ORA Spotted Mandarins

[FastFish720]

Just letting everyone know that ORA Spotted Mandarins are now available from ORA. They will run about $49.99 and each store has a limit of 2. This will be our into price. We have not ordered any yet.

[Goldenseal]

wow thats a pretty good price, I was expecting them to be a lot more.

[Chad Vossen]

these are supposed to be eating pellets right?

[mpedersen]

That's a rediculously low price. And yes Chad, they are eating pellets.

http://reefbuilders.com/2010/07/05/captive-raised-spotted-mandarin/

[redeclipse6049]

i wish i could get mine to eat pellets. I think his mouth might still be too small though. A question about these though. What is it that makes ORA stuff special? in this case is it just the fact that they eat pellets, or are they somehow "fancier" than plain-old regular spotted mandarins?

[coralreefer]

Agreed, never thought they would be that cheap initially. Glad to hear they are finally available! :beerchug:

[Rafa]

whooohoooo!!!

[this1fish]

i wish i could get mine to eat pellets. I think his mouth might still be too small though. A question about these though. What is it that makes ORA stuff special? in this case is it just the fact that they eat pellets, or are they somehow "fancier" than plain-old regular spotted mandarins?

Bred to live the captive life, easy food acceptance, almost bullet proof vs wild counter parts.

In simplest form. You will only have to buy one to have one that lives vs buying wild and going through a few before one survive.

Buy 1 ORA for $50, it live you spend $50

Buy 1 wild @ 29.99,it dies, buy one, live or dies, you paid $60 for a mandarin now if you suceed by the 2nd one. If it you had gone through 5 @ 29.99 before succeeding, you basically paid $150 for a mandarin.

So that is why ORA is special wether it is mandarins or clowns.

[redeclipse6049]

I hate buying "brand name" stuff though... :gay1:

[jjwhiteboy]

SWEET!:greenguy:

[Mike Bennett]

They will run about $49.99 and each store has a limit of 2.

Will this limit get raised ever?

If so, when?

[FastFish720]

The limit will probably get raised in a 3-6 months. This price will be our introductory price, I want to personally inspect one before I start selling them as "Pellet Eating" The new ORA information on them says they are very naive and don't have the experience of living in a wild reef, so I'm curious how they will handle our high flow systems and if they will also take frozen food.

[mpedersen]

Mandarins in general do poorly in high flow situations period. These aren't going to do any better than a wild caught mandarin in that aspect. They pick food off the substrate, but in many reef tanks, by design, we try to blow away all that detritus and uneaten food. Directly in conflict with the needs of a mandarin.

[JimmyOrangeSeed]

Hey - these are really cool looking. I want one (or two) lol

[kbb0118]

Mandarins in general do poorly in high flow situations period. These aren't going to do any better than a wild caught mandarin in that aspect. They pick food off the substrate, but in many reef tanks, by design, we try to blow away all that detritus and uneaten food. Directly in conflict with the needs of a mandarin.

+1 I turn off all pumps for 25 minutes to feed mine, which are WC frozen eating. I never tried pellets. I would think a diet of only pellets would not be sufficient in the long run.

To get three pairs of red mandarins I bought a total of nine WC fish for $200 + shipping. I "only" killed 3. I calculated that I put in over 40 hours of work into their acclimation, water quality and feeding in the first 2 weeks I had them. Plus 200 gallons of water ($75) and misc equipment to train them to eat frozen ($50). Also I bought live adult brine shrimp and culture mysids. So yeah - ORA's price is way low.