Is my mandarin skinny?

[mango91]

Hey everyone, I recently purchased a tank bred mandarin goby that is accustomed to eating LRS/mysis.

I’ve had him for about 10 days now, but I’m worried he’s not getting enough food.

Does he look healthy to you guys? Skinny?


Anything I should be looking out for?

Thanks in advance!

 

[7of9]

I can't really see him well enough to say either way. Can you try turning up your whites to get a good picture or using a yellow filter?

 

[mango91]

I can't really see him well enough to say either way. Can you try turning up your whites to get a good picture or using a yellow filter?

I can try to get another video tomorrow (the lights are off now)… are there any signs that indicate a skinny vs healthy mandarin? Thanks again

 

[lemonjelleaux]

He does look a little skinny. It's somewhat difficult to tell from the video, but his sides appear a bit sunken from what I can see. Hard to know if that means he isn't eating enough though, if he came that way. My mandarin was also very thin when introduced, and took a month+ to start filling out. Have you watched him eat prepared food? And how is your pod population?

 

[mango91]

He does look a little skinny. It's somewhat difficult to tell from the video, but his sides appear a bit sunken from what I can see. Hard to know if that means he isn't eating enough though, if he came that way. My mandarin was also very thin when introduced, and took a month+ to start filling out. Have you watched him eat prepared food? And how is your pod population?

dang, that’s what my biggest fear was…

It’s hard to tell if he’s eating the prepared foods (it’s white/transparent), but I do notice him “peck” at the floor/rocks a lot after I feed the food. I also turn off the flow to allow it settle on the bottom.

As for pods, I think he’s cleared most out but I was told by my lfs that these guys can completely survive off the prepared foods they’ve been trained to eat.

Do you think I should get some pods, or wait and see if he fills out on his own?

 

[lemonjelleaux]

I don't claim to be an expert, but I would recommend getting some pods. There's no way that hurts, at the very least. They're naturally eating so frequently, I feel it's important to have food available as often as possible.

I was in a similar spot to you,with a skinny mandarin I wasn't sure was eating well enough, and that's what I did. Mine was too shy to target feed, and with other fish in the system I gave up on anything else.

I dumped a couple more bottles of pods in the tank, and then topped off with more every few weeks until I could see a difference. Spent way more than the cost of the fish on them in the end. I did wait months after my initial pod introduction to get the mandarin, too, so might not even have been needed. But now I can see my tank brimming at night, the fish is real fat, and everyone is happy.

 

[James M]

even if they are eating prepared foods they cannot survive completely off it. They still need pods to eat throughout the day when you aren't feeding the tank
Not sure why you would even get one if you don't have any pods in the tank given thats their main diet

 

[Paul B]

He is skinny and looking at the gravel I can see there isn't near enough food in there for him. Sorry.

Mandarins won't live on prepared food long term, they need to eat constantly and they can only get that from natural pods growing in a tank with some age on it and growth on the rocks.

 

[BetteMidler]

Could you get a video of the Mandarin eating prepared foods? Yours looks very skinny. Like @Paul B is saying, the substrate looks a bit lack luster, no life & bit too clean.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

he looks skinny, and he looks lost, that means no pods/food in the tank for him to eat.

 

[blaxsun]

He's definitely on the skinny side. As others have suggested, you want to add some copepods ASAP (the best time is to dump the whole bottle in after the lights are off). I don't know what the size of your tank is, but you typically need a fair amount of rock in a 75-80 gallon tank just to sustain one (1) mandarin.

You can sometimes augment pods with frozen foods like PE Calanus, but it's a 50-50 proposition (at best) on whether they'll take to frozen.

 

[ahosel10]

Have you thought about white worms?