Is baby mandarin underweight

leevh · Apr 26, 2022

Hi all, we've had a baby biota mandarin in a breeder box inside our display for a few months. They gave us the food he was supposedly eating (though I've never actually witnessed it myself) I still give it to him several times a day just incase. Our 100g has lots of pods all over the glass and has a 5g bucket fuge full of chaeto. I also culture live phyto for the tank. I assume he's been mostly surviving on those. He is a about 1" long and has grown a bit but I fear he needs to get out and feed on the whole tank. My wife of course is afraid something might happen to him (I don't believe we have any species that pose any danger to him though, no crabs or shrimp)

By your estimation of this terrible video, does he seem too underweight?

[edit - better video added]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nkYyhm533U24pgym7

New video · Monday, Apr 25, 2022 🎬

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thank you!!

blaxsun · Apr 26, 2022

From what I can see in the limited video, no - the mandarin appears to be fairly plump. Just look along his sides with a light - can you see his ribcage visibly outlined? If not, your fish is well on his way to a healthy weight.

leevh · Apr 26, 2022

Thanks blaxsun, if you have a chance, does this better video help confirm or change your thoughts?

New video · Sunday, Apr 3, 2022 🎬

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photos.app.goo.gl

I will try your flashlight tip, but I suspect he's so small it will be hard to see those tiny ribs!

thanks again

blaxsun said:
From what I can see in the limited video, no - the mandarin appears to be fairly plump. Just look along his sides with a light - can you see his ribcage visibly outlined? If not, your fish is well on his way to a healthy weight.

DaJMasta · Apr 26, 2022

A 1" mandarin in a large tank with pods will be plenty well fed even without supplementation, if he's able to scoot around without being blown away, he should be fine. There are also very few fish or inverts that seem to bother them, and fish trying to show dominance in an area often just get ignored - I once saw my flame angel swim sideways into one of the mandarins in an apparent show that he runs the place and the mandarin didn't do anything, then just kept on scooting along and eating when the flame angel left. I'll even see mine land on other perching fish without a care in the world, and either moving along on their own or moving only when the other fish protested.

Brit’s Fish · Apr 26, 2022

I think he looks okay! I have fattened up several young Dragonettes and they just take a little while to show it. He seems really healthy from your videos. I’m sure the pods are making their way into his acclimation box and probably more than you think since the water is more still in there.
I don’t have any mandarins right now, but I do have a pair of Ruby Red Dragonettes in a tank with my seahorse. They don’t care about hermit crabs, shrimp (even my large pistol shrimp) or really anything. They used to live with a fairly aggressive pair of clowns and they would just completely ignore them and keep scooting along.
I have a large Scooter Blenny & he lives with a Fiji puffer and a mean Coral Banded Shrimp. He swims right around them & doesn’t worry about a thing.
I have read that Mandarins have a slime coat that tastes bad and makes them pretty unappealing for most would-be predators. He should be pretty safe once you release him to his big new world.

blaxsun · Apr 26, 2022

leevh said:
Thanks blaxsun, if you have a chance, does this better video help confirm or change your thoughts?

It definitely looks healthy in the 2nd video as well. I can't tell if it's a male or female, but it did seem to be eating and looked reasonably well-fed!

homer1475 · Apr 26, 2022

Dump the poor thing into your display and let it eat.

Looks very healthy and not underweight at all. You will be surprised how well they get along even in a mature reef.

My last mandy was a super tiny biota one. Let it go into my display, and even at that tiny size, no one messes with it. They have a super thick slime coat that tastes real bad. Fish/inverts know this(kind of why they are colored the way they are. In the wild, wild color patterns tend to mean stay away), and leave them alone.

With a good pod population, don't be surprised if it reverts to pods only even being captive bred. After 3 or 4 months in my display, the biota mandy doesn't even look at frozen or pellets anymore. Reverted back to pods only.

DHill6 · Aug 17, 2022

I have a Biota mandarin also. Very small upon arrival. Let it go in the DT, haven’t had any problems. He still eats TDO pellets, LRF frozen and pods.

leevh · Aug 17, 2022

DHill6 said:
I have a Biota mandarin also. Very small upon arrival. Let it go in the DT, haven’t had any problems. He still eats TDO pellets, LRF frozen and pods.

That's awesome! Following everyone's advice I let ours go back in april and he's doing great. He's tripled in size and looks thicker than before. He still doesn't seem to eat any prepared foods and he's usually very hard to find in the rock work, but our pod population seems good so I'm happy.