New mandarin help

8mpg

8mpg

New member
Got a new mandarin in yesterday and he doesnt seem to be doing great. I understand he is probably stressed but Im worried. He doesnt seem to do well in the high flow of the K4's in the tank. He spent about 12 hours in the same spot perched on a rock. I was ok with that. THen this morning I wake up and he is sucked to the side of one of the K4's.

Wasnt sure if he was stuck or just resting on it. Stick my hand in the tank and he didnt move. Poked him, he didnt move. Unplugged the K4 and he swam away. 5 hours later he is stuck to the other one. Unplug it and hes fine and now perched at the bottom of the tank.

His little fins are still moving well...body arches from left to right and stays that way for a while. His mouth is continuously open and closing and has been since he got in the tank.


Any suggestions?
 
Check your paramater's Also how big is your tank Im assuming over 100g's considering K4's.....Also how mature is your tank.
 
Typically if a fish is getting stuck to powerheads or overflows then it is on it's way out. I hope he makes it though.
 
Dude, get him out of there and into a QT tank before he gets sucked up again- he's not resting! If he's still alive you are being highly irresponsible by not taking him out. In the meantime if you've got a little hang-in-tank unit to separate fishes, this is the time.

Set up the QT tank with live rock from your main system and a filter bag if you've got one in there. Buy him some live brine shrimp to get him started eating and then move on to frozen brine and ultimately mysis- it will take patience to "train" him.
 
Will do..thanks guys. I will stick him in the fuge for now. I just put a pack of reefpods in the fuge with the live rock.

The tank is 8-9 years old...water parameters are spot on. He is the only fish out of the 4 I got that isnt going well. All the others are doing great and already eating. The tank is a 55 gal, 30 gal sump with 120lbs of live rock. Just did a 10 gal water change this week with 0 TDS water and seachem salt.

Anyways, he is in the fuge by himself with about 10lbs of live rock. Pods were put in yesterday but there should be plenty in the live rock that is already there. We will see what happens over the next couple days. I will try and separate him and feed him brine. Also, he was drip acclimated over 3 hours like the rest of the new fish. He looked like that since the beginning.


Thanks again for the advice
Tim
 
Last edited:
Gill_bucket said:
two k4s in a 55?
Click to expand...

yeah...little overkill but the fish seem to love it. I was planning on K3's but got the k4's for a great deal (used). I did some research here and found several people having 2 k4's with great success.

All the fish love to jump into the currents and swim in it. I used to run 4 MJ1200's on a wave maker and (always ahd 2 running at the same time) and all was well.
 
8mpg said:
Will do..thanks guys. I will stick him in the fuge for now. I just put a pack of reefpods in the fuge with the live rock.

The tank is 8-9 years old...water parameters are spot on. He is the only fish out of the 4 I got that isnt going well. All the others are doing great and already eating. The tank is a 55 gal, 30 gal sump with 120lbs of live rock. Just did a 10 gal water change this week with 0 TDS water and seachem salt.

Anyways, he is in the fuge by himself with about 10lbs of live rock. Pods were put in yesterday but there should be plenty in the live rock that is already there. We will see what happens over the next couple days. I will try and separate him and feed him brine. Also, he was drip acclimated over 3 hours like the rest of the new fish. He looked like that since the beginning.


Thanks again for the advice
Tim
Click to expand...

Excellent plan getting him into the refugium. For feeding if the flow in the refuge is low enough you could just put in the live brine. If it is higher flow then cut flow to the refugium for a few minutes and release some live brine in there- give him 5 mins and then put the pumps back on and the rest of your fish will enjoy the brine as it returns to the tank. You definitely want to get him started with "food training", as early as tomorrow if you can find some live brine. Otherwise you can also hatch your own.

Best of luck, you sound like you've got a good system, just gotta get him healthy and feeding before you put him in such a large and potentially competitive space.


:)
Angela
 
Newreeflady said:
Excellent plan getting him into the refugium. For feeding if the flow in the refuge is low enough you could just put in the live brine. If it is higher flow then cut flow to the refugium for a few minutes and release some live brine in there- give him 5 mins and then put the pumps back on and the rest of your fish will enjoy the brine as it returns to the tank. You definitely want to get him started with "food training", as early as tomorrow if you can find some live brine. Otherwise you can also hatch your own.

Best of luck, you sound like you've got a good system, just gotta get him healthy and feeding before you put him in such a large and potentially competitive space.


:)
Angela
Click to expand...

Thanks Angela. Im going to try and get one of those floating baskets to put him in for the next day or two while I try and get him to eat. Try and progress slowly with frozen brine to live brine.

Im actually trying to "culture" some pods right now. Brine might be a better idea...like you said, the other fish will love it.
 
snorvich said:
Better leave him in the refugium. Otherwise, I don't think he is going to make it.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Leave him there. Train him there... and then, when he's eating frozen mysis a month from now move him into your main system. Don't be hasty or he'll probably perish.

GL,
-A
 
Well... today was a fun day.. Had him in the sump and overnight he found his way into the bubble trap. It was not fun trying to get him out of there. Then he managed to hide in a bubble tower (guess tahts what you call it) filled with rock. Had to pull the rubble pieces out and he finally got out. He is now in a breeder net.

Put some frozen brine in it...but he doesnt seem interested...probably stressed out being in the breeder net. Going to try and find some live brine locally.
 
Yes, he's stressed in the net. I suggest you run to Home Depot and pick up some gutter guard- this is basically large-holed plastic screening that comes in a roll of approx 6" width. Put the guard up over the escape routes so he can't get into the trap or worse, the return pump compartment!

There is no way a wild-caught specimen is going to automatically eat frozen brine. They are used to stalking live prey - copepods. Live brine will help with this transition as they end up sticking to the rocks and, since they are alive, they move while stuck to the rock. The mandarin would stalk them on the rock and pick them off.

GL,
-A
 
Well...unfortunately he didnt make it. I tried live brine, frozen brine, blood worms, and dumped the pods that I was trying to culture into his net and he never seemed to eat. Woke up this morning and he was a gone :(

If I try another mandarin later on, it will be from a LFS and one that is already trained to eat frozen or pellets.
 
I think you need to prepare better. If you are going to try another mandarin later you should either:

1) Set up the refugium so that he can stay there without danger of getting into other sump compartments (ie, plastic screening)

or

2) Set up a QT tank using live rock from your display at least two months before you plan to buy the fish. Put in a couple turbo snails and feed the tank a pinch of flake every few days. Don't put pod predators in there (no hermits, etc.) Wait until when you shine a flashlight on the floor at night you see little critters scramble. Then it's ready. Be prepared with live brine next time and try on day two of introduction to feed him.

Given all of the bad moves you made here, perhaps one of the ORA bred mandarins is the best option for you. I'd look into your lfs to see if they can order you one; they come trained.
 
I would bet that 2 days of being stuck to the K4's probably drained his health pretty badly. Just think of how bad you'd feel after 2 days of not eating. After that long, you can easily be so sick that you don't even want to eat.

Personally, if I have any animal in my tank that got stuck to my powerhead, I would remove the animal or the powerhead. If you don't, you will eventually find it dead. Just think what would have happened if another fish had began picking at the mandarin while he was stuck there. He would have been unable to swim away. When you found him dead you wouldn't know if he died of some natural cause and got sucked up there, or if he got sucked up there and then died.

My advice would be to never have an animal in your system that is so small/weak that it can't get away from your powerhead. Get K3's or don't get another mandarin...or maybe get a mandarin big enough that this won't happen again.
 
Well, it is highly possible that this fish was never healthy, possibly captured with cyanide. You have to be very selective with wild caught mandarins.
 
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