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This is the dream, right? Getting your picky little mandarin to eat frozen food is like teaching a toddler to enjoy broccoli. It takes patience, but it can be done with most fish—and it’s a total game-changer for long-term success.
Here’s the step-by-step method I’ve used and recommended to clients:
1. Start with live baby brine shrimp
Live foods trigger a natural hunting instinct in mandarins. Baby brine shrimp, freshly hatched, wiggle like copepods and are almost irresistible. Feed them daily to get your mandarin accustomed to looking for food in the water column.
2. Slowly mix in frozen baby brine shrimp
Once your mandarin is consistently eating live brine, start sneaking in some frozen baby brine shrimp with each feeding. The frozen food won’t move as much, but since it looks and smells familiar, many mandarins will still snap it up.
3. Graduate to frozen mysis or calanus
After your mandarin accepts frozen baby brine, it’s time to offer more nutritious options like frozen mysis shrimp or calanus. These foods are meatier and richer in nutrients—exactly what your mandarin needs for long-term health. Start by mixing just a few pieces into the feeding routine, alongside familiar foods. If the frozen mysis is too big you can try cutting them up, however, mandarins have a surprisingly big mouth!
4. Target feed for success
Use a pipette or feeding tube to gently place the food right in front of the mandarin. I have used a syring and tubing to slowly add the food but the syring opening has to be large enough for the food to get through. Their eyesight is excellent, but they’re lazy hunters if they’re used to pods crawling all over rocks. Target feeding helps bridge the gap while they’re learning to recognize frozen as food.
5. Keep a regular feeding schedule
Consistency builds habit. Try to feed around the same times each day, so your mandarin starts associating your presence and the feeding tools with mealtime.
Tamara’s Pro Tip: If your mandarin is shy, try feeding after lights dim or early in the morning. They can be more adventurous feeders when the tank is quiet and they’re less distracted by other fish.
6. Be patient and persistent
Some mandarins take days to catch on, others take weeks. And some never quite make the switch fully—temperament and individual personality play a big role here. But with time and gentle persistence, you can usually get them at least partially onto frozen foods.
7. Adding in Pelleted Food
Now if you are super lucky and you have gotten this far, I like to mix in some sized appropriate pellets with the frozen food. At first, I thaw the mysis, then pour out the water and add the pellets to the mixture so the pellets will absorb the smell of the frozen mysis. Then over time, you can slow switch to adding pellets on their own.
Tamara's Pro Tips: Make sure you slowly move from each step and that the mandarin is 100% on board before adding in different food.
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