New mandarin sick after two weeks? Need help identifying asap!

[DannyGT]

A few nights ago, I added a bunch of pods to the tank—all at once, in complete darkness.

Over the last couple of days, he’s been looking much better. His color seems to be coming back, the faded appearance has improved, and even the blemishes look like they’ve started to clear up. He still has holes in two of his fins, unfortunately, but there’s definitely been some positive change.

That said, something odd happened this afternoon—I noticed a very distinct white spot on the back of his head, almost like a scab. At the same time, a new blemish showed up on the top part of his tail.

Strangely enough, by evening, both the spot and the blemish were gone. It was the weirdest thing.

Is this kind of fluctuation normal for these fish?

Also, do fins affected by rot ever heal or grow back?

I’m debating whether I should take him back to the LFS to discuss what’s going on, or if I should stick it out and try to help him recover here. Can my tank naturally start producing pods again after reseeding, or will I need to keep supplementing?

I have a good 15lbs of rock in the tank ...

 

[Louis Z]

What type of pods are you buying . Pods take time to mature and reproduce . Plus pod cultures require a food source. dumping pods into a sterile qt tank won’t be enough for them to multiply by not having enough to eat .reed mariculture sells preserved concentrated phyto . Can you see pods growing on the side of the glass . That’s where it is east to view them with magnifying glass . Or at night shine a flashlight at side of tank . You should be able to see them swimming around with main lights off . You can see them within the beam of light .

 

[Lavey29]

Mandarins need a mature tank like a year or more and a very sustainable supply of pods. I had to drop a jar of pods in every week so $110 a month in pods. He would nibble other food like Roa eggs but at pods constantly.

 

[DannyGT]

What type of pods are you buying . Pods take time to mature and reproduce . Plus pod cultures require a food source. dumping pods into a sterile qt tank won’t be enough for them to multiply by not having enough to eat .reed mariculture sells preserved concentrated phyto . Can you see pods growing on the side of the glass . That’s where it is east to view them with magnifying glass . Or at night shine a flashlight at side of tank . You should be able to see them swimming around with main lights off . You can see them within the beam of light .

Mandarins need a mature tank like a year or more and a very sustainable supply of pods. I had to drop a jar of pods in every week so $110 a month in pods. He would nibble other food like Roa eggs but at pods constantly.

I added two bottles of trigger pods to the tank in complete darkness. I should mention that I have a lot of bio media in the back (Aquatop Recife 40), and I poured about half a bottle back there, hoping they would propagate. The tank has been running for about 5–6 months now.

What’s baffling me is the sudden appearance of something resembling a white spot, only to have it completely disappear later in the evening. It’s bizarre.

His front two fins have developed holes, and while the white blemish on his tail hasn’t deteriorated further, it hasn’t healed yet either. I’m hoping to keep it under control.

I’d prefer not to spend money on pods every week, so I’m planning to try frozen copepods and bloodworms to see if I can target-feed him. If he takes to them, I think I can nurse him back to health.

 

[Lavey29]

I added two bottles of trigger pods to the tank in complete darkness. I should mention that I have a lot of bio media in the back (Aquatop Recife 40), and I poured about half a bottle back there, hoping they would propagate. The tank has been running for about 5–6 months now.

What’s baffling me is the sudden appearance of something resembling a white spot, only to have it completely disappear later in the evening. It’s bizarre.

His front two fins have developed holes, and while the white blemish on his tail hasn’t deteriorated further, it hasn’t healed yet either. I’m hoping to keep it under control.

I’d prefer not to spend money on pods every week, so I’m planning to try frozen copepods and bloodworms to see if I can target-feed him. If he takes to them, I think I can nurse him back to health.

I tried all those things with no success. They will eat this though and mine lived about 4 years.

CORAL FEAST "OVA" 32oz Hatching Coral Food Plankton Eggs Feed Coral Reef Tank | eBay

CORAL FEAST "OVA". New coral reef food blend. Highly nutritional blend of whole organism zooplankton eggs (ova) of various species. Hatching Food. One 32 oz bottle. Decap’d hatching brine shrimp eggs.

www.ebay.com

 

[DannyGT]

I tried all those things with no success. They will eat this though and mine lived about 4 years.

CORAL FEAST "OVA" 32oz Hatching Coral Food Plankton Eggs Feed Coral Reef Tank | eBay

CORAL FEAST "OVA". New coral reef food blend. Highly nutritional blend of whole organism zooplankton eggs (ova) of various species. Hatching Food. One 32 oz bottle. Decap’d hatching brine shrimp eggs.

www.ebay.com

How often did you feed it that? I have 9 other fish in the tank. Assuming, I'd need to target feed it that multiple times a day...?

 

[Lavey29]

How often did you feed it that? I have 9 other fish in the tank. Assuming, I'd need to target feed it that multiple times a day...?

I.just fed it once a day but I kept dosing pods weekly too. The egg jar last a long time. I squirted it in from of the mandarin with turkey baster

 

[Louis Z]

You might have better pod counts if you use apocyclops and tisbe species of copepods . Be on the lookout for more white spots on the other fish. That spot that may have dropped off can be in the hatching stage of more parasites . I hope not .

 

[Kasrift]

Great feedback from everyone so far, but to be honest the first pictures you posted look like right as the lights come on. Mandarins will have their color fade like that at night, I'm not sure if it is a camouflage thing or something else, but I've had mine for three years and it would look the same at night.

Yours does look skinny though. I'd suggest hatching baby brine shrimp and turning off pumps to spot feed until it gets some more weight.

 

[twentyleagues]

You might have better pod counts if you use apocyclops and tisbe species of copepods . Be on the lookout for more white spots on the other fish. That spot that may have dropped off can be in the hatching stage of more parasites . I hope not .

Agree.
Tigger pods dont as readily reproduce in our tanks as some others.

 

[Lavey29]

Agree.
Tigger pods dont as readily reproduce in our tanks as some others.

The other types just don't ship very well at all.

 

[Louis Z]

The nice thing about tigger pods is that they are big and you can see the mandarin eat them . I agree on the BBS . You will be hatching them for a while till he gets fat . Remember newly hatched brine shrimp are the most nutritious . You can enrich the BBS with selcon ,definitely enrich if the bbs are older . many threads on here that talk about that and how to enrich . You could also use reed nutrition phytoplankton to enrich . But you need to keep the BBS in a cleaner setup if going to enrich that way . The water quality can deteriorate if trying to feed several day old BBS without any passive filter . Ammonia and nitrate can build up quickly

 

[twentyleagues]

The other types just don't ship very well at all.

I got the pod mix from Dinkins or Reef by Steel a couple times, seem to be alive and well when I get them. The are reproducing in my tank fine too glass at night is covered in pods.
I have not added any or phyto in a long time. I was culturing my own pods for a bit apo and tisbe but my local phyto supplier crashed their cultures. I just dumped the pod cultures in the tank that was in june.

 

[Kasrift]

I added two bottles of trigger pods to the tank in complete darkness. I should mention that I have a lot of bio media in the back (Aquatop Recife 40), and I poured about half a bottle back there, hoping they would propagate. The tank has been running for about 5–6 months now.

What’s baffling me is the sudden appearance of something resembling a white spot, only to have it completely disappear later in the evening. It’s bizarre.

His front two fins have developed holes, and while the white blemish on his tail hasn’t deteriorated further, it hasn’t healed yet either. I’m hoping to keep it under control.

I’d prefer not to spend money on pods every week, so I’m planning to try frozen copepods and bloodworms to see if I can target-feed him. If he takes to them, I think I can nurse him back to health.

As mentioned already tig pods aren't the way to go. They are pelagic free swimmers and will get sucked up into mechanical filtration. They also have the longest reproduction cycle, like 30 days.

Apoc or tisbe are benthic, will stick to the rockwork and will reproduce much faster.

 

[Lavey29]

I got the pod mix from Dinkins or Reef by Steel a couple times, seem to be alive and well when I get them. The are reproducing in my tank fine too glass at night is covered in pods.
I have not added any or phyto in a long time. I was culturing my own pods for a bit apo and tisbe but my local phyto supplier crashed their cultures. I just dumped the pod cultures in the tank that was in june.

If you visit you typical LFS you will see jars of reef nutrition Tigger pods in the fridge but nothing else. My LFS said it's because other pods don't ship well and do not last in the store waiting for purchase but I have had good results with Dinkins multiple times.

 

[twentyleagues]

If you visit you typical LFS you will see jars of reef nutrition Tigger pods in the fridge but nothing else. My LFS said it's because other pods don't ship well and do not last in the store waiting for purchase but I have had good results with Dinkins multiple times.

This is true. You can refrigerate Tigger pods to slow their metabolism down because they are found in colder waters, while the tisbe and apo will handle it but for shorter periods. I can see other types of pods being lost money for a lfs. Tigger pods are great but its something you would need to keep doing indefinitely. All my fish really love arctipods sold in the fridge also but are not alive not sure if a Mandarin would go for them or not. Even my tang goes crazy for them.

 

[PotatoPig]

Tigger pods flatly won’t colonize your tank - I cultured these for months and added them almost daily, they never took. A couple days after adding them they were all gone.

They’re also not great for mandarins as they swim in the water column, where they get wiped out by all the rest of the fish, and even worse won’t be eaten by the mandarin because it’s hunting on the rocks.

Tisbe do colonize, as do random pods that come in on live rock and CUC.

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

Tibse pods are ideal for this size Mandarin.

I was under the impression that Ich and Brook were essentially not possible when it came to Mandarins, something about their skin producing a toxic slime.

Tibse pods saturating a smaller tank, give him some time to fatten up and grow out before re-introducing him...that would be my plan of action.

 

[Kasrift]

Tibse pods are ideal for this size Mandarin.

I was under the impression that Ich and Brook were essentially not possible when it came to Mandarins, something about their skin producing a toxic slime.

Tibse pods saturating a smaller tank, give him some time to fatten up and grow out before re-introducing him...that would be my plan of action.

Not impossible, just less likely. You can search R2R and you'll see multiple posts that this color shift is just from their nighttime change in colors.

 

[Lavey29]

This is true. You can refrigerate Tigger pods to slow their metabolism down because they are found in colder waters, while the tisbe and apo will handle it but for shorter periods. I can see other types of pods being lost money for a lfs. Tigger pods are great but its something you would need to keep doing indefinitely. All my fish really love arctipods sold in the fridge also but are not alive not sure if a Mandarin would go for them or not. Even my tang goes crazy for them.

I tried those with my mandarin but no success with dead pods.