"Don't even buy wild caught Mandarins. Ever. Only heartbreak follows that purchase"



LOL!!,....yep!, that is pretty much a guarantee just like the sun rising from the east Chad. I went through some of that too many years ago around 1990 before any captive-bred Mandarins were ever produced in this country.



I had a fabulous wild-caught import male that was already in captivity for several years and doing great, and the ONLY reason my buddy even parted with him to me was that he couldn't ever get any female imports to survive in captivity more than a few days or weeks after acquiring them. I went through several imports shipped over in boxes with Chinese writing all over them with many Mandarins inside to choose from as well... thinking that I could certainly get at least ONE or so out of several to stay alive and thrive for me with more optimum cooler, quiet, humid conditions. But alas, they seccumbed just like all the others from MAJOR stress accentuated from the already heavy parasite loads from the wilds of China regardless.



Panacur and Flagyl didn't seem to do anything for them because the wild imports are simply too stressed out from being crammed into a box with all the others until they are eventually imported here. They might "seem" okay by outward looks, but most are on their way out before they ever arrive here in the states to be quite honest. I'm sure you know all of this too, I'm just re-hashing my thoughts and experiences with the imports from years ago.



I enjoyed the heck out of owning the male I had, and I owned him for about 14 years after I got him as a young adult from my buddy who had him a few years prior to that, so he did very well even though he had his typical wild Mandarin issues with wanting to be secluded, only fed on helpless fuzzy rats left in a pile during the night, etc.., but I uderstood all that anyway, so he did fine.



Anyway, I agree, captive-bred all the way now that they have been available for many years.



Here is an old photo of the ol' boy..



~Doug




-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"





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