New tank and new fish....new problems

Theresa, if the mandarin has "taken" to eating you're marine cusine it should be alright. I've heard of a few people who have gotten theirs to eat frozen, 1 of them is actually a friend of mine and I've seen their mandarin eating the frozen too. I still think it is a very bad habit to get into of buying fish that are "pretty," haha.

Where did you buy this fish from? Who ever sold this fish to you needs a talking to for not asking you about your tank with this fish. The damsels are a common beginner fish, but anyone selling mandarin's should have asked you about your setup. They usually need a 75 gallon minimum tank, at least 6 months old, and a lot of live rock, you don't have any of those(unless your tank's that big)!

Make sure you feed him/her(and visually see him/her eating it) at least once a day. To know the gender of the fish, look at it's dorsal spine(on top, the long one). The males have a much longer dorsal spine than the females.

Here's a coupe pics of two mandarins to show the difference. One is a red mandarin and the other is a green mandarin, I'm just showing this picture to show you the spines so you get the idea.

This one is a male(http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1635+1723&pcatid=1723)

This one is a female(http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1635+551&pcatid=551)

 

Ugh!  I read this post and my stomach just sank the more I read /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/ermm.gif  Really, you need to slow down, make sure your tank has cycled, spend some money on rock etc before you go buying more fish and coral.  That fish (dragonette) has no business being in a tank with one rock(?!)  Even if it does take to eating frozen mysis (not its natural diet, btw), they like rock to live in as well as hunt for pods in.  I hate to be a big downer and rain on your new tank parade here, but just going to the store and picking out fish willy nilly based on what looks pretty is pretty irresponsible /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/plain.gif  The best thing to do at this point, imo, would be to see if they would take the fish back or start buying a lot of  live rock or live pods to feed it.  Depending on what type of damsels you bought, some become quite hostile towards other fish, especially as the mature, and there wouldn't even be a place for the shyer fish (dragonette) to hide.

 

+ 1 phishcrazee
the mandarin will not survive

 

I'm very sorry.

+1 to phiscrazee. That madarin is doomed. If I understood your post, so is that damsel.
Even should you get enough pods in it to keep it fed (and it will die of starvation from anything else) that damsel will kill it.  No d*madarin* (oops) can go into a tank smaller than 70 gallons and have a chance of living.
ozreef.org/library/articles/madarin_survey.html

If you just put rock in it, and have more on the way, it is no where close to time to add fish, much less one with very special diet requirements.

You must understand the nature of cycling a tank before adding livestock to it.

Your brother would need to have a very special set up to even allow the madarin to live in his tank.
I suggest you pick up a good book on marine aquariums (The Consceientious Marine Aquarist, by Fenner, is a good start).  And read it, and understand it before you buy any more livestock.

 

Oh, as an aside, I am planning a Madarin tank. It is 300 gallons, and will have over 10,000 dollars worth of equipment...to support two of them.

 

Hey welcome to the club first, nice to have another person in the Wloo area.

If you have it eaten frozen, you may have a chance.

Your tank is going to cycle which will be hard on your tank mates. I would be prepared to do some water changes for awhile. Get an ammonia alert badge & hang in the tank.

If you want I have some cured LR with a ton of pods that I can exchange for your dry rock. This can give you a leg up & give everything a fighting chance.

I don't quite agree that you cant have a damsel in a tank smaller then 70 gallons, I have seen them in much smaller for years. Be aware though that damsels are a mean fish & can harass its tank mates.

Again welcome to this great hobby & the club. Please feel to ask as many questions as you want.

Craig

 

Hey Therese!
Welcome to the forums!
Isn't it amazing the amount of time that can be spent watching a saltwater tank - regardless of the amount of life in it?
As part of the welcoming to the saltwater community is the realization that there's a lot to learn and a ton of information available to help from the members of these forums as well as on the internet.
Another huge part of your adventure into saltwater is knowing that we've all made mistakes along the way, and actually we will continue to make them as part of our learning process.  Commonly referred to as newbie mistakes...of which I made one last month after being in this for 7 years...maybe I'm the eternal newbie!
We also don't want you to ever feel that you can't ask a question in the forums as we're all here to help each other learn and have fun!
So...
How's the mandarin doing now?  I've never owned one, and while it is common practice to have one in a larger tank with pods, a quick Google search will also reveal that many people have success feeding frozen foods.
As your tank is new, it might be better if you could take it back to the local store for credit or put it in your brother's tank to babysit if his tank is established.
Part of this is based on the lack of food that will be available to it, the other part is that you have a new tank.  As a tank matures, it is better suited to sustaining life.  This is due in part to the cycling of the tank and the natural presence of bacteria, algaes, etc. along with the tendency for us (the tank owners) to not fiddle with it quite so much as well as getting into a stable maintenance routine.
If you're new to fishkeeping, do some research on "new tank syndrome" which will let you know what to expect along the way.  You'll also want to acquire some test kits so you know when your tank is cycled.
Good luck and let us know how we can help!
-Eric

 

Well said Eric!

Welcome to Girs Therese, remember in text you don't get tone of feeling. No one is mad at you, if anything disapointed in the store that sold the dragnet to you. Keep asking questions and reading and I am sure we will do our best to help too.

 

Oh dear, you are dead right.  Sorry if I sounded testy; I was po'd that someone sold you a Damsel and a Madarin on the same day....that just isn't the way to get someone going on a fun and rewarding hobby.  It *is* a way to sell someone more fish tho, because when those die, you'll buy more...and etc, etc etc.  The person who sold you those two should be drug out behind the store and beaten about the head and shoulders with a herring.  I'll volunteer to do the beating.  Anybody got a herring?
Stick with the club, join (its dirt cheap, $20 a year...you would have gotten that cash back with advice about those fish; I'm guessing they cost more than $20), learn from a boo-boo and get better.
If you would like a list of silly things I have done in my day, we're going to be here for a bit.
Could you post pictures of your tank and set up?  It would help us give better advice.  Do you have a sump?  How about a 'fuge?  What kind of rock is on the way (shipped in live, out of the bro's tank, dry rock, etc).  Protien skimmer?  Water motion (powerheads, etc)?

 

Any update? how are they doing?

 

Sounds great, I have never seen a mandarin take frozen food but I have heard of them.

Enjoy the tank.

Craig

 

Doesn't sound like you have a damsel there, more like a goby or something along those lines.  Damsels generally do not dig in the sand, but rather spend most of their time swimming in the water column..  Do you know the name of the other fish you got?
 Also, simply because the mandarin is eating the frozen mysis(?) doesn't necessarily mean it is doing well.  It is surviving and eating the only thing it has to eat.  Normally, mandarins will spend every waking minute hunting for pods in rock-they consume A LOT of live food considering how small they are.  Some say you need 100#+ of live rock to produce enough pods for one fish, as well as having a sump.  I would hope the frozen food you're feeding it is soaked in some sort of vitamin supplement containing high amounts of omega/dha, as that's what marine pods contain and that's what they normally will eat.  Most frozen mysis found at fish stores is actually freshwater mysis and contains little to no dha......many mandarins will die a slow death of nutritional starvation over the course of many months if not given the proper diet.   Not to mention the fact that your tank may still go through an ammonia cycle......if your brother has the proper set-up for this fish, I would give it to him until you have a better set-up to maintain a fish like this or see if the fish store or whoever sold you this fish will take it back.  Where did you purchase these fish, btw? 

 

Glad you're doing the research now, although doing it before you got your fish would have been ideal /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/wink.gif