Jiliman
New Member
Hello to all
Today I lost my lovely mandarian as well. He/she wasn't really active and I thought it is because of new place. I spent more than $200 on all kind of pods and hardly believe mine is dead caused by starvation but at the same time never seen him/her is going after food!!!
What else could caused the dead beside starvation. My tank is 3 months old and I have 2 Anemones, 2 damsels and one yellow head goby.
Today I lost my lovely mandarian as well. He/she wasn't really active and I thought it is because of new place. I spent more than $200 on all kind of pods and hardly believe mine is dead caused by starvation but at the same time never seen him/her is going after food!!!
What else could caused the dead beside starvation. My tank is 3 months old and I have 2 Anemones, 2 damsels and one yellow head goby.
TheBiochemist
Community Member
That was a really bad advice. I have wild-caught S. sycorax (not S. splendidus), but in terms of care, they are the same. I introduced it after I was sure my reef was mature which took about 10 months. In my 140 L nano, I saw pods literally everywhere and mandarin was able to eradicate them in three-to-four weeks, so they are really efficient eaters. 
From the beginning, I started to teach him to accept fresh (and later on also frozen) hatched brine shrimp, which took about month, maybe longer. Sometimes, I buy a bottle of pods to enrich its diet and there is no way to establish a self-sufficient population (in this volume) as it is really able to eat them all. Although I did my best to convince it to eat other types of food, I was not successful. However, as it stays healthy and fat, Im OK with it. Taken together, any type of Synchiropus is not a beginner fish and will most likely require some additional work (in particular in nano tanks). I suggest you to give the surviving mandarin back to your LFS and give your tank a time to mature. Another suggestion is to prepare your own stocking plan and thoroughly investigate every critter in it. There is a lot of reliable sources you can use and dont hesitate to ask on R2R - the community here is wonderful. Lastly, dont rely on LFS - its a bussiness and they need to sell.
From the beginning, I started to teach him to accept fresh (and later on also frozen) hatched brine shrimp, which took about month, maybe longer. Sometimes, I buy a bottle of pods to enrich its diet and there is no way to establish a self-sufficient population (in this volume) as it is really able to eat them all. Although I did my best to convince it to eat other types of food, I was not successful. However, as it stays healthy and fat, Im OK with it. Taken together, any type of Synchiropus is not a beginner fish and will most likely require some additional work (in particular in nano tanks). I suggest you to give the surviving mandarin back to your LFS and give your tank a time to mature. Another suggestion is to prepare your own stocking plan and thoroughly investigate every critter in it. There is a lot of reliable sources you can use and dont hesitate to ask on R2R - the community here is wonderful. Lastly, dont rely on LFS - its a bussiness and they need to sell.
Sharkbait19
10K Club member
Hi,
It sounds like you were given bad advice. Mandarin dragonets cannot be sustained long-term in a nano tank, let alone a three week old tank with barely any pods in there. The main problem is that they have a strict live diet that is very difficult to train them off of, thus making them non-beginner fish. Unfortunately, it seems likely that your other dragonet will starve, too. You could try returning it to your lfs, but it sounds to me like they didn’t really have your tank’s health in mind when they sold you these fish.
The clownfish and cardinal, on the other hand, should be okay, so long as you maintain stable parameters and keep them well fed. Three weeks is on the earlier side of adding fish, but it should probably be cycled at this point, so shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
I wish you luck and hope everything works out!
EDIT: whoops, I realize the original post is from over a year ago!! @Jiliman, as far as your situation goes, this all depends on tank size. While target feeding is helpful, if there is not enough room for constant grazing and pod growth, dragonets often waste away.
It sounds like you were given bad advice. Mandarin dragonets cannot be sustained long-term in a nano tank, let alone a three week old tank with barely any pods in there. The main problem is that they have a strict live diet that is very difficult to train them off of, thus making them non-beginner fish. Unfortunately, it seems likely that your other dragonet will starve, too. You could try returning it to your lfs, but it sounds to me like they didn’t really have your tank’s health in mind when they sold you these fish.
The clownfish and cardinal, on the other hand, should be okay, so long as you maintain stable parameters and keep them well fed. Three weeks is on the earlier side of adding fish, but it should probably be cycled at this point, so shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
I wish you luck and hope everything works out!
EDIT: whoops, I realize the original post is from over a year ago!! @Jiliman, as far as your situation goes, this all depends on tank size. While target feeding is helpful, if there is not enough room for constant grazing and pod growth, dragonets often waste away.
Jiliman
New Member
I have Red sea 425 XL and it is 112 gallon. I bought 3 jars of copepods in about 3 weeks ago and another one just added a few days ago. The LFS said every few weeks I need to add more but pure fish didn't survive. I should stop adding more fish and focusing on my other elements.
Jiliman
New Member
I believe I have good size of 112 gallon tank. I am confused. If I do water change of 20% every week as recommended then shouldn't I expect to loose the pods population? Aren't they in the water? If the pods sucked out by tank drain to the sump, could they pass through from filter sucks, refugium, skimmer and return pump and come back to display tank?
Andyf30
Well-Known Member
Hi,
No the pods are on the glass, rocks, sand, etc. They are everywhere in the tank all over surfaces (which is why the mandarin looks like it is pecking around at the substrate when feeding). Water changes may remove a few, but you shouldn't make a dent in a healthy population with just water changes.
Side note, 20% every week (unless you have a very high bioload) will strip all of the nutrients out of your water and will cause more issues long term. I agree with the other commenters, 3 weeks is far too new for mandarins. Even when adding jars of live copepods it can take weeks/months to establish a colony large enough to support a mandarin as they literally eat non stop 24 hours a day. For your last question, yes copepods can make easily their way back up into the display from the sump (if you really examine closely they will literally be everywhere there is stuff to eat, they're pretty resilient little guys)
