tank.

I have found that many DO have the food needed, but as it comes in with shipments its bought and cleared out almost as fast as they can get it in, I try to ask everytime I enter a LFS if they have pods for sale and if they do I BUY THEM .... I have found it successful to MIX the pods you put in and not stick to just one kind... For a while I was Podding my tank every other week when I had fish all eating from the same food column....  Week 1 was Tisbe pods, 2 weeks later Tiger pods, 2 weeks later Poseidon feast pods... Repeat... Tanks been THRIVING since we did this and now just add any of them about once a month to maintain... hope this helps! 

I have no problem supporting stores that sell them without also selling the food. In fact, I don't like the idea of stores carrying the food, as it may give people the incorrect message that they can keep a mandarin in a 3g tank if they dump enough pods in.

I just hope stores at least check to make sure the buyer has a large mature tank first.

Or...sells captive bred/raised mandarins that are eating frozen. That's the best.

The hard part about carrying the stuff is some weeks you sell nothing and the whole shipment goes bad. Then you get another and its all gone. Its not a very stable seller. Thats why you see so many suppliers come and go with the stuff. If it were as lucrative as some think, you'd never see a store without it.

its best to make sure YOU have a big enough tank for a population and let it mature.

I have a mandarin, he is wild caught (bc tank raised is way to expensive). Every time I spoke to different LFS employees they all asked me the same thing. "how big is your tank?" and "how long has it been up and running?" Being in this hobby I, like many others, am sometimes not happy with the answers I get. Because there is the itch I need to scratch when I see a really pretty fish, not to mention the attraction to the label of "only for experienced hobbyists". Well, lets be honest, we'd all like to be labeled experienced at what our passion is. Which lends me to be sometimes an irrational shopper. Which is why I went to more than one store to ask the same question to have someone justify my early purchase. However, rationality is my counterbalance. While they explained why these two questions are so important I learned that patience is the virtue that will keep me happy in the long run. This is what I was told. A tank that is no smaller than 55 gallons is optimal for 1 mandarin. The tank must be up and functioning for the minimum of 6 months, preferably a bit longer. You can start your pod population and by 6 months you should be able to sustain 1. Refresh your pod population once a month (if necessary) and feed phytofeast. This is so you don't need to constantly rely on LFS to feed your fish. BC of exactly what phys said. Also, the point of most tanks is to be mostly self sustaining. It's a hard balance at times as we've all experienced from time to time. Now here's something fun I discovered one day. My wild caught "never gonna eat frozen" mandarin was eating the leftover ROE on the substrate. I think we've all had an experience where we've seen an exception to the rule. Fish can be stubborn and fish can be adaptable. When I started my 55, I purposely got a bigger sump. I dumped two bottles of tigger pods in the back and kept the water green for quite some time. I know that my population is good. They're all over the glass. And my Ninja (mandarine) is fat as can be. Which is what I think some stores that don't sell pods are hoping people will accomplish in their tank. I hope this helps you to still be open to shopping at all available stores in your area.