QT a mandarin?

[janakaybravo]

Well, I got my first mandrin and put her in my qt tank. It's ten gallons with some live rock in there, though not much. There is some pods. I have heard they're resistant to ich, but she is skinny and I'm afraid she'll starve in there if I don't get her in the main tank soon.

The problem is my main tank has been ich free for six months after qt'ing all my fish with hypo for 8 weeks. I haven't had ich since, and have a blug tang, so that's a miracle to me. Any suggestions on keeping this fish alive in qt? Buy some more live rock, which I don't really need?

 

[Steven Pro]

They do seem to be resistant to ich, but resistant is not totally immune. I would quarantine it.

You can train your mandarin to take prepared foods. See here http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-02/nftt/index.php I would probably start with live brine shrimp and then once the mandarin is eating that regularly, I would mix in some frozen mysis, daphnia, bloodworms, and/or Pacifica plankton.