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mandarin dragonet no longer eating?


nichole04

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Hello, I work at a fish store and while working I got a little one inch mandarin dragonet to eat frozen very vigorously several times a day. I took her home and put her in a temporary little three gallon with a nassarius snail until I get my seahorse tank up and running to permanently place her. Water parameters are perfect and the tank is at 74 ℉. I placed live rock and copepods in there with her as well. This is the second day she's been in there and she's regained all of her coloration but won't move very much, hunt for copepods or eat the frozen that I put right in front of her. Is this still from stress or should I do something differently?

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Hello, I work at a fish store and while working I got a little one inch mandarin dragonet to eat frozen very vigorously several times a day. I took her home and put her in a temporary little three gallon with a nassarius snail until I get my seahorse tank up and running to permanently place her. Water parameters are perfect and the tank is at 74 ℉. I placed live rock and copepods in there with her as well. This is the second day she's been in there and she's regained all of her coloration but won't move very much, hunt for copepods or eat the frozen that I put right in front of her. Is this still from stress or should I do something differently?

 

If she is healthy looking and not in danger of starvation, then I would give her more time to settle. If she is skinny, then the lethargy could be another serious problem in which case I would probably put her in a small tank or breeder net tp try and feed unless you have a lot of pods.

 

What type of frozen are you feeding her?

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She is kinda skinny but I expected that since I just got her to accept frozen. I was giving her regular brine at work as a stepping stone to ease her onto mysis and she literally ate like ten pieces of brine per sitting which is quite a bit for a little one inch fish. Over the past few days I've offered brine, brine with garlic and mysis and she's taken none of it. She is in the small tank by herself with a snail and I turned off the filter while I tried to feed her. The brine was literally touching her face for 5 minutes and she just turned away from it. I'm just hoping she's stressed and doesn't feel like eating yet but I haven't even seen her peck at the live rock or anything so I'm really worried.

 

And at work she would scoot around everywhere, peck at the live rock and everything. One of the most energetic mandarins I've ever seen.

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She is kinda skinny but I expected that since I just got her to accept frozen. I was giving her regular brine at work as a stepping stone to ease her onto mysis and she literally ate like ten pieces of brine per sitting which is quite a bit for a little one inch fish. Over the past few days I've offered brine, brine with garlic and mysis and she's taken none of it. She is in the small tank by herself with a snail and I turned off the filter while I tried to feed her. The brine was literally touching her face for 5 minutes and she just turned away from it. I'm just hoping she's stressed and doesn't feel like eating yet but I haven't even seen her peck at the live rock or anything so I'm really worried.

 

And at work she would scoot around everywhere, peck at the live rock and everything. One of the most energetic mandarins I've ever seen.

 

Did she have pods at the store or was she just eating brine? Frozen brine has almost no nutritional value so it won't really keep her alive long term if thats all she has been eating for awhile. Being that it's only been 2 days, it could very well just be stress of a new environment.

 

Can you get some nutrimar ova? I have had great luck with it and stubborn mandarins. It has great nutritional value also. They eat fish eggs naturally in the wild so many will eat it without fuss.

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Tempt her with live foods. Live brine, or BBS, live black worms, rotifers, Tigger pods, whatever you have access to that is live. Step 1 is getting her to eat again. She is probably very stressed. Keep the light off to help her settle in and hope there are hiding spots for her.

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Well she probably didn't have many pods but she had only been eating brine as far as I could tell for a few days before I took her home because I took that as a good sign to get her to something more nutritional. I know brine shrimp is crap but you know I saw the opportunity right there. I really wanted to save her from starvation by taking her home and getting her on mysis and maybe even pellets before it was too late. I was prepared to feed her three to four times a day and everything but now I'm super bummed that she's acting like this and not even going for the brine anymore.

 

Where could you possibly get the nutrimar ova? And I was hoping to only have live copepods in there cause I know if you're giving them live food they're going to pick that over frozen any time and then never go back to it.

 

I wish I could upload pictures on here. She looks like she may be shedding her slime coat because she had some sand stuck on her. Could that be bothering her to the point of not eating? And she has some live rock and calyrpa that the copepods were in to hide behind and she's kinda just laying in the corners. I haven't had any lights on since she's been in there.

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Freshly hatched baby brine shrimp are actually pretty good weaning food for getting a stressed mandarin to start eating again & to stave off the PTSD weight loss. Staple diet, no - but in the first 8-24 hours of hatching the yolk sack should still be a viable part of their food value.

 

In that small a tank I'd be surprised if you didn't get SOME feeding response from BBS. If you don't want to put together a mini meth lab to hatch them you can use a plain 'ole clear plastic dixie cup at room temp and a chopsitck to swirl the water a few times a day - your hatch yield won't be great but it'll keep a steady supply of newly-hatched brine for 2-4 days and you can easily stagger them to keep the supply young.

 

If you can't get your hands on nutramar, I've also had surprisingly good results with rinsed masago (the sushi ingredient, capelin roe) with both my red mandarin and yellow clown goby.

 

One more thing... on rehoming mandarins can be INCREDIBLY skittish. It took mine over two weeks before she's come out into the front section of the tank if anyone was nearby (think within 6-10' of the tank). Put your temporary tank away from the footpath of the room and dim the lights if you can.

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Well she probably didn't have many pods but she had only been eating brine as far as I could tell for a few days before I took her home because I took that as a good sign to get her to something more nutritional. I know brine shrimp is crap but you know I saw the opportunity right there. I really wanted to save her from starvation by taking her home and getting her on mysis and maybe even pellets before it was too late. I was prepared to feed her three to four times a day and everything but now I'm super bummed that she's acting like this and not even going for the brine anymore.

 

Where could you possibly get the nutrimar ova? And I was hoping to only have live copepods in there cause I know if you're giving them live food they're going to pick that over frozen any time and then never go back to it.

 

I wish I could upload pictures on here. She looks like she may be shedding her slime coat because she had some sand stuck on her. Could that be bothering her to the point of not eating? And she has some live rock and calyrpa that the copepods were in to hide behind and she's kinda just laying in the corners. I haven't had any lights on since she's been in there.

 

I was hoping your LFS would have ova. Most places online it is out of stock atm. BBS, blackworms, sushi roe are all good suggestions others posted here.

 

I doubt the slime coat would be an issue unless she has some sort of parasite that can't be readily seen, internal, gills, ect.

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Okay thanks for the advice. I'll get some baby brine today to hatch and put her somewhere where she can't see anyone. Thanks so much

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