Manderins and ich

[shoelaceike]

If someone wants to go fallow and treat fish, what should be done with a manderin?

They can't really be treated or qt'd, right? If they are left in the tank, won't they keep the life cycle going? I know they generally don't get it on their bodys but I would guess it can live in thier gills as much as any other fish.....

 

[Duke4Life]

Do you have it eating food other than just pods?

 

[shoelaceike]

Just pods

 

[melypr1985]

If someone wants to go fallow and treat fish, what should be done with a manderin?

They can't really be treated or qt'd, right? If they are left in the tank, won't they keep the life cycle going? I know they generally don't get it on their bodys but I would guess it can live in thier gills as much as any other fish.....

You have a few options. You can rehome the mandarin or bring it back to the LFS (I opted for this option with mine). You can run TTM on it, and assuming it doesn't eat frozen foods, give it pods every day (NOT from your sump or DT), or you can run TTM and spend the time trying to train it onto frozen foods. Ok, so not that many options, but they don't do well with copper and trying to keep them in a QT for a long fallow period is difficult and expensive if you have to feed them pods every day. You definitely can't leave it in the DT.... Your right, it will continue the life cycle of the ich.

 

[shoelaceike]

I guess TTM would be the only option....if you give it away he will just bring ich with him.

 

[melypr1985]

if you give it away he will just bring ich with him.

This is true and You'd need to tell whoever you gave it to that it is probably carrying ich. You could TTM it then give it away so that it can be in a tank with pods to eat as soon as possible. So there's that.

 

[shoelaceike]

Hopefully i don't have to go fallow

 

[melypr1985]

Hopefully i don't have to go fallow

I hope not as well. It sucks but it's worth it to have that peace of mind.

 

[Humblefish]

It's possible to keep a mandarin fed for a "normal" 4 week QT period. If they won't eat mysis or pellets, try Nutramar ova or possibly Roe (look here: http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Live-Fish-Food/I/Reef-Nutrition-ROE-Real-Oceanic-Eggs.aspx).

You could even put some chaeto from your fuge (if you are confident the DT is disease free) to supply them with pods. They will still lose weight while in QT, but they should be able to survive on this for 4 weeks.

But when you're talking about needing to go fallow for ich (76 days), QT/feeding a mandarin becomes an unsustainable situation.