green mandarin

There's no need to become defensive Dana42078, we're just trying to offer you advice on making decisions in the future that you will feel more comfortable with.

Who cares? Many people do, and if it's you spending money on your fish then I would assume that you would care as well.

What exactly do you consider to be major research? Because from my experience people who discover new things in this hobby discover them by thoroughly studying their subject for an extended period of time. And I will point out that the saltwater aquarium hobby can play a very important part in conservation of certain parts of the ocean (mainly reefs where fish and coral are taken from) and in order to do that conservation a certain ammount of study/research must be completed.

Good Luck with yur mandarin, I hope he isn't sick and that he'll eat frozen for you.
 
Yep defensive because i feel like im being belittled. Even if i am a noob that doesnt say hey you cant do this or you cant do that....thats how i felt...like im being told i cant do this. I really just wanted some input on how to care for him not to be bashed because ive taken him in and i shouldnt have. I give my tank all i can give. I spend countless hours just looking at it. I wouldnt give it up for anything. Its funny when you google something on a certain coral/fish and you get 5000 diff responses but i join a fish forum to get some kind of friendship with ya'll and i get bashed for doing "somethin im not suppose to do".

I tried feeding him and he doesnt seem to like brine shrimp....gunnna have to try a diff approch but im goin at it with an open mind. I hope he likes copepods or mysis shrimp. he/she is obviosly the most gorgeous fish in the ocean and dont wanna lose him.
 
Im really hopein he does. Its day 2 tomorrow...only time will tell. Im lucky my damsel is a baby because if he wasnt the mandarin would be dead
 
Yeah damsels can be a pain, that's I went with allen's damsels. They're a lot calmer then most of the damsel fish and I've never had aggression issues with them and I had a group of them.

damsel7.jpg
 
You can always run back to the LFS and buy some pods and seed the rock as you try to get him to eat frozen. It's not going to be cheep but by trying to rescue this fish which is what you signed up to do then you need give him his best shot for survival which is what I think everybody is trying to say to you. Good Luck
 
I've had a couple MDs. My current one is FAT.

Blue Damsels are devils. I had one and she killed another fish.

Try feeding your MD:

1) Orange sushi roe like the kind on a california roll. Check for it at Asian markets.
2) Ocean Nutrition Marine Formula 1 Small Pellets
3) Blood worms. I played with the flow to make them wiggle and then my MD ate them.
4) Live bring shrimp but add Selcon a day before to the brine shrimp.

Your MD will have a lot of trouble eating until you get rid of your Blue Damsel. It was a major ordeal to get mine out of my tank and give it away. I think its great you tried to rescue the lil MD!
 
yellow tail damsels tend to become aggressive as they become older, if he is making your new mandarin cower in the corner under rock your mandarin will surly die from lack of food as they are some of the most docile fish, i would say its time to make a choice between the two but remember mandarins need lots and lots of small foods, usually live, like copepods and baby brine live black worms , what mandarin did u get a spotted or the striped? about mandarins " challenging to feed, must be provided with plenty of natural prey, which can be introduced on new live rock and sand. is a methodical feeder that does not fare well with competitors." taken from Marine Fishes by Scott Michael
 
I just want to add that although it is challenging to get an MD to eat non-live foods neither was it insanely difficult.

To train them I would turn off the flow and drop the food right in front of the MD. He ignored it for days and eventually he started eating. Last night he was actually chasing my turket baster and trying to suck roe form the end of it!

Eclipse_001 is right: you really need to choose between the 2 fish.
 
I wasn't bashing you at all. I was answering the questions you asked. You can get defensive about it, and claim that you did do research on the mandarin, but you obviously didn't do research on the mandarin before you bought it if you A) put it in a new tank, B) put it in a small tank, C) put it in a tank without a refugium, and D) had no idea what it eats.

And in response to your question about dosing all that stuff -- I told you you didn't need to as long as you were doing water changes, and that it's pretty easy to overdose on that stuff since you are not testing for them. Salt mixes contain all those chemicals in appropriate amounts! You are wasting your money! Unless you have a very full reef tank with lots of corals and inverts, you don't even have anything in the tank that is using those chemicals up -- so you are just adding more and more every time, and not actually testing and measuring them to make sure you need to add them.

So if you want to continue to waste money on expensive chemicals that your tank does not need, go right ahead! Those chemicals are expensive, and they are not necessary. Someone is just making money off of you by telling you that you need them. Believe me, no one has ever had any problems from not dosing a 2-month old fish-only tank with molybdenum.

You don't like my advice because "nothing bad has happened yet." Fine. Good luck with your mandarin -- hopefully you will find the information you are looking for on your own since you obviously cannot take it when I give you answers that you don't want to hear. You have received lots of responses about the different foods that your mandarin might take to. But if it doesn't, it will be just as I said when you first asked: Many mandarins will only eat live foods. That is why they should never be put in a new tank, a small tank, or a tank without a refugium unless you know that it is eating frozen when you buy it.

That is the truth. You not liking the fact doesn't matter one bit.
 
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Biff is right here, So far, she has done nothing but help you and did not bash or belittle you. Just take what is said here with the intention it is meant, to save you money, to make your tank last, and to make sure nothing dies.

You could always try putting the mandarin in a small container with the mysis and get him to eat 1. Because after he takes his first bite, he wont stop and will be stuck on frozen foods for good.

I was lucky, i bought mine already eating frozen, i never saw him eat it, but he had lived in a new tank for 3 months and my gf saw him eat it while he was in my tank.

Water changes will provide the calcium you need along with all trace elements. Most people do not dose calcium UNLESS they have a lot of SPS corals, in fact, i dont dose calcium at all, and i have just started on sps. Its ok to use the calcium 3+ on a tank with a lot of corals because its a weekly maintenance. but 2 months in, it is honestly useless. I have it, and didnt use it till 5 months in.

Btw, in this hobby, nothing good happens quickly, so your rash decisions will cause problems. Ive learnt the hard way, having played with my sea apples and having one release a little bit of toxin after i heat him with my mag float (whoops) lost 1 fish and almost lost an anemone... which would have crashed the tank, lucky tank is saved and all this is because im being risky and ignoring biff, because im a stubborn ass! :P haha

but i love a challenge, so if you love a challenge with this mandarin, listen to everyone here and dont be defensive. it gets you nowhere
 
Thanks for all the fee back, im going to have to go to the store and get some food for him, all i have is frozen stuff. Apon wakein up this morning tho i sat back and watch my tank for a lil while. The damsel has backed off alot more and letting him free roam. The MD also was picking at my live rock and looks to be doing okay for the moment. And im guessing here but im going to say hes striped. Ill snap a few pics after i shower and get up.
 
The mandarin picking at the rock is a good sign -- he's foraging.

I don't agree with what others said that you have to pick between the mandarin and the damsel. Mine have always co-existed. Damsels will be aggressive towards all fish in the beginning -- and sometimes they stay aggressive. But damsels and mandarins don't compete for anything. They occupy totally different spaces and environments in the tank. I really think they will get along just fine with time.
 
Definitely pursue the blood worms - mine tends to do fine, eating all the copepods in my tank, but when I put bloodworms in there, she seems interested. Adding a refugium, even a hang on back one, would really improve its chances of survival, as it would be a safe haven for the pods to reproduce and stock your tank.

With a tank that small it's a lot easier to overdose chemicals or upset the balance, so, especially if you don't need to, I'd shy away from it.

Also, if you have some good cave-like areas in your rock work, that will help, it'll give the mandarin a place to seek shelter when the damsel gets bitchy.
 
Definitely pursue the blood worms - mine tends to do fine, eating all the copepods in my tank, but when I put bloodworms in there, she seems interested. Adding a refugium, even a hang on back one, would really improve its chances of survival, as it would be a safe haven for the pods to reproduce and stock your tank.

With a tank that small it's a lot easier to overdose chemicals or upset the balance, so, especially if you don't need to, I'd shy away from it.

Also, if you have some good cave-like areas in your rock work, that will help, it'll give the mandarin a place to seek shelter when the damsel gets bitchy.

I do have spots in the tank where he can hide and chill out, a refugium at this point is out of my budget but i did plan on having one in the future

I AM TESTING MY TANK....with that said everything is fine. I didnt add abnormal amounts nor did i add the recommended amount. I did a very little dose. Ive never paid for ANY chemicals. My friends gave me a left over stuff they no longer use. I however in hindsight regret doing the calcium. My xenia is pretty mad and has shrunk half its size. Going to my LFS right now to see what i can do for food.
 
Heres a few pictures i could take. He seems to be more adventurus now. He doesnt seem to be hiding much at all and is nipping at all of the LR.

DSCF2691.jpg
 
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