Mandarin Dragonet, in danger?

Bryce M. · Jul 28, 2018

Hey guys, not too sure if this is the right place to put this but please move if it's not. Anyways, I'm a predator guy, I am used to hand feeding my guys. I love my spotted mandarin, I have about 20 pounds of live rock and 2-1/2 inches of live sand. I have a tight rock pile in the corner of the tank and my tank has lots of cave systems and places where my mandarin can't get in because my tank is set up for my moray. I've had my mandarin for over a month and a half and he is still moving around the tank and sucking things up. My only worry is that his belly isn't pinched, but it's not as big as a healthy one, other then that his behavior seems great, and I will sometimes see pods on the glass, but when I'm feeding and I drop a piece of krill and I have to move a rock, my pods scatter everywhere. It looks like I have a good pod population, and he's gone much over the three week period where he would have lost energy and he seems to be eating things but the belly just worries me. Any advice would be great, if he's fine, please tell me, I can't stop worrying about him, he's so pretty.

dbl · Jul 28, 2018

I did move this over to the fish discussion forum for a better response.

Gareth elliott · Jul 28, 2018

How big is your tank?
Do you run a sump?
I dont have a mandarin. But ime to increase your pod population.

-surface area, there are different life stages to pods some on surfaces, some free swimming. The surface area of biofilm will determine how many pods your system can support.
You dont need a lit refuge, can add liverock or matrix to your sump to add a “safe place” in the sump.
-Add different species of pods. The three common copepod species all have different reproduction rates. If have many different species will always have some hatching.
-a separate small dirty tank. Buy some pods and a food source. Frozen phyto is an easy one. Change water and feed from dirty tank based on the reproduction rates of pods in that system. Use a screen so dirty water isnt added to dt. Want to keep the dirty tank a light green color.

Bryce M. · Jul 28, 2018

Thanks dbl.
Gareth-
I am in the process of setting up a sump, I just made a rock system too small for the mandarin. My tank is 60 gal, I think buying some more pods is the greatest thing to do. Had a huge scare early this morning. He was swimming last night at feeding time but then around 3 he was gone, I found him around 7 this morning, he stuck himself in a live rock, he was full of sand and dirty when I found him. I thought it was over since he looked much skinnier then he was, and then he wouldn't move like he was giving up. He's started to hunt again, I'm getting pods today as soon as my lfs opens. Really went from slightly worrying to what I think is very bad.

GoldeneyeRet · Jul 28, 2018

Sounds like he is hunting and there are pods present, at least for now.

Were all your fish quarantined? Seen any white stringy poop? Perhaps it has intestinal parasites, I always suspect that when a fish is eating but skinny.