Mandarin has parasites?

[Wolf89]

Hi guys. I've been religiously feeding my mandarin frozen brine 3-5 times a day for the past 2-3 months and he is still pretty skinny. I'm thinking he has internal parasites. About 2 weeks after I got him, I saw a white string hanging out from his gills. I quickly messaged the LFS I bought him from, and they said it was something about mucus that they produce, which I believed, but now I'm not so sure. When I turn the lights on in the morning, he is completely covered in a white mucus in film, which the interwebs says is okay, but I'm thinking it may be from stress from an internal parasite? How do I diagnose this, and how do I treat him. I cant tank him out of the tank, so it has to be safe for inverts, but I dont have any coral yet

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Hi guys. I've been religiously feeding my mandarin frozen brine 3-5 times a day for the past 2-3 months and he is still pretty skinny. I'm thinking he has internal parasites. About 2 weeks after I got him, I saw a white string hanging out from his gills. I quickly messaged the LFS I bought him from, and they said it was something about mucus that they produce, which I believed, but now I'm not so sure. When I turn the lights on in the morning, he is completely covered in a white mucus in film, which the interwebs says is okay, but I'm thinking it may be from stress from an internal parasite? How do I diagnose this, and how do I treat him. I cant tank him out of the tank, so it has to be safe for inverts, but I dont have any coral yet

Treatment for internal parasites is typically metro or GC +Focus+food+Garlic guard to mask the taste. Feed that to him for 14 days and it is Reef safe as long as you don’t overfeed and have your inverts grabbing a bunch of it. I would try to target feed him with that twice a day.
Mandarins do produce a mucous later at night when sleeping. Does it completely go away in the daytime?

 

[Paul B]

I feel you are over thinking this. I doubt your mandarin has internal parasites but frozen brine shrimp is no food for a mandarin or any fish.
They eat live pods or new born brine shrimp.

They do best with a feeder such as this.

 

[HotRocks]

Have you seen white stringy poop? That would be how you would diagnose the intestinal parasites.

These guys are hard to adapt to captivity and often require a diet with live foods.

 

[Deinonych]

I feel you are over thinking this. I doubt your mandarin has internal parasites but frozen brine shrimp is no food for a mandarin or any fish.
They eat live pods or new born brine shrimp.

They do best with a feeder such as this.

This. Feeding any fish a diet of only brine shrimp will make them skinny. They are the potato chip of marine foods.