Mandarin Help

[matttamar]

I just purchased a mandarin from a pet store today who wasent looking too good and I dont think he has eaten anything in a while, so I purchased him to try and save him. My tank is only 2 mo old and has a small population of copods and he has eaten some cyclopeeze. Friday I will be ordering a 4 oz bottle of live copods to boost the population in the tank. Does anyone have any other suggestions that will help him out?

 

[sato]

Geeze tonight is Mandarin help night I guess

Personally in a 2mo old tank your not gonna be bale to support them too well. I have never seen the live copepods to order but if you can do that and they are indeed alive then you should be able to keep him indefinetly.
I however would suggest, if you really want to save him, let him eat all the copepods in your tank then bring him back to the store and hope somebody with a well established reef comes and scoops him up. However, it will most likely be somebody with 30 bucks and a 4 week old 55 gal FO tank with 10 lbs of LR who ends up buying him...
Mandarins IMO should only be sold at reef shops and only when you can provide them an adequate home, now how you can prove that is something else entirely...

 

[reborn258]

I recommend returning him to the location of purchase or try to find him a home with somebody with a well established tank. If you plan on sustaining him with purchasing pods then expect to spend alot of money. The pods will be gone before they even come close to establishing themselves or even breeding. So, you will be constantly spending, I hope you see me point.

 

[matttamar]

I also agree with you 100% Sato. I bought him at pet quarters and he has been there for one week, I asked him what they fed him and the employee said flake food but that he wasent eating any of it so I figured I would try and save him, I would rather take a chance saving him instead of seeing him die in the store. The sad thing is they had four more there in seperate tanks. I am hoping he has a chance of surviving since he is eating the cyclopeeze, yes they do sell live aquacultered copods for $20 a bottle.

 

[matttamar]

I understand what your saying on the copods I plan on getting to bottles of copods, one for the tank and one for the fuge I plan on getting in a week.

 

[who dey]

your LFS is a real piece of work i respect your efforts to save him but give him to a friend with a tank that's older than a year and has more than 100lbs of LR. don't take him back to those Ba%$$#ds.

 

[reborn258]

Well, if your going to make the effort then here is some advice. Let the pods mature in your fuge for a month or two before you start putting any from your fuge into your tank. Keep feeding him cyclopeeze or frozen brine. Put the food on a certain spot on the rock work and let him find it. That is what I do with my mandarin. If you have a different method and it's working stick to it. You are one of lucky ones as was I with my mandarin. Good luck.

 

[eaglefan]

I see it all the time mandrines in a tank at the lfs with no live rock, before they sell them their dead it makes me sick. I wish you luck. I agree with sato about the selling issue

 

[matttamar]

I dont know if this makes any difference, but I forgot to mention I have 80lbs of LR and 80lbs of live sand in a 75 gal tank.

 

[the claw]

Your efforts are noble. Keep feeding him the copepods and you have a slim possibility of getting him to eat mysis shrimp. Try to get a refugium going as soon as possible. Thats about all you can do. I didn't happen to notie if you had any other competeing fish such as a flame angel or something like that, that will also browse on your pod population. If you do, then his future is really bleak.