A Short Mandarin Keepers Diary

[sophos9]

Just a short diary to show how involved keeping a mandarin can/can't be..

Bought the Mandarin on the 1st October, it looked in good shape. My tank had a lot of copipods and amphipods in it. I've also thrown 1.2kg of LR rubble in the Juwel filter box and have topped the rest with Chaeto which is getting good water flow and good light, all in a bit to create a 'poor mans' refugium.

I've got loads of differing food to try and get the mandarin to eat dead foods, these are lobster eggs, mysis, krill, bloodworm, enriched brineshrimp, ON Formula1 small pellets.

I acclimatised the mandarin for about 3hrs and dropped it in, it hid in the rocks.

For feeding, I have turned off the powerheads and fed the other fishes across the other side of the tank then using a syringe, I've blown food near to mandarin and around the surrounding rockwork, to date I have not seen the mandarin eat any - its taken some people 2 weeks to get them to eat so I'm not giving it up

Since then (over the last 5 days) I have not seen it eating, the copipods have disappeared so it must have been. The thing that bothers me a bit is that it has spent the entire time in the same area of the tank, it does come out in the substrate but has not even investigated the other 95% of the tank

Any comments/recommendations wanted!!

Thanks

 

[littleme1969]

Sounds like a typical stressed fish to me. Some of my fish have taken upto 10 days to start and eat properly. All you can do is wait it out and keep an eye on him. Your doing all the right things with feeding etc so now its upto him and his will to live. As long as the food he doesnt eat is getting cleaned up by others then its just a waiting game.
If he was good and fat to start with then at least hes got reserves to go at while he settles in.
Fingers crossed for you and your little purple dude

 

[sophos9]

Hi thanks for your reply. The food is not being eating by the others, infact his competition for food is hardly anything. Will keep on trying foods at differing times with the hope he takes some - cant wait for that time!

Keep them posts coming!

 

[littleme1969]

LOL no what I ment was you dont want too much un eaten food lying around as this could play havoc with nitrate levels.
I would assume your clean up crew will take care of the left overs.

 

[sophos9]

LOL no what I ment was you dont want too much un eaten food lying around as this could play havoc with nitrate levels.
I would assume your clean up crew will take care of the left overs.

The nitrates may take a small hit, the tank is well overstocked with LR and the Chaeto should help - will try to keep a balance... :$

 

[sophos9]

Well it was a short diary.... Unfortunately the mandarin did not make it a week (turned into an expensive invert food).... why? Well several people over at reef central suspect it was caught using cyanide - this would explain why it never swam or really moved since it went in the tank.

RIP mandarin

So I went into my proper LFS and saw an totally stunning mandarin, now I thought that the previous example was great (shows how 'beginner' I was), this is totally active and swimming everywhere so after spending a good deal of time (and finding out how long it had been in there and how long help at TMC after import) I bought it.

The mandarin is happy swimming around and searching for pods...

Will keep you updated!

 

[Musho3210]

good luck with this one

 

[AK77]

Ah that was a shame to hear about the other Mandarin. Its far better to be able to see a fish than buy over the net. Always go for a fat, energetic and injury/pest free specimen. I know sometimes it can be hard to judge on bottom dwellers that tend not to move too much, although with a bit of practise you can spot the sick/stressed fish.

 

[sophos9]

good luck with this one

Cheers mate!

Ah that was a shame to hear about the other Mandarin. Its far better to be able to see a fish than buy over the net. Always go for a fat, energetic and injury/pest free specimen. I know sometimes it can be hard to judge on bottom dwellers that tend not to move too much, although with a bit of practise you can spot the sick/stressed fish.

Yea, there was something wrong with the first one, it NEVER swam around and pretty much stayed in the one spot. This new one is all over the tank, its great!

Thanks for the advice

 

[sophos9]

Mandarin ate 1 piece of live brine shrimp - no great shakes but at least its sampled it! Will keep trying it on live then start the 'wean' it onto frozen brine & mysis....

 

[sophos9]

Update!!

Home from work, got some live brine and frozen mysis, dropped it onto the rock near to the mandarin, he came straight over and started eating. He ate too many bits for this to be a coincidence which is great - he is starting to learn that food comes in other forms!!

Will continue to update

 

[AK77]

Ah that's good to hear!

 

[Musho3210]

good to hear, do you soak in some omega-3 enricher? (the brine and mysis and all the other foods you feed lol)

 

[sophos9]

good to hear, do you soak in some omega-3 enricher? (the brine and mysis and all the other foods you feed lol)

In a short answer, no. Do you have any recommendations?

 

[Gazbo72]

You can only vote for one type of food,

My mandarin is a bit of a pig and eats most things apart from flake.