Mandarin & Ich

boughtit

boughtit

New Member
I have read that mandarins are not likely to get ich. I had quarintine a few fish last week due to ich. I added 17 lbs of live rock and it must have stressed the fish out. I was unaware that ich was in my tank. I suppose the stress stirred it up. I left the mandarine in the DT and put the others in a new tank to give them copper. I now see a spots and faded color on the mandarin. I'm not sure if it is ich, malnutrition, or somehting else. I now know the diets of the mandarin are demanding and cant put him in the the QT tank with copper. My water parameters are the following: Salinity-32 (1.024) PH-8.2, Ammonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-5.0, Alk-3.6, Cal-420. Any suggestions?
My Setup
EQ--I have a 29 Gal, PC lights, Skimmer, Chiller, Canister Filter (rufuge/sump on order) 52 lbs live rock, 40 lbs of live sand.
Fish--one clown fish (lost one to ich), six line wrasse, watchman goby, royal gramma,
Inverts--Banded serpent star, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, snails, crabs
coral--mushrooms, polyps, hammer, frogspawn, ricordia, toadstool, open brain

 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Mandarins are highly resistant to ich if they are healthy. This guy is very skinny, so probably not receiving adequate nutrition, which would make his immune system low. He does appear to have ich. The problem is treating him. How mature is the live rock? 52lbs is no where near enough to sustain a mandarin. They require 100+ lbs of VERY mature rock. Less rock can be used if you have a refugium stocked with LR rubble for the pods to breed in. At this point, you may want to treat the fish with hyposalinity and buy some pods. You will have to target feed him with a turkey baster. Also, do not start counting the six weeks of a fish free tank until he is out of there.
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Was he eating before you noted the spots? While not a good long term diet, some of these guys will eat frozen mysis....good luck
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by Boughtit
http:///forum/post/3180242
He appeared to be eating from the live rocks, but didn't noticed him eating frozen food. Thanks
That means that he was grabbing whatever pods that he could. He is not trained on frozen. You have to get him eating if he has any chance of fighting off parasites.
 
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