Skinny Mandarin

[reefiness]

Ha thanks.

So I was just thinking, my display has very few rocks in it. Not exactly a lot of hiding places. Do you think I should be putting more rocks in the display as a permanent thing to give the pods a place to hide and more hunting ground for the mandarin?

Yes. More live rock, the better off your pod population will be

 

[SteveZz]

Well I was just going to move it from sump to display. So the same amount of lr but more hiding from fish in display. If that makes sense

 

[reefiness]

I would just add if you can. See if you can get a hold of some cheap dry rock from a member here, and add it to the system.

 

[SteveZz]

Ok I'll see. Thanks

 

[BioMan]

Let me officially welcome you to the secretive society of reef keeping.

+1

Stevezz,,when I first started everybody was saying 2 lbs per gallon of water. I particularly don't like all that rock I do like the idea of surface area of rock not only housing beneficial bacteria but those little critters too. Either way hope it all works out.

 

[SteveZz]

Thanks. So do I. I just put some filter sponges in the fuge and one hidden in the display. Seems like a nice hiding spot for pods.

 

[SteveZz]

Quick update for anyone following along.

1. Bought Tigger pods. Watched my mandarin's eye literally touch one of the pods and him not even think about eating it. Can't say for sure he didn't eat others but that was not a good sign for me. My firefish and clown both thoroughly enjoyed them though.

2. I've moved rocks from my sump to my display in the hopes of giving pods more hiding places.

3. I remembered I had a tank upstairs attempting to grow chaeto that wouldn't grow in my sump. That attempt failed but I ended up with a 2 gallon tank full of pods. I'm taking a cup full each day and throwing them into the display and sump hoping to kickstart the pod growth in the tank.

4. Mandarin is still alive, still quite skinny. I just took a close look at the glass in my display and actually saw a pod on it. I'm telling myself this is a good sign and that pods are starting to reproduce in the tank and keep up with the Mandarin rather than the other option of the Mandarin slowing down and dying on me.

Anyway that's the newest update on that.

 

[C-Dragon]

Quick update for anyone following along.

1. Bought Tigger pods. Watched my mandarin's eye literally touch one of the pods and him not even think about eating it. Can't say for sure he didn't eat others but that was not a good sign for me. My firefish and clown both thoroughly enjoyed them though.

2. I've moved rocks from my sump to my display in the hopes of giving pods more hiding places.

3. I remembered I had a tank upstairs attempting to grow chaeto that wouldn't grow in my sump. That attempt failed but I ended up with a 2 gallon tank full of pods. I'm taking a cup full each day and throwing them into the display and sump hoping to kickstart the pod growth in the tank.

4. Mandarin is still alive, still quite skinny. I just took a close look at the glass in my display and actually saw a pod on it. I'm telling myself this is a good sign and that pods are starting to reproduce in the tank and keep up with the Mandarin rather than the other option of the Mandarin slowing down and dying on me.

Anyway that's the newest update on that.

Next time you add Tigger-Pods, you should do it when the lights are out so that the copepods can settle into the rock and substrate. Mandarins don't typically pluck copepods out of the water column, so, the instance where one hit it in the eye and the fish didn't eat it, is no surprise. If they are eating live feeds only, they typically like to hunt them down and snatch them off of surfaces, such as reef rock and gravel. Your mandarin will definitely hunt for and eat the Tiggers off of the live rock. I quarantined our Mandarin when we got it in and it was eating almost an entire bottle of Tiggers every other day: I am able to do this because I am the one that grow Tiggers for Reed Mariculture (our mandarin is quite lucky to be here . They have a ravenous diet and can get quite plump if well fed. Let us know what you observe. If the fish isn't actively hunting and feeding, then there might be something else going on.

Chad

 

[SteveZz]

Thanks for the input Chad. He's actively hunting but so far I'm not seeing much in the way of weight gain. I'm still seeing plenty of pods on my glass so if I can see them I can only imagine how many there are for him to hunt down and eat. The tank I have upstairs is growing pods pretty quickly so I keep sucking them out and tossing them either in the display or in the sump. Will keep this thread up to date with new occurrences. Hopefully one day showing a picture of a plump mandarin.

 

[SteveZz]

New update:

So my Mandarin has been in my tank for 8 months now. He's just as skinny as he was the day I put him in (found a video of him from then). So he's not getting worse but seems to be a pretty skinny fish. That being said he's still picking around all rocks and seems to be doing fine. I bought some brine shrimp from Pets Warehouse today and to my surprise I saw my mandarin eat two of them. At the very least I have something that seems to be something that he will eat. Might try to move towards frozen mysis if possible but most of those might be too large.

 

[SteveZz]

Update:

Looks like I just have a skinny mandarin. I recently switched over to using RODI (I know, I know, should've been using RODI from day one). Massive changes, tons of pod life etc on my glass. That being said, the mandarin is not getting any bigger. But isn't getting skinnier so I guess it's just a skinny mandarin. ?\_(?)_/?

Thanks for all of the input everyone. Hopefully he picks at these pods and gets a little thicker.

 

[ghenzler23]

tigger pods every two to three months

 

[LavaToad]

I have a mandarin for almost 2 years, at first wouldn't touch any frozen but now he's eating frozen brine and the baby clownfish that hatch every couple of weeks... so worst case scenario you can get a breeding pair of clownfish lol

 

[SteveZz]

Sadly, my Mandarin died this afternoon. Looks like the brine shrimp etc never got him to fatten up. After a year it caught up to him.

 

[DanConnor]

Sorry to hear that. Its easier to fatten them up on worms than pods- a white worm culture isn't hard to do. Too late now though.

 

[SteveZz]

Sorry to hear that. Its easier to fatten them up on worms than pods- a white worm culture isn't hard to do. Too late now though.

How would I go about doing that if/when I get another?

 

[DanConnor]

I use this method; works great

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SYEoiywNqAY