Quarantine and a Mandarin.
 

Hi all.

I have a question about q-ing a mandarin.

Can it be done? If yes how do you do it.

My concern is that my q-tank does not have a sufficient pod population to maintain a little guy for 4-6 weeks. My understanding also is that you need to q your fish this long in order to guarantee that ich is not introduced into the system.

If you are not able to q a mandarin for this period of time are you risking ich?

TIA.
Dave

Because they are a scaleless fish and have a thick mucous coating, mandarinfish do not usually carry the external parasites that burrow into a fish's scales. I do know that they can carry gill flukes, but a 5-10 minute freshwater dip will usually make them fall off. IMO, quarantining a mandarinfish in a tank without enough food could cause it to starve to death. You could feed it live brineshrimp soaked in Selcon in quarantine, but it still may not get enough food. Additionally, the chemical treatments for many parasites, such as copper, can kill a mandarinfish. I hope this helps.

Mandarine fish are one of the justifications for purchasing from a trusted LFS rather than mail-order. While there is still [i]some[/i] risk, buying an (almost) impossible-to-quarentine fish from a LFS rather than sight unseen (MO) at least reduces the risk. You can see that the fish at least looks normal.
I did this with a Rainfordi gobi (another fish that doesn't generally take prepared food and is therefore difficult to quarentine) and had no problems putting it directly into my tank.