Sad Green Mandarin Story

[cdcq12]

I bought a green mandarin and put it in my tank. It was doing fine. I had to go on vacation for a week and left my tank in the care of my fishsitter, who has taken care of it before. When I cam back, I couldn't find my mandarin, but my sitter said that she had seen it only a couple days before. I thought that maybe she had mistaken something and the fish had died due to bad water, etc. A week later, I had needed to top off my water but didn't and so the levels in the back of my nano were low and the pump was sucking up air. So i fixed it the best I could at midnight and went into bed. I was laying in bed and I heard splashing, which I have never heard before. I went to see what was making the noise and put a light into the back of the tank. Staring up at me was the mandarin. I was shocked. I got a net and put him back in the main tank. That was two days ago. This morning I woke up and was staring at my tank, which the metal halide on top and no lid. I couldn't find the madarin. I looked around the tank and then sat back down in front of it. I happened to look down at the ground and there laying on my carpet was the green mandarin, quite dead unfortunately. I was quite upset that it had made it through the big ordeal only to come to its demise by jumping out AGAIN. I am going to look into a way to keep the fish in the tank, but I just wanted to warn people that this could happen so make sure you take the proper precautions.

[LionfishFinatic]

my best guess is that your mandarin was starving and jumped out in search of food. Mandarins shouldn't be kept in a nano as they feed on pods and need lots of them. The need a good 100#'s of live rock to thrive in the home aquaria. HTH in solving your mystery.

[Eel-byte]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10558158#post10558158 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LionfishFinatic
my best guess is that your mandarin was starving and jumped out in search of food. Mandarins shouldn't be kept in a nano as they feed on pods and need lots of them. The need a good 100#'s of live rock to thrive in the home aquaria. HTH in solving your mystery.

I keep my mandarin in my 58g with about 65lbs of live rock. He's thriving, but he also eats frozen food which helps. Just to let you know, just about any fish can launch out of your tank. Some fish will spook for whaterever reason and launch. Then you end up with fish chips when you find the dead fish days later :)

[DarthFred6996]

I have a mandarin dragonette in a 14 gallon BioCube. It eats frozen mysis, brine, and cyclop-eeze like crazy and he is fat and happy. As a general rule it is a bad idea to keep one in a small tank, but if the LFS lets you feed all 9 they got in to find one eating frozen (3/9 did by the way) and he is fat and healthy when purchased it is definitely possible to do. Most people just don't check to see if they eat frozen before buying.

[microphoto]

im guessing you have no lid cover since your mandarin jumped out. a good idea is to create your own lid using fish net or some type of filter fabric so that your tank can stay cool.

[ILM75Dodge]

Sorry to hear about that I would not be happy if I had a fish die because it escaped my tank!

[new_world_disor]

buy a sheet glass cover... there preety cheap i payed £10

[cdcq12]

Microphoto hit the nail on the head with the idea that I had. I already have problems with heat on the hot days and a glass cover wouldn't work. Thanks for the suggestions anyways new_world_disor. I was going to fit something for the top of my tank that wouldn't block the light and let the heat out. I'll figure something out.

[reefer1024]

Darthfred that is very interesting that 3/9 ate frozen i would have thought it to be much less. I had a spotted mandarin for 5 years and never saw eat even look at prepared food.

Like stated above please dont keep a mandarin with less then 100#s of rock unless you are sure it is eating prepared foods.

sorry to hear of you loss.

[dynaschm0e]

Sorry to hear about your fish cdcq12. That's cool that your mandarin ate frozen food.

What other fish did you keep in the tank with the mandarin?

We would love to keep one in a NC28, but have read they are not able to compete well with other fish for food. We are planning to stock the tank with a pair of perculas, a yellow watchman, a pistol shrimp, and a peppermint shrimp. Thank you. -Trey

[cdcq12]

I have a percula in there, but he doesnt' hurt a thing. I've had him for forever. I have a royal gramma and a lawnmower blenny. The mandarin was going to add some color, but I guess that it didn't work out. Hope that helps.