Mandarin Help Please

[costello303]

Ive just brought a mandarin, aclimatised it and released it into my 12g nano. but there seems to be a silky spider web like thing floating in there, any idea what that could be?

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p206/jat_costello303/DSC02648.jpg


http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p206/jat_costello303/DSC02652.jpg


thanks

[loves saltwater]

How old is you tank ? A mandarin will not survive in most tanks less than a year old ?

[costello303]

5months, we talked this over with the guy at the LFS and he said it would be fine.

Any idea whats in the pic?

[Shagsbeard]

You're going to be "fine" if you have one of two things happen:

1) Your mandarin is one of the rare ones that eats frozen food, -or-

2) You are willing to buy pods for him to eat and keep them well stocked in your tank.

The reason LFS's tell you things like this would be "fine" is that they want to make a sale. It's not "fine" to put a mandarin in a small tank that doesn't have the diet that they're accustomed to, no mater how cool they look.

Some are known to eat frozen mysid shrimp, and others have been coaxed to eating the fish eggs they put on sushi... flying fish roe. You might be able to find a supply of those.

[reeftanker04]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9780883#post9780883 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by costello303
5months, we talked this over with the guy at the LFS and he said it would be fine.

Any idea whats in the pic?

You have to be REALLY careful when you talk to your LFS. At 5 months your tank most likely doesn't have the amount of pods that you're going to need to sustain him. You're probably going to need to add pods and dose phyto in order for the population to be able to sustain his appetite.

As for your ? , I'm not sure but if you do a search you'll probably come up with something. I think there are worms that actually spin webs in a tank to trap food.

[costello303]

i got some frozen food with him so hopefully that should be ok.....

[Randall_James]

the slime is normal for a Mandarin. This same slime makes them almost immune to ich and other parasites. When stressed they can make copious amounts of the stuff.

Second: A Mandarin in a 12G tank is a joke IMO. You can not afford to buy them pods to eat (Shag is yanking your chain).

Prepared foods eaters are not all that common and I have not had much luck making them do it. Most require at least 100lbs of live rock to produce the pods they need to eat.

You may want to research your purchases online instead of listening to a LFS worker if that is all the bettter their advice is.

Take the fish back...