Mandarin Dragonet

[silver2578]

hi all,

I've had a mandarin for abt 3 months plus. Somehow, its seems to be getting thinner by the day. This is severly worrying as its an amazingly graceful marine fish that i do not wanna lose.

Any advise on any kinda food that it might take? my tank may have ran out of pods for it cuz i dun have any plants. And also it simply ignores frozen brine shrimp. Furthermore, it doesnt touch live brine shrimp nor BBS.

Thanks

In Desperation

Silver

[flubberina13]

Can try cyclopeeze...My mandarin also feeding on it or you wan some copepods but you have to catch yourself...My another tank is a breeding pods ground...

[Cleartank]

Hi, Mandarin is one tough fish to keep... and should be attempt be exprience reefers only.... The Synchiropus picturatus is a carnivore and likes to eat variety of foods, especially brine shrimp, worms, flakes. If it like pods then I think you can think about setting up a refugium.... If its worth it...

[flubberina13]

yup...agreed...I only started keeping it when my tank has been established for at least half year or so...

[reefer guy]

how old is ur tank anyway? i had one before as well when my tank was abt 3 months old... began getting skinny as months past by and died out of starvation... think u need a mature tank to keep it

[bum]

its not really the maturity of the atnk,

rather the pod population...

a smaller tank cannot sustain a population fast enough

for a mandarin to eat.

having a refugium might help though.

[silver2578]

hiya all,

thanks for the replys, though i might be slow in replying. My tank is close to 7 months old now. And the mandarin has been ard for abt 3 months or so. I have thought abt adding a refugium but i cant do it at this point of time, perhaps another 2 months down the line.

however, it is my humble opinion that my mandarin might not last that long, though it still seem energtic moving ard and such, I'm devastated by how thin it looks......

I'm prepared to give it away to any one who has the ability to sustain him/her. Thats if I'm still not able to find appropriate food for it in the next 2 days.

Any reefers that has the space and more importantly, the ability to sustain a mandarin, pls PM me.

Thank you all.

regards

Silver