| Everyone loves mandarins and scooter blennies but | | | | mandarin should eat live brineshrimp but it is not very |
| there natural diet can be hard to replicate in small | | | | nutritional. |
| aquariums. | | | | On the second day add live brine shrimp along with |
| Mandarins and other dragonets eat copepods and | | | | some defrosted frozen brine shrimp. |
| other small prey from the live rock. | | | | Continue this for a few days until the fish eats both |
| If kept in a small tank there may not be enough live | | | | the frozen artemia as well as the live stuff. |
| food to support the fish and it is common for them | | | | The net helps in this respect as the dead shrimp |
| to get slimmer and slimmer before dying. | | | | waft about on the net with the live stuff and the |
| One option is to buy live rotifers and copepods to | | | | mandarin will soon see them both as food. |
| keep the pod population healthy. | | | | Once the fish is eating dead brine you can then |
| A better option is to get the mandarin eating frozen | | | | phase in defrosted mysis shrimp with the brine |
| food. | | | | shrimp. |
| The technique I use works pretty much every time. | | | | Mysis is a much more nutritional food and can sustain |
| First select a fat healthy specimen. | | | | mandarins long term. |
| Instead of adding the fish to the main tank I add the | | | | Release the fish from the trap when it is eating dead |
| fish to a small breeding net. The type that hang or | | | | mysis without any other food being added. |
| stick to the inside of the tank used for breeding | | | | That's it. It should take 3 or 4 days but well worth it |
| freshwater livebearers. | | | | in the long run. |
| First day feed live brineshrimp into the net. The | | | | |