Please help

I just purchased a manderin goby and i do not believe i have enough copipods flying around is there any tips on the best way to feed or get this guy to eat? and what should i feed him?

 

What size is your tank?
Do you have a lot of live rock?
How old is the tank?
What are the other inhabitants?
Do you have an algae scrubber or refugium?

 

Ya, please answer above.

 

Do you have a bare bottom tank? Or do you have two?

 

misfitsghost, if you're in the USA you could order the "3 species" marine copepods for about 25 dollars per bottle, plus another 20 for 2 day shipping. That's probably way more than what you paid for your mandarin.

The "tiger" pods are a waste of money IMHO. Copepods are almost invisible, so if you don't see them during daylight it's perfectly normal. They usually stick on the glass when the room has very dark for some hours with a flashlight. Just make sure that your partner doesn't see you, it's always a challenge for me to explain my wife what the heck I am doing at 3 AM shining a light at the tank.

Long term is a very different challenge. I posted yesterday my experiences as a three year keeper of a mandarin in a small tank. I believe most people will give you very different advices, though, so take it with a grain of salt, whatever you decide to do.

Perhaps the most sensitive option, if you have the possibility, is to return it to the store where you bought it and shouldn't sold you a fish you can't possibly keep long term in your tank.

Best of luck to you and your mandarin.

 

By the way, I am not saying that a mandarin can be kept in all conditions, you must have live rocks and a deep sand bed, so it's perhaps best to answer the questions of the other posters before I can give you a cogent opinion. Well, an attempt.

 

All good posts. You can buy copepods from Reefcleaners for about 13 bucks a container. I think a container, if added at night or in small amounts, would feed for 1-2 weeks. You really need an established aquarium with a refugium producing TONS of pods for a Mandarin to survive for then a few weeks. They are one of my favorite looking fish but I have yet to purchase one for the above reasons.

I have heard some specimens will accept prepared foods. At this point I think you have to try it

 

That woukd be a bad assessment of the quantty of pods a mandarin would eat. Figure a bottle a day and its realistic.

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I tried it, even have a thread here about it. I spent a fortune in pods, at some point a couple bottles per week in addition to the fact that I was able to get it to eat frozen mysis and it still lost weight.

I'll personally never own another one unless I have an absolutely massive tank with a ton of rock and nothing else competing for pods.

If your tank isn't right for one you'll invest a lot of time and money into trying to artificially keep one healthy.

I'm not saying not to, just saying it wasn't right for me.

 

the copepods from reefcleaners are significantly more packed the a "bottle" at the LFS

Still, My post was meant to shown that alot of pods would be needed to supplement their diet