adding a mandarin -what to look for?

[Liron Mishal]

ever since adding some cheato algae to my refuge, I have an explosion of pods in my tank.
the entire back is covered by them, not only at night. the bottom of the glass panels are covered too.
I was thinking of adding a mandarin to the tank. I believe that it will do fine food wise, so my question is what to look for at the LFS.
I guess it will not be eating frozen food, so what else should I look for?
fat? active?

Thanks!

 

[sofaknlo]

they will wipe out pod population quickly. hopefully your lfs has one that eats frozen

 

[Liron Mishal]

My tank is 100g and really full of pods..
Can one mandarin really wipe out the entire pods population??

 

[sde1500]

Your tank size should be fine. Especially if you see pods constantly. They'll reach a point where they are at equilibrium, and the tank can only support so many. Add the mandarin, it will eat them, but they can and do repopulate. If you have a lot of rock work they can hide in, that helps too. The algae in the fuge will as well.

 

[JoshH]

My tank is 100g and really full of pods..
Can one mandarin really wipe out the entire pods population??

IMO I'd say your fine, keep an eye on your pod population and try feeding frozen as Well, doesn't hurt either way. As mentioned above as long as your tank has adequate space for pods to repopulate I wouldn't worry atall.

 

[Liron Mishal]

Yea they are really all over the place..
So what to look for in a mandarin?
Are there any specific signs for illness?
Or just go and get the fatest one

 

[Liron Mishal]

IMO I'd say your fine, keep an eye on your pod population and try feeding frozen as Well, doesn't hurt either way. As mentioned above as long as your tank has adequate space for pods to repopulate I wouldn't worry atall.

Thanks.
I feed frozen food about 3 times a week.
Currently have 4 tangs so i feed frequently.

 

[JoshH]

Yea they are really all over the place..
So what to look for in a mandarin?
Are there any specific signs for illness?
Or just go and get the fatest one

Fattest is definately the best, you should ideally QT them if possible, they do have a thicker slim coat that helps protect them from a lot of things but even a QT just for observation isn't a bad idea. The obvious and most common sign a mandarin is in real trouble is a concaved belly. This unfortunately is relatively common when picking mandarins up from LFSs as they don't typically have a natural food source in the small tanks they're kept in for sale.

 

[sde1500]

Yea, just make sure it looks fed, if it has a pinched belly avoid it. Ideally get one that hasn't been in an LFS tank for long. Watch it for a bit in store, should be poking around the tank hunting pods. QT is hard. I haven't done a good job QTing most of my fish, but they all got some. The mandy didn't. Its diet makes that hard, can't support it in QT well. They are more resilient to many afflictions, so I chose to not QT.

 

[Hemmdog]

Thanks.
I feed frozen food about 3 times a week.
Currently have 4 tangs so i feed frequently.

Feed frozen more often if you can even for the tangs. Much better for your fish and tank.