Mandarinfish Care

[MSB123]

I recently acquired a 1.5 inch long red mandarinfish. He was given to my LFS without any notice. I picked him up because I have a 70 gallon mature Reef tank that I think would be just right, instead of the 1.5 gallon tank with no rock at my LFS. How do I care for him? I already added a booster of 'pods to my main tank and I was wondering what I should do from here as he is currently in a 10 Gallon quarantine tank.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

If you can only get it to eat pods, then you will need to ensure it has a chance to eat them. Fish like dottybacks, wrasses, and other speedy fish are going to out-compete it for food, so it's best that the mandarin is the only pod-eating fish in the aquarium. If you can get it to eat mysis, cyclops, baby brine shrimp, or any other frozen food, just make sure to feed it often so that it can fatten up, it's pretty skinny now as is. Good luck!

 

[MSB123]

Yes it is. The only other fish in the tank are a pair of clowns and a small blue spotted puffer and a 4" snowflake eel. I am going to add a longhorn cowfish sometime later on. I'll try the baby brine and bloodworms but for now I added 3000 pods.

If you can only get it to eat pods, then you will need to ensure it has a chance to eat them. Fish like dottybacks, wrasses, and other speedy fish are going to out-compete it for food, so it's best that the mandarin is the only pod-eating fish in the aquarium. If you can get it to eat mysis, cyclops, baby brine shrimp, or any other frozen food, just make sure to feed it often so that it can fatten up, it's pretty skinny now as is. Good luck!

 

[AlexG]

If you have a mature tank with lots of pods and refuge area of some sort for pods to multiply without predators then there should be plenty of natural food available to keep a health mandarin. Getting a few more species of pods going will not hurt but it is not necessary to get a mandarin on alternate food sources if there is a sustainable population of pods for them to feed on.

 

[MSB123]

If you have a mature tank with lots of pods and refuge area of some sort for pods to multiply without predators then there should be plenty of natural food available to keep a health mandarin. Getting a few more species of pods going will not hurt but it is not necessary to get a mandarin on alternate food sources if there is a sustainable population of pods for them to feed on.

Thank you! I will make sure to add more pods this week

 

[AlexG]

Thank you! I will make sure to add more pods this week

The best way to monitor if the fish is getting enough food is to keep an eye on their belly. I can't completely tell from the photo but the mandarin does look a bit thin. This is not uncommon as many of these fish come in from wholesalers skinny and they will bounce back to a normal weight within a few weeks if they are getting enough food.

 

[MSB123]

The best way to monitor if the fish is getting enough food is to keep an eye on their belly. I can't completely tell from the photo but the mandarin does look a bit thin. This is not uncommon as many of these fish come in from wholesalers skinny and they will bounce back to a normal weight within a few weeks if they are getting enough food.

I just added him to my 70 Gallon Reef that has be up for more that 5 years and he immediately started eating the pods on the rocks