I use to have a very healthy mandarin until I stupidly added a tang to my set up and got white spot and lost most of my fish not surprisingly I haven't kept a tang since and will not again.

Anyway until then I had a very happy and very fat mandarin I achieved this in the following way:

Tank mates must not compete for food if you have any wrasse in the tank they will out compete the mandarins equally any basslets will do the same.

Ideally the tank will be long standing and be full of copepods and the like.

Food offered should always be small but whole so brine shrimp and mysiid shrimp are a must.

I always fed frozen food never live presentation is the key.

In order to present it properly i placed a cube of frozen bloodworm against the intake for my stream pump this holds the frozen food against the pump whilst it disolves dispersing the frozen food through out the tank making it move as though it is alive. This entices the mandarins into hunting the food when they feed they tend to hover over their target before grabbing it they are very selective they almost stalk their prey like a lion fish.

The other important point is frequency of feeding I would be looking at feeding 2 cubes of mysiid or brine shrimp a day once just after lights on and once just after light off.

Its no guarantee but it worked for me very well until I stupidly introduced a powder blue tang I had the mandarin for about 2 years.

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Alan

Thweeerp!