爱好先驱保罗·保罗·B·巴尔达萨诺（Paul Baldassano）不是你祖父的礁（尽管他大了，可以成为你的祖父！）。实际上，保罗·B（Paul B）对海洋水族馆爱好几乎任何方面的看法都与其他任何人的观点完全不同。
For proof that Paul has a decidedly different thought process, look no further than the following passage about mandarins and other dragonets from Chapter 7 of his book (which, by the way, would make a wonderful stocking stuffer for that slightly off-kilter hobbyist in your life):
Mandarins and Other Dragonets
普通话和所有其他龙族都有相同的问题 - 嘴巴很小，几乎没有胃。普通话被设计为我们称之为的两亲脚架和Copepods或“豆荚”，但普通话会吃掉任何移动的东西。我知道很多人都试图“训练”这样的鱼来吃颗粒，薯片或冷冻食物，但是当你这样做时，玛瑙恨你，因为你所做的一切都在慢慢杀死它们。
Because of their weird digestive tract, which is something like that of a seahorse, they don’t have the ability to store food—kind of like when people get that surgery where they put a band around the stomach so they can’t eat as much. Mandarins were designed to eat all day long. They want to eat a pod every 10 seconds, and that pod continually gets digested in the silly tube they have for a stomach. That pod gives them the energy to swim to the next pod and not much else. You can give them a pellet and they may eat it, but if you want to keep them alive, you will have to give them a pellet every 10 seconds all day long.
如果你能读中文的思维,你开启t hear something like this: “OMG, I am so hungry! Oh, there’s one. Wow, that was good! I’m full. Hey, look at that interesting rock. I think I will grab something to eat on my way. Mmmm, good pod, but a little gamey. I thought I saw something blue. Yes, it’s a babe! She looks like a supermodel! Look at the tail on her! And those pectoral fins! Let me eat something then sashay my way over there and put the moves on her. Hey, beautiful, you want to get something to eat? Oh, you just ate? Okay, then maybe we can…Oh, now you’re hungry? I know a place that serves some great pods. There’s one! Okay, why don’t we go to…Wow, look at that worm! That is the nicest looking…Damn, that shrimp got to it first. Now we’ll probably starve to death. There’s another worm! Would you like some? I am so full I feel like I ate a seahorse. Let’s go to the…Damn, I am hungry!”
[编者注：我很高兴看到我不是唯一想象鱼次之间正在进行的对话的人！]
To me, mandarins are among the easiest, lowest-maintenance, most disease-resistant, and most beautiful fish there are, but so many people can’t keep them alive. You just need to feed them or have a tank that is not very sterile and has a good population of pods in it.
注意上图中岩石上的增长。那是我的坦克，普通话只是喜欢它。如果您是那些吸尘的人之一基质，拿起所有未食用的食物，然后饿死鱼，因为您担心自己水参数, take up golf. Don’t get a mandarin. Mandarins don’t really care much about your water parameters; they want to eat. And the more food there is, the more pods there are and the better your mandarin will like you. In my tank, I have an automatic feeder that dispenses some pellets into the water. I don’t do that for the fish. I do it to feed the pods. Yes, the copepods and amphipods have to eat also.
用豆荚保持底物是保留普通话的一种方法，但是除此之外，您可以（并且应该）每天孵化盐水虾。在我看来，新生儿盐水虾对普通话比真正的豆荚更好。我这样说，因为豆荚是有壳的成年动物，而新生儿盐水虾是带有蛋黄囊的婴儿动物。蛋黄囊是一袋油，其中包含生长健康的盐水或鱼类所需的一切。盐虾一旦出生就最有营养，但是它们在第一天就吸收了油，因此，一旦孵化是最好的，就将其喂入您的鱼。
Feeding newborn brine shrimp to a mandarin is not as easy as dispensing the shrimp into the tank. That won’t work for a mandarin because mandarins are bottom feeders and rarely swim up to their food. Brine shrimp are attracted to light, so as soon as you put them in a tank, they swim towards the light and will congregate on the water surface and have a hoedown there as they get swept into your overflow and get lost. I devised amandarin feeder(discussed in the DIY chapter) that keeps the shrimp at the bottom where the mandarins can suck them out all day long. The bottom line for mandarins is, if you can’t supply pods (or something resembling pods) all day long, don’t get one.
小骑士也喜欢现场蠕虫。活的黑虫津津有味地吃,但那些虫子只活吗few seconds in salt water and the mandarin will not touch them after they die, so I like to use live whiteworms for them. Whiteworms are sold in a little damp soil as a starter culture. You then put them in a plastic shoebox with soil, keep it damp, and feed them dry instant mashed potato flakes or, for the Jewish worms, matzos. They are a little trouble to separate from the soil, but if you are lucky, they will clump on a piece of food and you can lift them out with a spoon (not a spoon you will be eating dinner with, mind you). The whiteworms will live for many hours in salt water, and mandarins go nuts for them.
