Mandarin Dragonet Quarantine?

[Mustangtodd97]

I’ve been wanting to add a mandarin dragonet to my reef tank for a while now. I went thru the 76 fallow period to rid my tank of ich earlier in the year (nightmare I don’t want to go thru ever again!). I have a QT tank with copper (via cupramine) set up which all future DT resident applicants must 1st go thru. I am confused on how to handle this one, because the mandarins eat copepods, and its is my understanding that the copepods cannot live in Cu? If this is all true, i seem to be at an impass here. I know that it is possible the mandarin will eat brine or mysis shrimp if i get lucky... But Lucky is not a word i’d use to describe myself. So how do i get a mandarin into my tank and be sure he doesn’t bring disease with him without starving him to death? Please help!

 

[ihavecrabs]

Mandarin's are best taken through TTM while feeding pods into the system. Brine shrimp would also be acceptable to feed during that time also, but recommended in addition to pods.

A heads up to.. many fish are copper sensitive and dropping them immediately into therapeutic levels of copper would likely kill them or lead them to starvation due to appetite suppression. I always slowly raise copper over the course of 3-4 days.

 

[ReefdUp]

Agree, but I run all of my fish through TTM instead of copper anyway. I feed pods, and I give wrasses a cup of sand along with PVC and rocks for burial.

 

[Clownfish2]

I’ve been wanting to add a mandarin dragonet to my reef tank for a while now. I went thru the 76 fallow period to rid my tank of ich earlier in the year (nightmare I don’t want to go thru ever again!). I have a QT tank with copper (via cupramine) set up which all future DT resident applicants must 1st go thru. I am confused on how to handle this one, because the mandarins eat copepods, and its is my understanding that the copepods cannot live in Cu? If this is all true, i seem to be at an impass here. I know that it is possible the mandarin will eat brine or mysis shrimp if i get lucky... But Lucky is not a word i’d use to describe myself. So how do i get a mandarin into my tank and be sure he doesn’t bring disease with him without starving him to death? Please help!

I learned my lesson with a mandarin once. You have to have a lot of zooplankton/copepods for it to hunt!! If I were to get another mandarin, I would get several copepod culture set up in my home +3 months prior to mandarin purchase.

For QT, I would do Hyposalinity at 1.009 for 30 days. Then from day 31 to day 60, I would try copper slowly ramping the level up over 4-5 days. If the mandarin is sensitive or stops eating, I’d ditch the copper and try a different parasitic medicine such as metroplex just in case there was a strain of Ich that the hypo didn’t eliminate.


As others mentioned, TTM is a good option. I haven’t done it as I have a traveling work schedule.