Why do my Mandarins Keep Dying?

[AIR-FX]

speaking from my experience at ARC.......ive asked about adding certain fish to my tank and they told me out right.....NO ! randy actually refused to sell me an emporer angel because he said it will nip and or eat my corals .....he didnt want me to end up an unhappy customer. i know he is in business to make money,but he also loves the hobby and wants to keep ya a happy customer. every guy thats worked there is straight up and if you talk enough and ask enough questions they will always steer ya in the right direction. well atleast that the way i feel about em.
i tried a manderin about 4 months into the hobby. didnt make it but a week. i waited till i was almost 1yr 1/2 bfore i got another one. he is doing great. also the key is to get some cheeto loaded with pods from an establish reefer. i drilled holes in some tupperware and i keep it in my sump. pods hae a little hotel to multiply in...lol

 

[aj2494]

If the lion is killing the mandarins, why was the first body completely untouched? And until both of their deaths, there were no tattered fins, no signs of any attacks by the lion. I will say that the first one did have kind of a sunken stomach, not too bad. The second looked great when I got him and I gradually started to notice the outlines of two bones around the head. And I just never saw the lion go after the mandarins. He completely ignored them.

The guys at ARC ask me every time I go in there what I have in my tank. They didn't sell me something without asking what the rest of my setup was like, they would never do that. And they have turned me away from corals and fish before, just not this one. I didn't want to turn this into a discussion about ARC. It's a great store that is doing a great job. I just wanted to figure out exactly why my mandarins appeared not to be eating anything.

I like that tupperware idea. It's kind of like one of those "pod piles" people make.

 

[block head]

It' s a specialized fish with difficult diet demands. Many can cheat death for a period of time. A select few can have them thrive. Pod populations crash frequently. Leave them in the ocean or accept the dismal success rate.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I guess it could have been the lion, but when the mandarin went missing, the lion's stomach was not swollen at all. It was a day later that I found the body, half eaten and really the only one who could have handled that much is the lion, so I know he ate the carcass.

sounds like worms ate the carcass to me... still, Lionfish and Mandarin is a bad combo IMO. Lions have poisonous spines. Also IME... Mandarins and Lionfish can tolerate poor water conditions really well.

I've had spawning Mandarins and dwarf Lionfish in reef aquariums.

Key to Mandarins is pods. Tons of pods. Lots of liverock. Refugium.

 

[josepha]

Mandarins

Mandarins

Key to Mandarins is pods. Tons of pods. Lots of liverock. Refugium.

I had a mandarin over 5 years and a second one in the tank for 3 of those 5 years. Like Gary says, the key is not just tons of pods, but LOTS of live rock... My tank has almost 250 pounds of live rock, yes 250 pounds. I still did not introduce one for over a year after the tank was established, and I could see tons of pods, of several varieties in every nook and cranny, at night with a flashlight. Mandarins forage for food and are moving all day to find food. If there are not enough places to look and find food, the Mandarin will starve. IMO they need tanks over 60 gallons with plenty of live rock.

A lionfish no matter the size will eventually eat whatever it's fast snapping, extending jaw can fit it's mouth around. I had one at age 10 until I graduated college. I witnessed it eat a goldfish just about it's own size with the tail hanging out for an hour until it spit out half the carcass when it realized it was too much for one sitting.

Either case, starvation or predation, lesson learned.:deadhorse1:
Just keep swimming.

 

[Bluephish13]

I had a mandarin that lived 4 years in my 60 and some of his life in my 90. I have a refugium and never fed him anything. He ultimately died from a bristle worm who got bristles in his one eye. After that he could not effectively hunt for food and withered away.

IME Do to the nature of mandarins always looking in the dark scarey nooks n cranny's for food. They often encounter worms and such. Even had a small iso attach right under the mouth of my mandarin, let go after a few days.

still as most stated lion+mandarin = nothing good.

Maybe it would work in a very large tank where they would not encounter each other as often. In a 55 they are running face to face probably 100x a day. Its only a matter of time until natural instinct takes over and the lion wants some mandarin.