mandarin

[supertech99]

Well Manny the Mandarin goby is not looking healthy latley. He is massivley shruken and malnurished. He has been healthy and happy for many months (7+) but I think he may have decimated my pod population. At any rate I need to do something or he will surley die. He is hunting and trying to eat, I fed some baby brine newly hatched that he ate a few of but I need to get him some pods, so what should I do:
A. put him in the fuge (should be more pods there) but catching him will stress him.
B. put him in a qt and dump some store bought pods in there (stress but a feast to be sure)
C. dump some store bought pods in the tank (no stress)
D. Nothing and let him scrape to survive

 

[Mikeyjer]

Well Manny the Mandarin goby is not looking healthy latley. He is massivley shruken and malnurished. He has been healthy and happy for many months (7+) but I think he may have decimated my pod population. At any rate I need to do something or he will surley die. He is hunting and trying to eat, I fed some baby brine newly hatched that he ate a few of but I need to get him some pods, so what should I do:
A. put him in the fuge (should be more pods there) but catching him will stress him.
B. put him in a qt and dump some store bought pods in there (stress but a feast to be sure)
C. dump some store bought pods in the tank (no stress)
D. Nothing and let him scrape to survive

What other tank mates you have with him??? I had one for over a year doing well until my sixline wrasse and other small fish ate all the pods, then the sixline chases after him stressing him out to the point he won't come out and eventually died. I regret adding the sixline and the other smaller fish....

 

[luckyfish]

Has he ever eaten anything but live food? I would work to replenish your pod population in the fuge. Putting him in there would only be a short term solution and when those pods are gone you'd be back to square one. I have bought brine shrimp and fed them cyclop-eeze to add nutritional value as an intermediate step while the pod population was recovering. The best long term solution would be to get him to eat frozen but I've got a pair in my 180 that I've been working on for months with minimal success.

 

[commonstranger]

A fish I dislike very much is a six line. Hope he gets better Sean.

 

[shirley386]

A fish I dislike very much is a six line.

Why?

 

[NeveSSL]

You forgot this one:

E: Give him to someone with a larger tank that can sustain him.

If he's not eaten frozen foods, I would personally give him to someone else who has a bigger tank and can provide for him.

Unless you get a large scale pod culture going, or buy a bag of those pods from the store every day, he's not going to make it long term, unless he eats frozen.

Having said that, both of my mandarins ate SFBB's frozen copepods... both the Critter and EBay have them if you wanted to give them a shot. There are also some good documents on MOFIB.org about weaning madarins onto PE Mysis I believe it was.

Just to be honest with you, bro, I don't think A through D will work... at least not long term. Maybe you could put him in your sump (if that's where the pods are) until you can find another home for him? Or maybe put him down there until you get a pod culture going.

Keep us updated!

Brandon

 

[Mikeyjer]

Why?

They chase after other fish for one thing! My sixline committed suicide when I was cleaning my tank. I couldn't find him until 30min later. Will I get another sixline? NO!

 

[cee]

I had one die of old age recently after about 7 years in captivity. He just stopped eating and declined from there even though there was plenty of food, he was trained to eat frozen, and his g/f is still fat and thriving.

 

[supertech99]

i have been feeding heavy freeze dried mysis rehydrated in garlic juice and phytoplankton additive for my corals and he has been seen eating a few of the mysis but not with gusto. I had a excellent pod population when I added him and its a 75 gal with a 20l sump, of that sump at least 7 gallons is the fuge, tank had been up for over a year when I added him. none of the other tankmakes are pod eaters..I just dont understand this should have been enough, will tigerpods replenish a pod population?

 

[Mikeyjer]

i have been feeding heavy freeze dried mysis rehydrated in garlic juice and phytoplankton additive for my corals and he has been seen eating a few of the mysis but not with gusto. I had a excellent pod population when I added him and its a 75 gal with a 20l sump, of that sump at least 7 gallons is the fuge, tank had been up for over a year when I added him. none of the other tankmakes are pod eaters..I just dont understand this should have been enough, will tigerpods replenish a pod population?

My Chromis, Damsel, Tangs, Clowns, Wrasse, etc. ALL eats pods, I watch them do it!!! The ones that really go after them are the smaller ones where they can go where big fish can't.

 

[luckyfish]

From my reading their is a debate as to whether arcti-pods would survive long term as they are a cold water species. I agree with Mikeyjer, almost any fish will munch a pod if they come across it in the water column. The real hunters like wrasses of course are always on the lookout and will out compete the mandarins. It may be your pod population has just been in a slow decline and recently reached a tipping point. I've looked into replenishing my population as well as Reefs2go have some interesting specials on their live pods. they have both the small and large critters. It is a bit expensive to buy the varmints especially when they grow in abundance in many folks tanks but I, like you have had my mandarins for months and it's just part of the husbandry. If you order some shoot me an email maybe we can split shipping or something.

 

[Jason S]

I have been thinking about getting some pods and a cleanup crew for my new 29 from reefs 2 go. Let me know if you order, we may be able to hit the free shipping level.

 

[supertech99]

took a look , i may have to do that but what gives you can get 500 pods for $16 or a green goby plus 1000 pods for $33????, seems funny.

 

[Fcamdog]

H.O.B. refugium are a great way to have a steady inflow of pods into a display tank. Put some crushed coral, about an inch, some maco algea and it's set! Great natural filtration for the tank and awesome way to grow pods.

Fidel

 

[Mikeyjer]

H.O.B. refugium are a great way to have a steady inflow of pods into a display tank. Put some crushed coral, about an inch, some maco algea and it's set! Great natural filtration for the tank and awesome way to grow pods.

Fidel

That's very true. I've seen people do that to raise pod population. I may have to find the one I have and set it up when I get the big tank....

 

[luckyfish]

I'm checking interest in ordering from Reefs2Go on their Amphipods & Copepods. Anyone who is interested shoot me a PM.