Can anyone help with my Madarin!

[Wesleyth]

Hi all,

I'm new to RC and I would say to the hobby also (had a tank FOWLR for coming to 1 year now) I have a TMC Signiture 900 all set up as of about 3 weeks ago, upgraded with all my live rock from my previous tank which has matured for about 9 months with some lovely corrallane algae on. I purchased a Mandarin from the lfs who informed me that he was taking frozen brine, and I also supplemented 6 bags of Copepods for him. He isn't taking the frozen from me and it's been just over a week now, will the pods from my old live rock still be there after the move?

Also wanting to cultivate some in my sump, how is best to do this? Do I need to use sand in the sump?

Many thanks
Wes

 

[Bogue Chitto]

They should still be there, just give him a little time to get settled down and he will probably start eating again. They can go awhile without eating.

 

[Auston]

Can you post a picture of him. A lot of the time LFS lie to make a sale of these fish. The next one I get I will ask to see him being fed. I want to see a pic to look for signs of starvation. From what I have been told they require a pod population large enough to eat one every 5 seconds. That's a lot of pods!. As for cultivating the pods you need a refugium section in your sump with cheato. You can also cultivate them in pop bottles. Just add pods to the bottle with salt water and feed them phyto. They will boom quickly. Unfortunately you will have to do lots of small water changes as there is no bio filtration.

 

[Reef Frog]

I just introduced a culture of Tishe Copepoda to my tank in an attempt to establish a very robust colony. My understanding is that they are very hardy and reproduce well. Time will tell.

 

[MondoBongo]

am i right in seeing your tank is 182 liters (48 gallons)?

90cm (35 inches) long X 45cm (18 inches) wide X 45cm tall (18 inches)

that's smaller than i would recommend for keeping a mandarin.

them eating frozen doesn't really figure in to their care. it is a nice supplement, but that's all it will ever be. additionally, adult brine shrimp aren't very good from a nutritional standpoint.

what i would recommend is setting up as large a refugium in your sump as possible.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/11/tips
http://kb.marinedepot.com/article.aspx?id=11089

i would also highly recommend starting a culture of live white worms. i haven't met a dragonet yet that doesn't go ham on them. i ordered my white worms from here:

http://www.angelsplus.com/FoodLiveCultures.htm

black worms also make a good supplementary food source, but they don't live very long in salt water (think a few seconds) so i prefer the white worms, as they can survive much longer, if they don't all get eaten first.

you can also try frozen myses shrimp, frozen cyclop-eeze (if you can find it), nutramar ova (if you can find it), and the frozen PE Calanus.

http://www.mysis.com/pe_mysis/pe_mysis_frozen/twinpack/

i recommend soaking the food in selcon prior to feeding. i have noticed an increased feeding response with selcon in all my fish, it's pretty stinky stuff, helps get their attention.

finally, i would construct a PaulB style feeder and start hatching your own baby brine shrimp. newly hatched baby brine have a yolk sac still attached that helps supplement their nutritional value:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2113800&highlight=feeding+station

finally here are a few good reads for starter mandy owners:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2374330
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367532
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2363996

i'll be honest though, in that small of a tank, that is that new, with no productive fuge already going, the deck is stacked against you. so i would make sure to be as proactive as possible if you intend to keep this fish. it's going to be an uphill battle.

good luck.

 

[chimmike]

^^I'm with this guy. I don't know of any established 48 gallon tank that could support a mandarin's needed pod diet.

 

[Bent]

am i right in seeing your tank is 182 liters (48 gallons)?

90cm (35 inches) long X 45cm (18 inches) wide X 45cm tall (18 inches)

that's smaller than i would recommend for keeping a mandarin.

them eating frozen doesn't really figure in to their care. it is a nice supplement, but that's all it will ever be. additionally, adult brine shrimp aren't very good from a nutritional standpoint.

what i would recommend is setting up as large a refugium in your sump as possible.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/11/tips
http://kb.marinedepot.com/article.aspx?id=11089

i would also highly recommend starting a culture of live white worms. i haven't met a dragonet yet that doesn't go ham on them. i ordered my white worms from here:

http://www.angelsplus.com/FoodLiveCultures.htm

black worms also make a good supplementary food source, but they don't live very long in salt water (think a few seconds) so i prefer the white worms, as they can survive much longer, if they don't all get eaten first.

you can also try frozen myses shrimp, frozen cyclop-eeze (if you can find it), nutramar ova (if you can find it), and the frozen PE Calanus.

http://www.mysis.com/pe_mysis/pe_mysis_frozen/twinpack/

i recommend soaking the food in selcon prior to feeding. i have noticed an increased feeding response with selcon in all my fish, it's pretty stinky stuff, helps get their attention.

finally, i would construct a PaulB style feeder and start hatching your own baby brine shrimp. newly hatched baby brine have a yolk sac still attached that helps supplement their nutritional value:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2113800&highlight=feeding+station

finally here are a few good reads for starter mandy owners:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2374330
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367532
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2363996

i'll be honest though, in that small of a tank, that is that new, with no productive fuge already going, the deck is stacked against you. so i would make sure to be as proactive as possible if you intend to keep this fish. it's going to be an uphill battle.

good luck.

This should be the gold standard mandarin answer from here on out. Nice job.

 

[snorvich]

^^I'm with this guy. I don't know of any established 48 gallon tank that could support a mandarin's needed pod diet.

This. Also, to the OP, please describe behavior of fish.