Mandarins and QT

[Mikemilly245]

Okay so I know there’s probably other posts about this but I wanted some input on my specific scenario.

I have a believed to be captive bred mandarin in my 3 year old bio cube 16 for qt at the moment. No meds just observation, with engineer goby orchid dottyback inverts etc. Tons of pods and I feed baby brine shrimp regularly. Been in there for about 2 weeks now.

So it looks kinda skinny , to me at least, even with my feeding efforts and pod population. Thinking it has to do with bullying. Hard to spot him he’s usually hiding in dark corners and darts away when I approach the tank. I’ll try to get pics.

The orchid for sure has Ich. It’s constantly scratching the rocks/spazzing and has white spots. Also think he’s the one bullying everyone in there (funny I know)

My question is, is there really no risk at all with these guys catching/carrying ich? Can I just take this guy out of my biocube and place him In the DT? I think he’d have a better chance of getting food without that dottyback spazzing and bullying. Just nervous about him infecting my whole display tank. The pod population might not be nearly as strong as the biocube but there’s definitely a lot

 

[Mikemilly245]

Not the best pic but it’s kinda difficult with this one lol

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm not a fish disease expert, maybe one of the R2R #fishmedic crew can help you here.

I would advise you NOT to transfer your mandarin to your other tank. The value of being captive bred is that the fish is exposed to far less parasites (ideally zero) than a fish from the wild, but they are not immune to infection. If you're seeing symptoms of disease in your Biocube, it's best practice to assume all fish in the tank are now infected, including the Mandarin.

 

[Uncle99]

I see no reason why the Mandarin, whose in the tank with a fish known to be infected, would not at least, have the potential to bring the infection into the other tank.

I don’t personally QT that specific fish, especially a captive bred one, I want it hunting the rockwork. So far, I’ve found this fish quite resilient to infects.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I don’t know that I’ve ever actually seen one with ich, but if it’s been exposed I would treat it as such. I would try to keep it isolated for 60 days, you can still use rocks to harbor pods (but don’t reuse them without sanitizing them).

 

[twentyleagues]

Mandarins can get ich they do have a very thick slime coat that helps protect them though. Different things can cause that slime coat to be not as thick though, stress from a bully, not enough food, moves, and so on. If its in with a fish that has ich it may itself not get or have ich but could be carrying ich. Unfortunately if you move the mandarin you could infect the new tank with ich.

And yes Dottybacks are nasty little bullies, to the point of murder. They will bully other fish to death.

 

[Mikemilly245]

Here’s how he looks now. Been treating with metroplex+ Kanaplex but haven’t seen any improvement. Only steady decline on all other fish and now the mandarin looks pretty bad. Didn’t look like this to begin with.

How do I treat this ? Can I add copper to this tank with the mandarin or strict no?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Sorry to take so long to get back. The fish will handle copper fine, but feeding will become more challenging. Given the condition of the fish, it may be your best bet though.