Feeding Mandarins in QT

drparker

drparker

Premium Member
I found a pair of small mandarins, male and female for 15 bucks. I've got them in QT and they are actively hunting and eating Tigger Pods and I'm making a batch of Baby Brine now.


What's the best source to feed these guys during QT, my main concern, and how would I go about getting them eating some frozen foods?
 
Mandarins very very very rarely get Ick or other common diseases. They are one of the few fish that can go right in the DT. Nice score by the way.
 
It's not really necessary to QT mandarines for the reasons stated above. Most mandy's will never eat frozen, some will but it questionable as to how much of it's daily diet it makes up. My mandarine happily excepts frozen mysis, which is somewhat uncommon, but immediately starts hunting after the feeding. I'm guessing his frozen food meal only accounts for 10% to 20% of his daily diet.
I would recommend just putting them in the display tank immediately and let the hunt down there own food.
 
Most mandarins do not do well in QT, especially not or 4 weeks, and, as stated, very rarely get ich. I would give a FW dip, possibly with formalin, and put in display.
 
Shame you didn't have at least a few days advance to prepare.
Keep feeding copepods while introducing other foods. (pellets, mysis, etc.)

Do you know anyone who is making phyto?
If so you could build a 5g or 10g copepod hatchery.
I would do this anyway just so you can "recharge" your tank until/if you can ween them onto pellets or prepared foods.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/breeder2.htm
Of course you can buy phyto to feed your hatchery until you start growing your own. (see link below)

Melev has a couple of pages that could be helpful.
Mandarin Diner: http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html
Culturing Phytoplankton: http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html

While Mandarins have a much less chance of carrying parasites externally, such as Ich, they can still carry parasites in their gill tissue as well as other diseases.
You will have to make the call about how much risk is acceptable to you.
If you decide to keep them in QT make sure they have a steady, healthy diet and appetite.
 
baby brine always a treat

baby brine always a treat

Nice to dump in the display a couple times a week.
The mandarins and other smaller fish love it.
Relieves the pressure on endogenous pod population.
Also feeds endogenous pods and various other critters/corals in the tank.
 
This probably isn't much help for you but I placed my mandarin in a nanocube that was fully cycled and filled with pods. If your mandarin is like mine and only eats live food then you might have to do the same. I was using the nanocube as a refugium culture and then decided to use it as a QT tank for the mandarin. After that I dissasembled the tank. I was just lucky to have that setup when I bought him.

Before I bought my mandarin I killed my other mandarin by placing him in a QT tank. He starved to death very fast in one or two days.

I do suggest you QT the fish though because I have seen pics of mandarins with ich. I think I saw one on Melev's site. Its always best to QT any fish you put in your tank. If you can find a mandarin that eats frozen or flake food then you can probably QT the fish without any trouble.
 
A mandarin is not going to starve in 2 or 3 days. If you have a mandarin that dies after 2 or 3 days of purchase, it was sick and/or dying when you bought it, you acclimated it improperly or there was a problem with your water. Fish can go a long time without eating before they die.

That said, whenever I buy a fish that doesn't typically do well in QT, I always throw it in a holding tank for a few days to a week just to observe it. Like I said, a healthy fish (you need to study them at the LFS) is not going to die because you put it in a QT for 1 week. Although not always the case, a new fish will hopefully show signs of ich or some other disease/pathogen within the first week. If I have a sensitive fish, like a mandarin or a copper band bf, that doesn't do well in QT, and it does okay for the first week, I give it a pH adjusted FW dip with formalin (for fish that can tolerate it) and dump after a week.
 
With all that I have read on Mandarins, I would not QT one for most of the reasons stated above. They tend to be picky and finicky eaters and usually don't fare well in newly established QT tank unless LOTS of supplement live foods are introduced. Keep in mind that brine shrimp don't have a lot of nutrients, but it is better to have them gut loaded before feeding to the fish.
 
I have a male green in "training" now. I started with it in a breeder net in my 10gal clown tank. Live brine3 times a day at least and enough so it could hunt them for several hours. Then after it was eating that on day 2 or 3 I started trying different frozen and fridged foods. It's been about two weeks and he appears to be maintaining his weight. He's most interested in frozen copepods and fridged ones as well. Especially the frozen. I turn off the flow and squirt a bunch at the substrate. And them leave the flow off for an hour or so so he can really chow down before things start blowing around. I just released him into the tank with the clowns (temporarily) yesterday because it seemed like the breeder net was starting to stress him out. I have high hopes to be able to maintain this fish almost entirely on prepared foods. Many people are beginning to have success with similar methods and I feel it's legitimate and ethical to try. You just have to be very, very dedicated to working at the feeding for the first month or so. And then spot feed with no flow after that. If they have competition or high flow, I'm quite sure this would not work. Good luck.
 
Also, QT is for more than just disease. It's also for observation of health, feeding, etc. while the fish gets used to captivity. It's a chance to get to know the fish and you never have that "where'd my new fish go" feeling that can happen when a new fish disappears in your main display.
 
Amazing article! What an incredible success. If some of the large-scale breeders start raising mandarins, they could become as common as tank-raised clownfish. If they're already non-live-food-trained at the LFS, they could have a survival rate like clownfish, too.

Personally, I'd either not quarantine a mandarin or make it a short QT. Same goes for "scooter blennies", which (along with mandarins) are actually dragonets, and have similar finicky eating habits.

In the interest of honesty, I don't have a good track record for quarantining fish to begin with, so my opinion may be less valuable than some.
 
I had a mandarin in a 24 with a pair of clowns and it ate prepared foods all the time. Now it is in a 72 with the pair of clowns and a regal tang and they are just too aggressive of feeders the mandy doesnt get the chance to eat what I feed, a cube is gone within a minute, and the mandarin is not that aggressive.

I'd love to read up on culturing my own live food (baby brine/pods), anyone have a supplier thread or link to point me in the right direction?
 
That article makes me want to try a male and female in my 29g someday.

I can dream!! Dreams and ambition are what start things like this
 
Last edited:
Re: baby brine always a treat

Re: baby brine always a treat

Entropygain, I think I just now figured out your avatar. Is it a mantis shrimp eye? That picture has been bugging me for the last two days.
 
yep - mantis eye

yep - mantis eye

Taken on the top of a reef in Fiji
Just sat there posing for me for 10'

(sorry for the hijack)

MantisCroppedWeb.jpg
 
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