Baby brine and Mandarin feeding

[Leroy]

Just not 100% sure that I have enough pods for my Madarin to feed on, even though it picks at the live rocks all the time, it's looking. I bought a small vile of brine nauplii (shrimp) eggs that hatch in 24 hrs to culture and adds a couple of thousands, so it looks, to my tank, a little at a time in hopes that the Mandarin will get a chance to feed on the live food that would find some refuge in the live rocks. The regular fish see them added to the tank and go on a feeding frenzy. I don't want the Mandarin to starve although many have been fortunate with the fish feeding on frozen brine to even flake. Tho I do try to target feed the Mandarin with not great success. A stubborn/finicky fish to feed
I try to keep my feeding of my fish to a minimum due to an issue I once had with very very high nitrates, not from over feeding but from a 24 hr change of removing aggressive FOWLR and an introduction of added cured live rock and corals the tank got stirred up. Would an over abundance of added brine baby nauplii cause any change in the nitrates if any die off in a matter of time since I'm not sure of the life span of the nauplii. Or if they could survive in the tank with enough time to mature, if they are lucky?

 

[smithcreek]

Not sure on the brine shrimp question, but if you are worried that your mandarin is not getting enough to eat try live blackworms. You can easily target feed a couple at a time, but they are freshwater so they only live 20 sec or so in the saltwater. They are great for putting weight on a mandarin.

 

[Leroy]

Thanx for the info reply back. There's a few online vendors that carry them for tropical fish.

 

[pvh]

I feed my tank brine shrimps that I hatch and I don't see much change in nitrate. However I only have 4 small size fishes in my tank so I feel might not be feeding as much as you would.