Mandarin Fish

[c@rly]

hi, i purchased spotted mandarin fish about a month ago, iv read in books about eating probs etc and the woman in te LFS is a good friend, she told me which one was the better feeder and i went three times in one week and watched it enthusistically eat brine shrimp on 3 occasions, since i have had it it cant say iv ever seen it eat, it sits there looking at a piece and if another fish comes it attacks them but still wont eat, it is now visibally skinnier and im worried.
any tips guys?

 

[karaim]

I'm afraid to say that it will probably die. I had the same thing happen to my scooter blenny (these are related fish). They will ONLY eat live food (there are stories of these fish eating non-live food, but that's very, very rare). Try feeding it copepods or something small and live (maybe live blood worms). Unfortunately, I think when a fish doesn't eat that long, it's doomed.

 

[shibby]

alot of mandarins will eat frozen food, but most will just stop.

brine shrimp isnt the best staple diet i dotn believe, mysis will be a better option. live copepods it will go after though just wether you want to spend money on them.

 

[ben1987]

i have known of several mandarins eating frozen food for years BUT bin shrimp has very poor nutritional value iirc and they require a fair amount of live pods aswel to be happy and healthy. They pretty much spend their time looking for pods in the wild i think.
You can buy live pods to top up your tanks population. How big is the tank and how much LR do you have?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah this is the problem with dragonets. My scooter blennie will eat frozen mysis but will not compete with the other fish for it (which means trying to target feed him).

Try him on frozen mysis. Probably a good thing to do is get a small drinks bottle and cut the top off or a small jar and put some frozen mysis in this and put it down the bottom (try and see if there are spots he hangs out more than others). This way he should have more of a chance to get to it before the other fish do.

 

[c@rly]

its frozen mysis i feed along with mixture of frozen foods, and still nothing, lots of live rock in the tank, maybe ill go down the copepod route, im aware this maybe a sad outcome though

 

[bae1994]

try brine shrimp with garlic i hear they love it and mine does especially does

 

[karaim]

its frozen mysis i feed along with mixture of frozen foods, and still nothing, lots of live rock in the tank, maybe ill go down the copepod route, im aware this maybe a sad outcome though

The garlic is worth a shot, although I don't think it will work.

Get some copepods and see if it eats. I'm not sure if your LFS has some, but you can get some online.

Also, I assume your water parameters are fine (just won't to rule out water quality).

What are the other inhabitants of your tank? Just curious if they will also compete for the copepods.

 

[ben1987]

garlic wants to be once every now and again as it can cause liver damage and its not natural food for fish iirc