Spotted mandarin

T

ThroThra

New member
So, I picked up a small spotted mandarin and erroneously didn't ensure he was eating well before hand. he came to me skinny and though he has crushed pods, still hasn't fattened up. last night I put him in an in-tank refugium to monitor his eating and ensure food is getting to him.

since the easiest thing for me to spot that lives in salt long enough was brine shrimp, I started with those after feeding them rotifers.

While he did eat many, he hasn't maintained his brief weight gain and I assume this is because of his fast metabolism. Can I get him up to a healthy weight or do I need to take him back?

He currently eats pods and brine for sure, I am working on weaning him onto frozen food such as rotifers and Mysis but I hear they should be fat and happy before they will readily accept processed food.

Thanks!
 
like I said, he has pods to eat but he isn't getting fat on them. I have an in-tank and in sump refugium and am about to start cultivating them to keep the supply high.

should he be able to get fat on pods alone?
 
IMO if there are enough pods available and the mandarin does not get out competed for them then yes he should be healthy. A skinny mandarin indicates to me that it is slowly starving. They eat a pod about every 5 seconds while they are awake so they need quite a few.
 
Yeah, that's the thing, I got him skinny. I didn't know how skinny until I brought him home. He hasn't gotten skinnier but he hasn't gotten and fatter either
 
If your tank has enough pods he should slowly be gaining his weight back. I bought my mandarin skinny and he got his weight back in a few weeks. I couldnt get him to do it ehen I first got him but I am able to now get him to eat flakes, pellets, mysis, arcticpods, and "LRS Fish Frenzy". But I would never try to limit his diet to the supplemented food. Pods are priority
 
I figured by having him in the refugium he would have even better access to pods since my chaeto is in there along with a rock pile but would also be able to start to introduce him to Mysis and other foods while making sure he can get to them before the firefish do. my goal is to ensure he is healthy before re-releasing him or bringing im back to the store if I must. of course, the wifey loves him so she wants to keep him if possible
 
but also, if this doesn't sound like it will work, let me know and I will exchange him for something else like frogspawn at my lfs. it would be sad to have him die from malnutrition in my tank cause hes so awesome.
 
its a 29g, the mandarin was the first and only fish for a while. I know typically a 29 is too small but I figured with his size, about 1.5 inches, that would be ok for a bit.
 
Agreed with the above. Unless your tank has so many pods you can't see the rockwork, this probably won't end well for the mandy.
 
thanks, I needed this so I could prove to her he wont do well if we keep him and I would rather return and get something else more suited than have him struggle to survive while spending tons of money to feed him
 
As everyone here is saying that size of a tank is a no go. Even with a refugium its unlikely to work long term. Mysis is an ok supplement to their diet but is by no means a substitution even if they are trained onto frozen as its unlikely you will be supplying enough to keep up with their metabolism without deteriorating water quality.

also brine shrimp unless Gut loaded is essentially the popcorn of the sea(as in it has little to no nutrional value.)
 
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