mandarin not eating

[morgan24]

i got a mandarin from a freind for free and i put him in my tank about 2 weeks ago and he didn't eat for the whole time he was in there. today i went out and bought some frozen mysis shrimp and he went nuts. i mean i could see all his bones sticking out and every thing do u think he's goung to be alright now

 

[oyf709]

argh ..mandarin,first of all, how old is your tank.Do you have LR and LS?How much?
To just give you an idea, mandarin usually go for life preys such as copodes and so on.If you tank doesn't have enough, it will just die off.
If you have plenty of pods, then I think it just stressed out.It will hardly eat any frozen food such as mysis and brimshrimp.
Hope it starts eating, my best wishes.

 

[morgan24]

i know i dont have enough lr but my buddy was just going to let him die so i 'm going to try to keep him.. i only have 10lbs of lr with 10 more on the way. but he just ate the heck out of those mysis shrimp

 

[oyf709]

good to hear it, another way is to set up a refugium and put some macro algea in it.podes will grow really fast in it and it should be enough for the mandarin to eat.

 

[electrikat]

He's going to need 60 to 100 pounds of good live rock. The tank needs to be mature. He may eat the mysis but it doesn't have the nutrients he needs. He'll eventually starve to death if you can't increase your pod population. jmho

 

[xahx]

Pods are important! thats what they eat mainly.. make sure you have a good pod population b4 u get one next time!

I had an infestation, now since i got a mandarin, I cant find any pods...

 

[Phyl]

If he's eating prepared foods you at least have a leg up. Keep feeding him as much as he'll eat! I'd try for twice daily. Mysis is good, brine is useless. See if he'll eat something like prime reef or formula 1. Soak his foods in selcon to boost the nutritional value.

Good luck.

 

[morgan24]

thank guys