Lately ive noticed a few of my fish showing signs of ich in my 75 gallon reef.ive decided that it would be a good idea to QT my fish and let my tank sit fallow for 6-8 weeks.the only concern i have with this is that ive got a mandarin goby that i dont want to put in there because i think he would starve.any suggestions?
Mandarin Goby/QT Question
- Thread starter sktr021
- Start date
DougBushBC
New member
add reefpods or oceanpods to the tank and hope they live long enough to feed him. could get very costly.
DougBushBC
New member
Forgot to mention that Mandarins have a unique ability to avoid getting ich or other marine disease, they have a special coating on their skin that protects them. you could leave him in the tank.
Radioheadx14
Active member
But they still can get ich... the are resistant... not immune. This does pose a problem though because even though they may not seem infected they could still carry the disease in small numbers so it may truly never rid the tank. This is from what I have read, but I'm pretty sure its correct. Someone with more experience should chime in.
i used ruby reef kick-ich and it didnt harm any inverts. you may wanna use it while your tanks is fallow minus the mandarin to rid the tank. you could also got get a 10g or similar and fill it with rock from your main tank and put the mandarin in it for the months your tank is lifeless. there should be good pods on the rock. just trade it to a lfs when your done so you dont run the chance of iching up your system again with infected rocks.
Chibils
halide loyalist
You can go buy an aquaclear filter from the lfs and turn it into a fuge. There's a thread in the diy forum in a sticky, I believe. It's very simple and cheap and will give pods a place to reproduce. Mandarins go through a LOT of pods, though, so it still probably won't be enough.
We recently treated ich by taking all of the fish out and doing a hypo-salinity treatment. This worked VERY well...although it requires a lot of patience. When we were nearing the end of the quarantine period, we got a mandarin and as he had no signs of ich and we read in several places (and the knowledgeable fish store employees) said they almost never carry ich. Since then all of the others have been reintroduced and the tank appears ich-free.
We were also worried about the mandarin starving, as we had bought one before and tried feeding it live brine shrimp (eventually using a turkey baster so he didn't even have to hunt) and he didn't make it. The second one we put in the main tank and he is looking very healthy because he has so much to eat!
We were also worried about the mandarin starving, as we had bought one before and tried feeding it live brine shrimp (eventually using a turkey baster so he didn't even have to hunt) and he didn't make it. The second one we put in the main tank and he is looking very healthy because he has so much to eat!
thanks for all the replies!it does seems like the mandarin has ich.but i cant be one hundred percent sure.the thing about putting LR in the QT tank is that i thought maybe the ich could survive in the LR?maybe i will just leave the mandarin in there while i treat the rest with hypo.only question about that is would the ich target the mandarin to survive?
Radioheadx14
Active member
It could, depending how healthy the mandarin is. After the stress of catching all the other fish, the mandarin could become stressed and get ich. I would also be torn on what to do if I were you.
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