saving fish...wish me luck

novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
I'm at a loss for words..... A close friend of mine owns a number of tanks, but she told me yesterday she was going to break down her 10-gallon eclipse because she's just got too much on her plate and hasn't taken care of it. She offered me the fish from it, a little dragonet and a H. erectus black seahorse. I've got a 37 gallon seahorse tank, so I was happy to add another female to the group.
The saltwater salinity was at 1.048.
The dragonet looks about skin and bones. She told me she spent a fortune on pods, but she never saw him eating...

I'm glad my friend recognized she couldn't handle this many tanks, but I wish she'd called sooner! So I'm drip-acclimating them right now to a proper salinity, and I'm going to let the seahorse loose in my tank later tonight.
I'm going to try an experiment with the dragonet though. I don't have a big enough system to handle two mandarins (there's a fat lil' female in this tank already) so I'm going to keep him quarantined in a net breeder for a while and try to wean him onto formula one. This has been documented before and I know it's possible to keep a mandarin healthy on formula one, but I don't know if this little guy is going to come back from the brink. If I can get him eating it, at least that will be a step in the right direction. Right now, he's at the point where pods won't help him, unless you're talking about millions. He's gonna either have to learn to take prepared foods or he won't make it.
Assuming he survives acclimation (he's that bad!) I'll snap some pics and try to photo-document this. Wish me luck!
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
It might be better to try to get your fat one to eat foruma one. And let the weak one eat the pods. Till it recovers.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
The mandarin survived the night.
The H. erectus did too, and is now motoring happily around the tank, but I wasn't as worried about her. I can't tell if the mandarin is male or female....I don't see a flag on the dorsal, but then that's not always a telltale with small dragonets. He's just sitting in the isolation net, alive but inactive. He pecked at a couple dead BBS I had on hand last night, but I don't think he actually ate. At this point, Im inclined to agree with stdreb......rather than trying to make him eat prepared foods, I'm going to try bringing him back from the brink first. However, he's so far gone, and his activity level is so reduced, I don't think he literally has the strength to hunt. I'll try pulling a hunk of chaeto and putting it in the isolation tank, just to see if he's active enough to look at the chaeto. I can also "flood" the net breeder with newly hatched BBS to see if that stimulates him. brine shrimp in general have no nutritional value, but BBS stil have some food worth...... we'll see. My goal is still to repeat the prepared-food experiment, but I'm more focused on getting this dude healthy again first.
 
candycane

candycane

Active Member
Reef-Nutrition makes Tiger Pods and I have had great luck with raising smaller dragons or unhealthy ones, with TUBIFEX worms. I have never seen a store that doesn't carry these black worms; nor have a met a dragonet that will not eat them.
The problem is the enzymes in their gut. I haven't studied them to the point where I know if they are capable of digesting everything in Formula 1. I have seen them eat Hikari Marine S pellets (just small) and they seem to digest those with little or no problems at all. I think there might even be one on the front of the bag.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
If he lives, I'm gonna name him "slim."

I had some Hikari S here at the house, but he didn't respond to that any more than the formula one. Furthermore, the cheato that I put in there does have 'pods swimming in it, but he's not interested in hunting the grass at all. Methinks he's just shutting down. Shame we can't IV a fish! Seriously.
 
candycane

candycane

Active Member
Well at least you can tell it's a male (most likely). Anyways, if he is still alive, try to track down some TUBIFEX or Black worms. I have seen dozens of mandarins that were refusing to eat just GOBBLE them up.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Too late. Woke up this morning, and Slim was no more. :-( His demise was unsurprising really, if you factor in the transfer to a new tank, salinity gradient change which was signifigant even though I acclimated slowly, and his general health. It was just too much for the little guy. At least he's in the great Copepod Farm in the Sky now!
 
oceanlover

oceanlover

Member
Oh rats, I have been thinking about the mandarin all day long. I rushed to the computer when I got home to see how he/she was. Sorry about the loss but at least he was loved at the end. I think too many Mandarins starve to death because novices don't know how to keep them fed.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by OceanLover
http:///forum/post/2776548
Oh rats, I have been thinking about the mandarin all day long. I rushed to the computer when I got home to see how he/she was. Sorry about the loss but at least he was loved at the end. I think too many Mandarins starve to death because novices don't know how to keep them fed.
+111111111.......

I mean, I'm not part of the school that says they will ONLY EVER eat pods -- I've seen documented cases to the contrary -- but these are such delicate animals that I would consider it foolish not to have their natural diet set up properly in case they refuse to eat other foods. For instance, my mandarin in my seahorse tank is a porker. The tank is 37 gallons, there's about 30 lbs of live rock and additional chaeto in the display, and the pod population is pretty healthy. However, this little piggy also eats mysis. I see her popping pods all day long, but she gets uber excited when I squirt 5 or 6 mysis down into her den. I think the combination of the two food types is what keeps her really healthy. There are enough pod hideouts in the chaeto and live rock rubble that are safe breeding spots the fish can't get to, so the population stays high.
I've been waiting on my 110 gallon to get settled in with a good stock of copepods, and when that happens I'll introduce a male mandarin in that system. I'm still going to try getting him used to prepared foods first by keeping him in an isolation net for the first few days, but if he doesn't show any response, at least I know he'll have the pods to fall back on. I may be willing to experiment, but I'm not going to kill the fish to find out I'm wrong!
OK, this is me getting off my soapbox. I hope Slim is in a fishier place now...somewhere there's a giant heavenly field of sps corals, lots of food, and hundreds of little females to spawn with......
 
dive girl

dive girl

Member
I'm so sorry for the death of your little fish. I'm mostly a lurker here but subscribed to this thread because I really wanted his health to turn around!!
I'm new to the hobby and would love a mandrin but don't want to risk slowly killing it.
I'm sorry that you weren't given that little fish earlier.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Welcome to the forums! I'm sorry you came in on a sad thread, but I'm glad you started posting! I did the same thing, lurked for a couple months before joining. These are my kinda crazy people, and I love reading about people's experiences on this board.
Anyway, since Slim has left the world of the swimming, I'm just going to focus on getting the pod population set up in the big tank, then try the food weaning on a healthy specimen. Candycane, I'm going to see about the tubifex or black worms.....do you have any knowledge of blood worms? I'm just looking for something that will start their feeding response, not necessarily the final food I want 'em eating.
 
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