Quick question. I was thinking of adding a mandarin dragonette to my tank to feast on the huge population of amphipods I have in my tank. I follow the rules and quarantine all newcomer fish for ~30days before introducing to the main tank. So how do you quarantine a mandarin dragonette for that long when their primary diet is wee buggies which will not be in my quarantine tank? Thanks in advance for the help.
mandarin quarantine question
- Thread starter asudevil
- Start date
rpjaws74
New member
I agree with you even thou this would be a perfect time to maybe get him started on some mysis,brime shrimp. However I would definitely not let him in quarantine for weeks if his not eating. Maybe 3 days if he doesnt accept the frozen and considering your tank parameters are fine I would put him in there. IMO!
Hyperion1337
Active member
mandarins have relatively no parasites on them due to their thick slime coat, I find that putting hte mandarins in breeder nets or baskets and training them works extremely well. I was skeptic at first but then i tried it and now my mandarin eats mysis w/o any problems. make sure that you have live/frozen brine on hand when you get the mandarin so that you can feed him and make sure he is eating and start training. Also dont put your mandarin directly in your tank and put food in expecting hte fish to eat because he/she will be distracted by pods scurrying around, making it harder to train the mandarin.
nonimmigrant
New member
I've said this before in a few other mandarin threads, but due to their mucus layer, I do not qt mandarins. I would certainly do a eye test to ensure that you do not see anything suspicious on the fish, but typically these guys are clean if in good health at the LFS. The other thing I'd do would be to do a once over on the other fish in the system with the mandarin at the LFS to see if they are showing signs of disease then make a call.
Ostara
Keep Calm and Reef On
I quarantine mandarins which, in my experience, get and come with crypt just like other fish. After seeing several rather shoddy LFSs around here with ich-covered mandarins and seeing mine come down with it when I had an outbreak in a tank, I no longer give as much credit to their thick slime coat as I used to. When they get it it starts on their fluttery pectoral fins which, presumably, is the easiest part for the parasites to target.
I also like to do it to get them eating frozen. Offer small foods like Nutramar Ova, cyclops, and daphnia, which are more natural in size and more readily accepted by them in my experience. I think part of the problem with getting them to eat is people offering only things like mysis which are much larger than their normal foods. I'd keep it in quarantine for at least a week or ten days; if it absolutely is not eating by the end of that period and isn't showing signs of disease, it is probably safe to move it over after that.
I also like to do it to get them eating frozen. Offer small foods like Nutramar Ova, cyclops, and daphnia, which are more natural in size and more readily accepted by them in my experience. I think part of the problem with getting them to eat is people offering only things like mysis which are much larger than their normal foods. I'd keep it in quarantine for at least a week or ten days; if it absolutely is not eating by the end of that period and isn't showing signs of disease, it is probably safe to move it over after that.
Reefing Newbie
New member
After looking into the tank transfer method of ick I have found it can be used for mandarins. I would recommend getting a culture of copepods going in a separate tank (5.5 gallon tanks work well) so you can use some pods out of the culture to feed the mandarin while in QT. You would need something like a pipette to suck up some pods then squirt them near the mandarin 4+ times per day. You can also try feeding other foods like baby brine, brine, mysis, Nutramar Ova, cyclops, and daphnia. The problem with training mandarins on to prepared foods is that they are slow eaters meaning other fish will get the food before the mandarin. You may have to leave a piece of mysis on the sand bed for quite awhile.
Good advice.
