How do you quarantine a mandarin?

[Swine]

I'm not ready to put a mandarin in my tank yet. My tank is only 5.5 months old and still working on a good pod population. But I will probably get one soon.

I am about to buy a quarantine setup but want to get one that will work with a mandarin or pair (Probably just one). So how do I make sure the mandarin does not get stressed out and keep up a good pod population in a QT tank!?

I'm at work from 8-5 so I could only add live pods morning/evening. I'd replenish the pods as they need it. But i'm also going to try and get them on pellets.

Are they just not very prone to diseases?

 

[ritter6788]

This is one fish I don't QT. Make sure to buy from a reputable source.


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[rajkovich207]

+1 if you do something like divers den or buy from a place that pre quarenteens I wouldn't worry about it. Otherwise put a couple good size rocks in replenish pods as often as possible and watch for a couple weeks. From my understanding they are pretty resiliant. Could even try a fresh water dip

 

[Nordic]

Quarantining mandarins can make it easier to get them on prepared foods. A pair of ORA mandarins would be ideal candidates for quarantine because you can assure they are eating prepared foods prior to introduction with the community. This kind of bolsters them to make sure they are strong enough to compete with the other fish. You can also use a small olive jar for feedings to ensure the mandarin gets enough food (and the larger fish cannot get to it).

 

[ritter6788]

I've never been a fan of trying to get mandarins to eat prepared foods. They eat pods and lots of them all day long. Even if you get them to eat prepared foods you'll have to stand there and feed them all day long to keep them from starving.


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[Swine]

This is one fish I don't QT. Make sure to buy from a reputable source.


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Why do you not QT it? Because it needs to be fed and is resilient or because it will just be harder on the fish then putting it into the tank? If you have any sources you could suggest that would be great.

+1 if you do something like divers den or buy from a place that pre quarenteens I wouldn't worry about it. Otherwise put a couple good size rocks in replenish pods as often as possible and watch for a couple weeks. From my understanding they are pretty resiliant. Could even try a fresh water dip

I've hardly seen any them in divers dens But I'll keep an eye out. I'll look into a freshwater dip, that just tries to remove parasites by tricking them to try and find places of higher salinity right?

Quarantining mandarins can make it easier to get them on prepared foods. A pair of ORA mandarins would be ideal candidates for quarantine because you can assure they are eating prepared foods prior to introduction with the community. This kind of bolsters them to make sure they are strong enough to compete with the other fish. You can also use a small olive jar for feedings to ensure the mandarin gets enough food (and the larger fish cannot get to it).

Thats actually the main reason I'm getting a QT tank, to get them on pellet food better. I should have to start but it was a new tank with a couple fish that would only be up for 8 months. Where have you seen ORA Mandarins? I haven't seen any. I was planning on the jar method. But if I have pods in my tank then it would be much more difficult to train them.

 

[rajkovich207]

Just look in their marine fish section, wont be wsysiwyg and will be about 3x what you'd pay in store with shipping but might be worth it. Im learning that lesson trying to revive a problem infested potters angel. With the fw dip, it usually kills the parasite but some will reanimate if reintroduced to sw. And on ora, you would have to special order through a retailer as they are wholesale only.

 

[ritter6788]

This is a good write up on mandarins.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106089


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[ColaAddict]

Mandarin fishes are too sensitive and frail for copper. Its also hard to feed them in a QT tank. There is no way a qt tank will have enough pods for it to survive, unless you have bottled pods already. Those are fishes u want to get from a reputable source, which usually are kept in a separate system in a fish store, because they cant tolerate chemical treatments like the other fishes.

 

[that novice guy]

Yes the manadrin are resilient too sickness but don't really solly on trying to feed pellets but it is nice tho do to how their stomach works

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[Swine]

Just look in their marine fish section, wont be wsysiwyg and will be about 3x what you'd pay in store with shipping but might be worth it. Im learning that lesson trying to revive a problem infested potters angel. With the fw dip, it usually kills the parasite but some will reanimate if reintroduced to sw. And on ora, you would have to special order through a retailer as they are wholesale only.

Yeah, I don't know how id get a ORA pair :/

I really want a potters angel but I'm afraid they will eat my corals! I only have a few cheaper polyps ect but I rather not see them all gone when I come back from work one day. Good luck with yours, they look amazing.

This is a good write up on mandarins.

Thoughts on mandarins


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I've read this like 2 times. Good stuff in there. The problem isnt that I dont have time to hatch and add to a feeder every day its that I really don't want to. Its a lot cooler for it to be more self-sustaining and supplement with pellets. Maybe I could get something set up with no maintenance to hatch them and supplement everynow and then. The cool thing about having a feeder is that you can make a spot where you want them to hangout.

But regardless of the feeder there is A LOT of good info in there.

 

[Swine]

Would you guys buy a pair or even one from live aquaria? I'll look into what other online shops to trust. I havent seen any at my LFS in the past 6 months.

 

[Nordic]

I had a male/female mandarin pair for several years that ate pellets and NutraMar Ova. I fed them 2x a day, and they were content and very fat. They also would do their courting dance at night. I did also have a thriving refugium to supplement them with live foods.

You can get ORA mandarins from any LFS, just ask them if they do orders with ORA, and if they do, have them order you a pair.

 

[specvjeff]

Mandarin Gobies have a pretty thick slime coat that keeps them fairly protected from external protozoans. They are still however susceptible to internal parasites. Personally I wouldn't quarantine it. Even if you get one that is eating frozen food, you'll have to feed it pretty frequently to keep up with it's demand for food. The other option is to set up a QT and I sure it's loaded with pods. The medication for internal parasites will likely kill the pods though. I would just put it straight into the display tank.

SDMAS President
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[Swine]

My problem is that my DT has pods already culturing in it so if I want to try and condition it to eat frozen, brine eggs, then pellets then I should probably use a QT tank. Or I guess I could use a mesh bag people have talked about.

So I guess I do not need to medicate it. It is more of a place to start to try and train it to eat frozen food.

I keep getting lots of mixed feelings about putting it in a 55 gallon tank (with a 20 gallon sump). What suggestions does everyone else have?

 

[that novice guy]

I don't think you will have a problem in a 55 as long a you have allot if rocks for the pods to thrive and I've had a red mandarin in a 10 gallon for 8 months until i moved her to my new setup BUT i already trained her to eat prepared plus it was a pods galore!

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[Isoprene]

What else is in your tank is a more concerning question for me? A lot of wrasses and smaller fish will hunt pods and take your population down to numbers that will not support a mandarin or a pair for that matter. I have a 55g w/ a 15g sump and I cant have one for this reason, my possums wrasse picks them off all the time. You can watch him hunt them. If i did get one, even if it was on frozen food, it would starve out. Im no expert by any means but thats my 2 cents, I wanted one too real bad they look so freaking cool

 

[Swine]

I don't think you will have a problem in a 55 as long a you have allot if rocks for the pods to thrive and I've had a red mandarin in a 10 gallon for 8 months until i moved her to my new setup BUT i already trained her to eat prepared plus it was a pods galore!

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How did you train it? Mesh bag? Were there pods in your tank when you trained it?

What else is in your tank is a more concerning question for me? A lot of wrasses and smaller fish will hunt pods and take your population down to numbers that will not support a mandarin or a pair for that matter. I have a 55g w/ a 15g sump and I cant have one for this reason, my possums wrasse picks them off all the time. You can watch him hunt them. If i did get one, even if it was on frozen food, it would starve out. Im no expert by any means but thats my 2 cents, I wanted one too real bad they look so freaking cool

I have one fairy wrasse that does not seem to hunt for pods. Maybe there are just not enough pods for it to hunt yet although i did put 500 in my tank and sump.
my cardinal Will eat them but not hunt for them. Same with my two small clowns. Although the only time I've seen my small clowns eat them is when they were being introduced to the tank and some happened to be in the spot i feed pellets every day.

The spotted mandarin is what got me into reefing so id really like to try and train one to be sure it has enough food. I am willing to spend money on pods every couple of months to reseed the tank. Thats how badly i want one. With that dedication hopefully id be luck enough to get one that can be trained. I just hate leaving things to luck
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[Isoprene]

if your willing to spend the cash i dont see why not, pods is the only problem, that and them being delicate and having short life spans. But i think if you wanna get the pods then go for it and good luck, lets us know how it goes, i want one eventually down the road. The are so beautiful

 

[Swine]

So beautiful! Im willing to spend the money but throwing money at a problem without getting closer to a solution is not my way. But worse care scenario i Will spend money to keep even a $15 fish alive.

In time I think i will be buying the minimum size tank (sort of what i was getting at with the qt tank) putting my live rock in there with some pods and try the live mysis to frozen mysis to prawn eggs to pellets. The net in the DT could work all the same but seems more difficult to control? Thoughts?
basically trying to do the ora but training it myself
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