Tank Raised Mandarins?

[Deathsmile]

About a week ago while i was getting some water at my LFS, his phone rang, and he got some good sounding news.

Im not sure if im 100% completely right, but i do believe that the supplier who called him said that they have tank raised Mandarin Goby's that have been brought up on FROZEN FOOD not copepods. Ive read around that some members here have been able to train their Mandarin to eat frozen food, as well as my LFS has been able to with his, but would it seem possible to raise baby Mandarins on Frozen food and not copepods?

If this is the case, im grabbing two in the coming months that they are able to get shipped.

Whats your thoughts/info on this sort of thing?

[Doodaa]

I have yet to hear someone touting their long term success feeding these fish prepared food. Hopefully someone chimes in because I really like these fish!

[ChemGuy]

Breeding the Green Mandarin - Microcosm Aquarium Explorer

[blennydude]

+1 Dooda

They will still eventually die of malnutrition if they do not get copapods on occasion is what I have read from numerous sources. Most people will keep a pile of rubble rock in there fuge for copes to multiply (they don't like swift current) and suck them out w/ a baster and feed them to manderins. This is the only way to have long term success as far as I know.

[blennydude]

I read that link above, they talk about getting manderins to accept frozen food but nothing about keeping them alive long term. I think the answer is you would want to do both frozen foods and copapods to be safe. That just my honest opinion.