New additions . . .

I'm pretty positive he's a he. It would be so great if he could get a better home and he got himself a girlfriend! :inlove: Not to mention that I could give him to you Saturday (speaking of that - would the afternoon work for you?).

I paid $30 for him.
 
Saturday anytime is ok with me. I take that as being you would prefer cash for the mandarin? I think I could swing that to save a life.


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I believe that is a male mandarin.

I think your tank could support another Dex. Your mandarin is the fattest I have ever seen one. You could always try culturing pods if needed.
 
I take that as being you would prefer cash for the mandarin?
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Yeah, I hope that's OK. I'd like to use the money toward another, much easier (!), fish.
 
I'm sorry your new fish didn't work out :(
But - glad that you a good home so quickly!!
On a semi-related note, the fish pictures are quite good!
 
I have another idea. I have some Nutramar Ova you could try on him. Mandarins go wild for that stuff. If it works, you can buy some. I'll donate some to the cause if you want to try it before you get rid of him. I'm sure reefboarder would give him a great home, but a last ditch effort might not be a bad idea. Uppa to you.
 
I would love to see this fish work for you Lisa, If you want to try some of these options go for it I am usually free every evening after 5 except thursdays and have no problem driving up again.
I do have a few questions though
How big is your system?
Are you running any kind of fuge at all?
Are there other inhabitants that may be competing for the food source in your tank?
Youve said that he seems to be grazing around does he just glide around the rocks or is he stopping and pecking?
Its not too uncommon for mandarins to not want prepared foods so he may be eating pods and such but just slowly regaining his health.
 
Maybe I'm giving up too quickly I've only had him for a week today, but I don't want him to get to the point of no return, ya know?

Eileen, I thought of the Nutramar Ova, but I hadn't checked to see if anyone locally carried it (I checked at CF and I didn't see any, but I didn't ask either). I have read around here that their mandarins loved it.

How big is your system? 56 gal DT, 10g sump

Are you running any kind of fuge at all? CPR small hang on, just a couple gallons with a rock, chaeto, and some kind of fuzzy algae; crawling with mysids, snails, pods; I give the chaeto a shake every evening to hopefully send some stuff to the DT.

Are there other inhabitants that may be competing for the food source in your tank? Yeah, one of the reasons I worry - melanurus wrasse and cleaner shrimp (steals when I try to target feed the mandarin)

Youve said that he seems to be grazing around does he just glide around the rocks or is he stopping and pecking? He is always pecking, I'd say he gets something at least every 30 seconds or so.
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So. Based on that information, should I keep trying? I had mentioned earlier that I thought he might be filling out, but now I don't think so. Should I give it another week? I'd hate to wait and sell him to you and it be too late.
 
If he's pecking rocks and such it sounds like he's eating. there's a possibility that I have more food growing in my tank.But If it's eating live stuff in yours I'm not surprised he won't accept prepared, I had to qt my entire stock list about a year ago and during that time I'm positive the live food population in the qt was zero, my mandarin fortunately ate prepared foods but now that she is back in the DT she won't have anything to do with prepared foods. I can't say for sure if this is the case with yours but based on my particular experience grazing and pecking are a good sign. I'm also not sure how fast to expect a malnurished fish to spring back but I wouldn't think it would be super fast. I do want the fish but you bought it because you wanted it too and I'm all about helping you get this guy healthy. If you feel too nervous about it then I'll gladly pick him up and see what I can do.


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I will gladly share a hunk of it. Bought it at the frag swap in Syracuse, but maybe we can gang up on G and get him to carry it. I've asked at CF and MO. Or we could get a group together and order it online. Shipping is too expensive for one person to do, but if we spread the shipping costs around, it's doable. I have enough for both of us while we figure out a way to get more. Let me know. I'll PM you my phone number, Lisa.
 
Shipping is too expensive for one person to do, but if we spread the shipping costs around, it's doable.
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Just the other day I was thinking about checking interest in a frozen food group buy as there are a couple of foods I'd like to try that aren't available locally and, yeah, $25 for shipping is a little too rich for my blood!

maybe we can gang up on G and get him to carry it
Click to expand...
Sound good to me! G, consider yourself ganged up on! :D Two can be a gang, right? :)

As of this now I am willing to keep at it. I was just watching the mandarin as I was feeding the tank their lunch and he pecked at the same square inch of rock 4-5 times just in the minute or so I was watching him. I have phytoplankton on the way to add to the 'fuge and I'll keep an eye on it's pod population. In the meantime I'll keep offering the prepared, keep a close eye on his weight, and see how it goes.

Off to do a water change!
 
If you get ambitious, you can try culturing your own phyto. It's pretty easy to do. A few 2 liter bottles, an air pump, and some f/2 fertilizer. If you continue to buy phyto, it may be cheaper in the long run to culture it yourself.
 
He seems to be the same. Pecking and apparently eating, but doesn't seem to have put on any weight and it's been nine days now. He also doesn't seem to have lost any weight, so that's good.

I think I'll give the Nutramar Ova a go and if I can't get him to take that within a week, I'll call it a day.
 
Unfortunately, not yet :(. Although everyone else looooves it! I'm going to keep trying!
 
He ate it!!!!

He ate it!!!!

He ate it, he ate it!!! :bounce3: :bounce2:

The mandarin ate the Nutramar Ova! :dance: Thank you so much, Eileen!! :love1:

I waited for the wrasse to go to bed (and boy did he make a mess this time, sheesh, there was sand everywhere!) and noticed the mandarin was in an upper pass through. I turned off the powerheads, fed the others on the other side of the tank, and then used the handy dandy feeding tube to put the eggs right in front of his face in a small "field" of blue clove polyps and he ate it!! He wouldn't take it right from the tube or from the water column, but it's certainly a start!

Can you tell I'm excited?!

It was fun to feed some of the LPS as well while the wrasse was asleep.
 
I knew this stuff was irresistible to Mandarins. Eventually he will learn to associate the feeding tube with goodies and will be easier to feed.

So, now we have to do one of two things:

1. Get one of our local LFS's to carry the prawn eggs
or
2. Have a group buy so we can bring the cost of shipping down by sharing
 
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