Mandarin Gobies extremely malnourished

Miami Reef · Jul 17, 2022

Okay…I made a small “mistake” today.

I got attached and purchased a male and a female red mandarin goby. They didn’t look extremely skinny in the shop, but upon taking them home, they look pretty bad. They are very pinched and look so malnourished.

Luckily, I purchased 2 bottles of tigger pods and put the little guys in a small QT and fed a lot of the pods. Luckily, they are eating, but not as much to actually put weight to save themselves.

@Paul B

Little info: I culture live whiteworms and tried offering them but I don’t believe they ate any. I’m kind of tempted to “force feed” them. I have experience doing so and I’d say I’m pretty good at it, but I don’t think I’ve tried doing it on a mandarin.

Do I just hope and pray they’ll eat on their own?

KrisReef · Jul 17, 2022

Nice save! That is, I'm going to give them a better than 50% chance of survival based upon your first report that these are still eatting. Feed them as often as you can each day and hopefully with diligence they will gain some girth again.

Sad they are so thin but happy you didn't leave them at the LFS!

Miami Reef · Jul 17, 2022

KrisReef said:
Nice save! That is, I'm going to give them a better than 50% chance of survival based upon your first report that these are still eatting. Feed them as often as you can each day and hopefully with diligence they will gain some girth again.

Sad they are so thin but happy you didn't leave them at the LFS!

I don’t have a good feeling they will survive though. They look extremely skinny. Like pinched play dough. I didn’t notice it was this bad in the shop.

I did get attached to them. They are so innocent and sweet. They don’t deserve to starve to death.

Tired · Jul 17, 2022

Do not force-feed a fish unless it can't move to eat on its own. Give them hiding places so they feel safe, and time to eat. Also, start hatching BBS. Keep a constant supply of them in the tank, and remove the older ones so as to always keep highly nutritious ones in there.

If they're eating, they have a chance.

Maybe consider not going back to that LFS. That's no good.

AydenLincoln · Jul 17, 2022

Poor little guys are not looking good. Keep us updated and I hope you can save them.

fish farmer · Jul 17, 2022

I had luck getting a small mandarin to eat a plankton based food, it wasn't the frozen bay brand reef plankon but it was the same size, like the size of a pin head. I would pipett the food in front of her and she would chase it. She also went after frozen mysis eventually and the live pods in tank.

Good Luck!

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Jul 17, 2022

+1 for BBS.
Good luck!

Rtaylor · Jul 18, 2022

Agree hatching bbs will be a big help

PeterEde · Jul 18, 2022

Miami Reef said:
I don’t have a good feeling they will survive though. They look extremely skinny. Like pinched play dough. I didn’t notice it was this bad in the shop.

I did get attached to them. They are so innocent and sweet. They don’t deserve to starve to death.

Mine was similar when I purchased but I knew it was eating as it was in the LFS for a month or so
I feed my tank pods but as back up I feed brine shrimp via pipette. It loves them. it has learned the pipette means foods.
She has put on a lot of weight with me feeding her. Probably gets more in brine than she would normally get from pods alone. Hopefully yours will take from a pipette too

DaJMasta · Jul 18, 2022

Baby brine is probably one of the cheaper options, but they can eat live brine too. Live blackworms could be an option, too. I would also add a small amount of frozen food - while they likely won't actually pursue it for a couple weeks or more - they can eat it, and if they're scooting around and hunting they're bound to get small bits of it, at least.

They take a while to put on weight even when eating a large amount of food - most of what they eat is not big - but if you are feeding them and they are eating, they are on the right track.

Sean Clark · Jul 18, 2022

Best of luck. Mine never took to bbs and only at pods until one day I spotted them eating mysis. Keep it up.

Jedi1199 · Jul 18, 2022

Might also try frozen "Cyclops" which is just frozen copeapods. I get it from the LFS along with the various other frozen foods I use.

WheatToast · Jul 18, 2022

Jedi1199 said:
Might also try frozen "Cyclops" which is just frozen copeapods. I get it from the LFS along with the various other frozen foods I use.

Cyclops is a genus of freshwater copepods, so they might not be the most nutritious copepods to feed in a marine setting.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Jul 18, 2022

DaJMasta said:
Baby brine is probably one of the cheaper options, but they can eat live brine too. Live blackworms could be an option, too. I would also add a small amount of frozen food - while they likely won't actually pursue it for a couple weeks or more - they can eat it, and if they're scooting around and hunting they're bound to get small bits of it, at least.

They take a while to put on weight even when eating a large amount of food - most of what they eat is not big - but if you are feeding them and they are eating, they are on the right track.

I'm not sure what you mean by, "Baby brine is probably one of the cheaper options, but they can eat live brine too" since baby brine shrimp are alive... ?

Newly hatched brine shrimp still have all the protein from their egg sack and are highly nutritious.

Older brine shrimp, by comparison, are relatively void of nutrition unless gut loaded with other foods/supplements prior to feeding to your fish.

Lavey29 · Jul 18, 2022

Try frozen calanus. That is frozen copepods.

Jedi1199 · Jul 18, 2022

WheatToast said:
Cyclops is a genus of freshwater copepods, so they might not be the most nutritious copepods to feed in a marine setting.

Interesting... I was unaware of that. The packaging says "Great for Saltwater on it" lol

I use it as part of the diet I feed my reefs, but it is only a small portion of the food mix. I also do not have any Mandarins in my tank so I haven't really needed live pods before. With the new 135 up and running, I did add a bottle of Tiger pods as well as a good dosing of phyto, both the the refugium.

Instructions on the bottle of phyto (seachem brand) says 1 capful per 50g of water, twice a week. Seems an awfully small amount for such a large tank (it literally came to about 1/2 a shot glass worth).

Tired · Jul 18, 2022

That might be a starting amount of phyto. You can dose a lot more than that, assuming it's live, but it's often best to start with a small amount and work your way up.

DaJMasta · Jul 18, 2022

Erin1971Texas said:
I'm not sure what you mean by, "Baby brine is probably one of the cheaper options, but they can eat live brine too" since baby brine shrimp are alive... ?

Newly hatched brine shrimp still have all the protein from their egg sack and are highly nutritious.

Older brine shrimp, by comparison, are relatively void of nutrition unless gut loaded with other foods/supplements prior to feeding to your fish.

Right, the distinction was just baby vs. adult - adult brine shrimp seem to be pretty popular as a live food for mandarins, and I don't believe they're phototaxic like the babies, so they won't concentrate themselves at the water's surface (which may be detrimental to feeding a mandarin).

Phyto is helpful for increasing a pod population, but if they're in a QT tank without a refugium, it won't do much for that tank unless you're also regularly dosing live pods.

Tired · Jul 18, 2022

If the BBS are all at the surface, just put a flashlight next to the tank. They'll head to the beam of light and stay in it, assuming you don't also have a strong light over the tank. Works great, and the mandies will probably learn to come to the light to hunt.

Adult brine shrimp do need a lot of gut-loading, is the trouble there, and I'm not sure if that can ever bring them to quite the same nutrition level as a recently hatched baby. That yolk sac is where all the good stuff is. Non-gut-loaded brine shrimp, sans yolk, have almost nothing in them.

Jedi1199 · Jul 18, 2022

Tired said:
That might be a starting amount of phyto. You can dose a lot more than that, assuming it's live, but it's often best to start with a small amount and work your way up.

It is whatever is in the "Seachem" bottle I picked up from Petco. Not at the point yet where I am culturing my own, although I did watch some videos on how a few weeks ago.