feeding Mandarine in QT???

[playtime]

My lfs has a great Mandarine fish that I want to get but I am concerned about how to feed him in my qt. I know there aren't copepods in there and I do copper it so what do I do??? I know that copepods are their main diet but what else will these picky eaters eat. I am too leary of sending him directly to my display tank. PLEASE HELP!!!!

 

[b_ball12_99]

They starve slowly, so you would have time. Some people get them to eat the formula foods, aome flakes, really depends on the personality of the one you get. I hope to get one that will nibble flakes one day.

 

[twoods71]

I had one once that would eat live brine. I had to feed him with a dropper placing it in front of him and squirt out the brine.

 

[burnnspy]

I would put him in the main tank, as they are not normally diseased.
I don't recommend Mandarins to people with tanks that are not planned with them in mind ahead of time.
BurnNSpy

 

[nm reef]

WOW.....read this post....next thing I knew the wife was waking me up......I'd passed out ...fell off the chair.....hit my head.......man...I could swear trey said.....Do Not QT..........I know its strange but thats what I thought he said........NAAAAAAAAA...must of been dreamin......

 

[tangs_in_pacifica]

I think Trey is right on. I have never heard of a Mandarain being infected by a parasite. They often have white spots that are mistaken for ich - these are usually small pieces of substrate sticking to their slime coat. I even noticed that in one of my books... "Consciencious Marine Aquariast or... Reef something or other" that the authors include a picture of a Mandarain with these spots as an example of a fish with ich. The fish in the picture absolutely does not (IMOHO) have ich...
So -
1. Trey is right about the parasite thing
2. Don't freak out is you see a few small white "grains" on your Mandarain's slime coat... (typically these are ~ 3-5x the size of ich)
3. Fish can get diseases other than partasites...
4. My mandarain went straight in the show tank...
Take care of the little fish!