Mandarian Issue

R

RyanM

I have a beauitful and mature mandarian that I put in my tank about 1 month ago, but now he's starting to get very skinny. I am getting a little worried that he's going to starve to death.

I have plenty of mature rock with lots of Pods that come out at night. When I turn the lights out the Mandarian goes to sleep along with the other tank mates. I don't understand why he's not out looking for food at night when the Pods are roaming. He's spends all day looking for food, but it doesn't seem he finding enough or any to keep him healthy. I have gotten up at night around 2 or 3 and it seems that he still is sleeping.

Also, I have been try to target feed him with some shrimp which he will take from time to time, but not much to seem to a make a difference.

Does any one have any suggestions what I should do and why he's not out at night eating like most instinctively shoud do?

Thanks for your help!
 
It's 150 gallons.

I have 4 tangs, 2 clowns, 3 fire fish, 1 cleaner wrasse, 4 chromis and 1 orange spotted goby. No other wrasses in the tank he's in.
 
This has been setup for about 1 month, but the rock and sand is from 2 other systems that was 1-2 years old.

I have a 55 gallon custom sump/fuge that I build from an old Oceanic.

Heck here is a pic. I still have a few things to do with this setup, but I am getting there....
 
After one month it's not likely that your tank will be able to supply the Mandarin with the food it needs. Even if you used rock and sand from an established system you probably don't have a population of pods that can keep up with the appetites of the wrasse and the mandarin.
 
How or when would one know when you would have enough to support these fish?

Any suggestions on what I should do?
 
@RyanM wrote:
How or when would one know when you would have enough to support these fish? Any suggestions on what I should do? said:
I don't know that there is a hard and fast rule as to when you can support a Mandarin but everything I ever read said 6 Months or more. In my case I didn't really start seeing a lot of copepods until my tank had been running for 4-5 months. I started seeing them scurrying around in the rocks when the lights came on and there were little white dots on the glass. Now you can't look at the sump without seeing pods everywhere and even with the lights on you can see them in the holes in the rock. That's when I got a Mandarin because I knew they were reproducing like crazy.

To be honest I would probably sell the Mandarin rather than watch it starve. They are relatively cheap so it will be easy enough to replace later when you have an established population of food.
Click to expand...
 
If it's a male Green Mandarin I would be interested (assuming he's not on the brink). I have a female that is doing great in my tank and I know that it will hold one more.

PM Sent.
 
You might try adding some pods to the tank from someone with a load of cheato or other macros. They will sometimes eat Artic pods or tigger pods from Reef Nutrition... not sure who carries it up near you, but you can check around or order online. You might also try brine shrimp soaked in Phyto to gut load them.

http://www.reed-store.com/?category=56&subcategory=42
 
Thanks for the feedback guys!

I have him eating shimp, thank goodness.

He's actually seems to be doing a little better over the past couple fo days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top