Possibly starving Green Mandarin Dragonet

[IE Reefer]

Depends on what your feeding. If you feed mostly dry than yes. The phosphates comes from preservatives (reef roids will also raise phosphates. If your feed frozen than you should be fine. And phosphates and nitrates are linked. If one goes up (nitrates) the other goes up (phosphates). You want them balanced.


How do you test you water?

At home, I test with my API, but I don't trust it a lot (I'm on the market for Red Sea testers). My LRS uses one of those electronic testers (forgot the brand name).

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Wow, that's so neat. Man your zoa above them has a ton of heads lol.

That’s a fire and ice colony

 

[IE Reefer]

That’s a fire and ice colony

I looked them up online and they look really neat. So cool!

 

[Reefing_addiction]

At home, I test with my API, but I don't trust it a lot (I'm on the market for Red Sea testers). My LRS uses one of those electronic testers (forgot the brand name).

Try Salfreit. Not to pricey but the results are reliable.

Hanna is best for digital checkers (phosphate, dKH, calcium)

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I looked them up online and they look really neat. So cool!

There are many morphs of fire and ice I think I have three on that rock alone
You can kinda see it in this picture
I bought those from @footgal

 

[IE Reefer]

Try Salfreit. Not to pricey but the results are reliable.

Hanna is best for digital checkers (phosphate, dKH, calcium)

I have an expired Salfert tester (OfferUp mistake purchase) and they seem a bit too complicated for me, but I can try to get used to them.
Yes, Hanna. That's the name.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

LRS is a good frozen food. Has small enough pieces for smaller creatures and bigger chunks for the bigger creatures

 

[IE Reefer]

LRS is a good frozen food. Has small enough pieces for smaller creatures and bigger chunks for the bigger creatures

Seem a bit pricy (I normally get the $4 frozens) but I'll give them a try.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I have an expired Salfert tester (OfferUp mistake purchase) and they seem a bit too complicated for me, but I can try to get used to them.
Yes, Hanna. That's the name.

Nyos also makes titration kits
Safreit and Red Sea are also titration kits.

Add so much water than a few drops of this and a scoop of that wait a few minutes and than compare to the color chart.

I dislike those things because colors are weird and you have to read it from the proper direction.

Hanna only makes a low range nitrate tester and if you think titration is compacted than the Hanna ulta low nitrate tested isn’t for you.

Hanna alk and phosphates are pretty straight forward.

You can buy the three main test kits for 150 and I think that gets you 25 test of each, then you have to buy more reagent

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Seem a bit pricy (I normally get the $4 frozens) but I'll give them a try.

Variety is key to healthy fish.
There is ways to make your own frozen food I’m just to lazy to do it

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Keep trying to feed your mandarin frozen he may take to it eventually.

The key is squirting a bit in front of his face not all around the tank

There is also a brine shrimp feeder you can make (@Paul B ) can help you there

I randomly replensh my pods and I have a n established system. You can never have to many pods

 

[Tchung23]

Keep trying to feed your mandarin frozen he may take to it eventually.

The key is squirting a bit in front of his face not all around the tank

There is also a brine shrimp feeder you can make (@Paul B ) can help you there

I randomly replensh my pods and I have a n established system. You can never have to many pods

My mandarins eat pellets now but it took a while for them to eat the pellets. But my mandarins are also captive bred.

 

[OdetteDelacroix]

Do you have a refugium? as Alast ditch effort with a fish I was trying to keep alive, I transferred them to the refugium which served as an all you can eat buffet until I felt they were strong enough to go back in my display. Don't know if this is a viable option for you but I love dragonettes and would do whatever I could to give it a shot.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

How does the mandarin look this morning? Back to normal colors?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Good morning! I'll add my two cents that toothless, my mandarin also washes out his colors in the evening.

How much live rock do you have throughout your system? Do you have other fish or corals that would be consuming the pods? I've started adding pods to the tank through a turkey baster because even if I pour them in at night after the lights out, it becomes a feeding frenzy.

Dosing phyto is a great way to feed the pods, also varying the types of pods helps with biodiversity. Personally your Mandarin does not look skinny or sickly to me.

 

[Tchung23]

I remember the first time I saw my mandarins at night all pale looking. Scared the crap out of me and I though what a shame and a waste of $200. I’ve read up so much on these fish as I didn’t want to kill them and still I didn’t know about the night time colour changes.

 

[IE Reefer]

How does the mandarin look this morning? Back to normal colors?

Yes, he is back to normal colors now and looks very active; thank you for all of your dispensed knowledge!

 

[IE Reefer]

I remember the first time I saw my mandarins at night all pale looking. Scared the crap out of me and I though what a shame and a waste of $200. I’ve read up so much on these fish as I didn’t want to kill them and still I didn’t know about the night time colour changes.

Yeah, that's basically what happened to me. I spent countless hours researching about them but not once mentioned their night color change, lol.

 

[IE Reefer]

Good morning! I'll add my two cents that toothless, my mandarin also washes out his colors in the evening.

How much live rock do you have throughout your system? Do you have other fish or corals that would be consuming the pods? I've started adding pods to the tank through a turkey baster because even if I pour them in at night after the lights out, it becomes a feeding frenzy.

Dosing phyto is a great way to feed the pods, also varying the types of pods helps with biodiversity. Personally your Mandarin does not look skinny or sickly to me.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'll say 40lbs (wild guess). From what I know of, I do not have any other livestock or corals that would eat pods (YWG, 2x Green Chromis, P Clown) (blue pallythoas, armor of God zoas, bloodsucker zoas, GSP, Florida Ricordea, Kenya tree, light green pallythoas, blue hammer, toxic green hamch (hammer + torch)).

 

[IE Reefer]

Do you have a refugium? as Alast ditch effort with a fish I was trying to keep alive, I transferred them to the refugium which served as an all you can eat buffet until I felt they were strong enough to go back in my display. Don't know if this is a viable option for you but I love dragonettes and would do whatever I could to give it a shot.

Yes, I do have a refuge in my sump. I was actually thinking of doing that if he was looking slim; thank you!