Mandarin

[RandomHero426]

So I have a mandarin already and I had great success with him...I was given another from somebody who couldnt care for it. The one I had is eating frozen food but this one I have QT'ed in a little float breeder thing and will not do anything...I have copepods that I raise for a supplement but it wont even pick at them....im lost for what I should do...its pretty scrawny and I dont have anybody to give him to but I dont want it to die. Any suggestions?

[billdogg]

I wish you the best of luck - IMO, you should not even try to keep a mandarin in a tank smaller than 75g that has not been established for at least a year or so. I understand that you supplement with 'pods, but unless you are willing to keep that up forever, even the (now) healthy one will eventually starve. What frozen are you feeding? Keeping 2 in anything other than a very large tank is asking for a fight. You may get very lucky and have a male and female that will pair up, but even then, a 20 is way too small.

This is not meant to discourage you - mandarins are great little fish! you just have to be ready to provide them with what they need

[RandomHero426]

Im using cyclopeeze and bbs for the one and he eats like a fat champ....and I know that it is said that you shouldnt keep a mandarin in a small tank but hes happy(culturing 'pods isnt very hard)....but I was wondering what I should do with the one that was given to me...they gave it to me because of my success with my first one....just wondering?

[sunfish11]

I don't think there is much hope for it to be honest with you. If he won't eat copepods then he is pretty much toast IMO. You could try putting a chunk of live rock in the breeder thing to see if he picks at that at all. The environment in the floating breeder might be to stressful.

[DGee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13656542#post13656542 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billdogg
I wish you the best of luck - IMO, you should not even try to keep a mandarin in a tank smaller than 75g that has not been established for at least a year or so. I understand that you supplement with 'pods, but unless you are willing to keep that up forever, even the (now) healthy one will eventually starve. What frozen are you feeding? Keeping 2 in anything other than a very large tank is asking for a fight. You may get very lucky and have a male and female that will pair up, but even then, a 20 is way too small.

This is not meant to discourage you - mandarins are great little fish! you just have to be ready to provide them with what they need

+1


If you don't have anywhere to take the little guy I would try releasing him the the DT till you can find a home for it. I think the breeder cube you have it in might be just too much stress for him as well. So you could get lucky and if he gets comfortable he might start picking at things. I do however know someone that had a similar situation as you and after adding the skinny one to the DT hung with the other one and started picking at rocks and fattened back up.

Its really just a roll of the dice at this point. I don't think the breeder cube is helping your situation at all though.

[BuddhaKiss]

Agreed, Get him out of the breeding container. That is not a proper QT container, no fish would feel comfortable in there. Speaking of QTing, Mandarins' slime layer prohibits them from getting most diseases, so again, he/she probably doesn't even need to be in there. As far as sustaining a 2 Mandarins in a 20G...the first thing as others have said is make sure you have a male and female. Two males will fight, esp in a 20G (unsure about two females tho). Then you've got the feeding issue. One already eats frozen, so you're halfway there. There are methods to train your other Mandarin to do the same, but its up to him/her. If you're okay with culturing pods everyday for them, then your chances of success have increased....but not ensured. Good luck!

[ngn8dogg]

dito

[psteeleb]

try some frozen (thawed of course) blood worms. the smell and shape of them entices a lot of mandarins. it's worth giving it a shot