Madarin Concerns

[Panzerschrek]

My Mandarin is always pecking at rocks, nor had any signs of distress, so I have never worried about him. However, I got a look at his stomach last night, and found that he looks skinny to me. Where his stomach is, it is pulled in slightly and I would think it should be puffed out. I look at night with a flashlight and see many little bugs crawling about, so it appears there is food there appropriate for him. I have tried feeding him mysis shrimp, but he wont go for it. My tank is a 46 galon bowfront filled half height and half width with live rock. The tank is 1 1/2 year old and the mandarin has been in there about 8 months. He has appeared healthy for this time.

Is my tank inadequate for him? Or does he get enough nutrition, but have some other mandarin disease? Or is it normal for them to have a pulled in stomach?

[Harpo]

Not normal to have a tucked in stomach. If you're seeing many pods in the tank then it shouldn't be starvation. On the other hand, unless you have a good refugium, a 46 may be on the small side to support a mandarin.
Mark

[billn]

Hi,
sounds like your Mandarin is starving. A healthy mandarin should have a little beer belly and from the head back to the tail is usually fat and round like a sausage. I think mysis would be a little too big for a mandarin to eat. I have had a mated pair for 2 years and mine eat frozen brine shrimp only even though I feed mysis as well for the other fish. Get some brine shrimp, soak them in vitamins (selcon), and then turn off all your powerheads. Squirt some brine shrimp in so they slowly float around the tank near the mandarin and he/she should probably go after them. It could take a few times but I have a pair of mandarins and a pair of scooter blennies who all have switched to frozen brine. Seems like they cannot resist brine shrimp slowly floating by if they are hungry.

[Panzerschrek]

I will try the brine shrimp in the interim. I have plans to build a refugium, so perhaps that will help. When I got the fish, I thought my setup would be good, but I was only basing this off of amount of live rock and population of bugs. I made an internal refugium out of rock, but this must not be adaquate.

If this does not work, I will have to find him an adaquate home.

[gcvt]

What else is in your tank? Is there anyone in there that may be competing with your Mandarin for food?

[Desolas]

"I have plans to build a refugium, so perhaps that will help."

Build it soon. It takes awhile for one to start building a population, and it won't be able to build one and play catch up if your Mandarin is starving. By the time your refugium has started producing copepods, etc, your Mandarin could be months dead.

Mine too will eat frozen brine, but rarely is it out long enough when I'm feeding to get anything. Mine is impossible to target feed. I hope you have luck with it.