red mandy in QT

iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
Hey guys...

I just thought I would maybe get a few opinions...today I bought a red mandarin from my LFS...hes medium to large sized...I was observing him in the LFS tank and he was picking at live rock and live sand quite well...they said they hadn't noticed him eating prepared food...anyways...

I got him home today and prepared my QT tank...im doing the 5 gallon tank with transfers every 72 hours and using my DT water...anyways I have a few pvc pieces in the tank along with a couple small pieces of live rock for him to pick off of...im wondering if I should have just left the LR out and maybe tried to force frozen to him for a couple few days...but then I was thinking if im just refilling the QT tank with my DT water every 72 hours wont there just be pods coming in with my DT water and climbing on the pvc for him to eat anyways?...like I have said in the past I have more pods then you can count in my DT so im assuming if I change out 5 gallons of water every 72 hours into the QT I would be reseeding the QT with pods from the water I am taking from my DT? Im wondering your opinion on using the live rock in the QT or if you guys might have any other thoughts on how you might go about doing this or if you think this way will suffice? Hes a beautiful heatthy looking mandy and looks like he's been around a while and I would hate to see him die or something
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
I think anything you can give him to get food will be to his benefit. Definitely try getting him to eat other stuff. Might even try some gut loaded live brine shrimp. This is probably the time to get him eating prepared foods. I read something recently about a food made from fish eggs that mandarins will take too. I think it was made by LRS. Only 3 fish stores sell that brand in the state two n the cities and one in cloquet.
Remember any rock you put in with him has to be discarded or put through its own fallow period.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
yes I plan on putting the LR through its own fallow period...couldn't I just boil it or what are the ill effects of boiling it?

Do you agree that doing a tank transfer every 72 hours would more or less reseed the tank with pods? And like I was saying if it is just reseeding with pods I think frozen will be of no interest to him as long as there are pods...but at the same time like you said just having him eat pods is to his benefit...
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
I think it will help but I don't think it will be close to what he needs. I think a man.ndarin is probably the only fish I'd put straight into my tank after the tank transfers.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
ok maybe ill message jay....I just hope the little guy hangs on until I finish all the tank transfers...

im tempted to put him into the DT right away but I told myself I would do this the right way this time around...
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Mandys are resistant to ich. Not totally immune but resistant so the qt for them is more to train on frozen. I start w spirulina brine, then move to small mysis. Prawn roe is always eaten but very hard to find. Some have tried small fish eggs w success. My mandys and scooters have all eaten brine tho. Feed a good amount so there is plenty to find
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
thanks so much guys...

now when you say train a fish to eat frozen...basically all you can do is offer it to them and hope for the best correct?

The good thing is he's still alive this morning :D
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Yes in my experience they will eat it. It just takes time for them to examine it and decide to eat it. Once they realize its food, there feeding response is much faster.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
kind of neat when this guy eats the frozen spirulina I put in the tank he shoots some or all of it out the back of his head like he has smoke stacks lol....I hope hes ingesting some of it and not just shooting it out his stacks...can I assume he is sorting out the stuff that he likes and dislikes by disgarding it out his gills jay?

im assuming if in a couple tank transfers if he appears to be active and still grazing i could start treating with prazi pro? Again im not sure how susceptible to disease mandys are but id like to be as cautious as possible...like I said he looks beautiful so im thinking he is disease free and he also is always trolling the rocks picking at things so I think these are good signs of health...
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Interesting lol I've never noticed them snorting anything out. I have seen then spit it out then eat it as to taste test first. Frozen cyclopese too can be offered. If its indeed sucking in the food that is good tho. It shows its willing to atleast sample new foods
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
As far as treatment, I rarely use any unless the fish shows symptoms. You seem much more proactive tho lol. So as far as mandys its there thick slime coat that helps repel ich. As for other nasties idk. 95% of mandy death tho is from poor nutrition not disease
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
thanks...
lol I know im probably toooo proactive...I guess im not familiar enough with what to look for...so I like to do preventative maintainence...but I suppose if the fish is acting normal and there are no signs of anything then all is likely ok...
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Generally yes, but proactive isn't a bad thing lol. You have a system that works for you and thats all good. In most cases your dealing with wild caught fish, so you never know just what they could have.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
yes and actually this is a new system for me...im trying to follow lmforbis system as close as I can lol...because my last way of doing things "fast and wreckless" caused me to have to empty my tank of fish for 80 days! o_O:confused::(:mad::eek:

So this time were gonna slow waaaaay down :cool:
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Ha ha ha ha ha only good fast thing in sw is if that mandy starts eating fast lol. Slow is the way to go
 
Kristin1234

Kristin1234

Active Member
Awesome. Good luck! Beautiful fish.

Jay helped me bag train my Mandy and he is just a fat as the day I got him. I also started with brine shrimo and a device called " Julians thing " to spot feed him.
 
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