PDA

View Full Version : emaciated mandarin


nothingfishy
05/19/2014, 09:22 PM
Hi guys,

About two weeks ago, a friend of mine went online and ordered some fish for his newly cycled 90 gallon tank, which had been up and running for about 5 weeks. He bought a clownfish, some blue devil damsels, and some snails. Well low and behold, the online retailer, sent him a green mandarin as well.

He took it to the local pet store, and they refused to take it outside fish for purposes of protecting their livestock (cool to know, since they would have gotten a free fish to make money on). He then brought it to my house, told me what happened, and I placed it in my tank. My tank has only been running since January, however, its a 60 gallon tank, with only about 40 lbs of liverock. He has been in there two weeks, and looks to be getting skinny. I am now sure I do not have a sustainable copepod population in my tank.

I have tried to be proactive, placing him on craigslist, etc, however the one response I got was someone who wanted to know if it would get along with rosy barbs and tetras.

So needless to say, I want to do something to keep it alive. Are they any such frozen foods that may entice him? I have added a bottle of pods, but I think they were quickly disposed of by him, and at 20 a bottle, would go broke feeding him that way.

Any advice you may have for my fish friend, please let me know.

EllisJuan
05/19/2014, 09:42 PM
If you can find Nutrimar Ova it should eat that. However, I have heard it has become very difficult to find lately.

o2manyfish
05/20/2014, 01:23 AM
Do you have a local reef club. See if you can locate a club and offer it to a club member with an established tank.

Or find club members that might have chaeto to give away.

My chaeto is bristling with pods, and a big baggie of it would definitely jumpstart a pod population. When getting a pod population going you need lots of rock and hiding spaces and you want to lightly dose some phytoplankton to help feed the pods as they get established.

Dave B

thenewguy997
05/20/2014, 01:46 AM
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=655145

snorvich
05/20/2014, 06:17 AM
They will eat nutramar ova and PE mysis at the very least. The problem is that due to their metabolism, they eat constantly and it is infeasible to feed constantly. (I assume that it is still actively pecking at rocks?) Check your local reef club and give it away to anyone with a suitable tank.

MondoBongo
05/20/2014, 10:50 AM
+1, as snorvich said.

in the interim, you can try some of the following. it may at least get her stabilized:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367532
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2363996
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2374330