Mandarin too skinny/ malnourished ??

[Spark326]

Hello all!
I got a small Aquacultured blue mandarin goby/ dragonet 2 days ago and I can not tell if it looks too skinny/ malnourished. I have looked at other threads and pics. I see my Mandarin pecking pretty often throughout the day and in some angles she looks ok, but I do see that lateral line pretty prominently.
There are pods and I have been supplementing with Masago eggs (as some have advised on this forum) which I am not sure if she has been eating.
Tank has been running for 8 months. And parameters are: salinity 1.024, pH8.1, Nitrates and phosphates are low.

I am considering going to the store and getting mysis and/or brine shrimp eggs.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated!
Much better seen on video:

 

[sfin52]

I would buy a couple of bottles of pods to supplement

 

[Spark326]

I would buy a couple of bottles of pods to supplement

Should I be concerned how thin she is?

 

[Redfoxtang]

Agreed with above. Buy some bottles of pods for him. They can surely wipe out a pod population in no time if tank isn’t fully matured yet!

 

[sfin52]

Should I be concerned how thin she is?

Looks a little thin. Even as tank raised they still have issues with prepared food. Pods make up the majority of nutrition. They have to eat all the time because of digestive system. They don't have stomachs like normal fish. Its a straight shot through the digestive track. Food moves quickly through them. They have to constantly eat.
Till you can get pods look up mandarin feeders and supplemt with just hatched brine shrimp.

 

[Hincapiej4]

Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish

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Get this. Gutload them and see if it'll help.

 

[Zydan777]

load the tank with pods. Make sure it is eating. Also see if the clowns are eating the pods because I had the issue where my clowns were devouring the pods and would chase my Goby off to eat the pods. Those fish are extremely hard to keep. Best of luck

 

[fish farmer]

Try some frozen mysis and target feed in front of her with a turkey baster.

 

[Hincapiej4]

I have a mandarin and had a leopard wrasse in my tank. They were both going at it at the same time, I lost the leopard wrasse last week..she had an accident during a water change and went face first into my nemmie garden...

But she had a fat belly and so does my mandarin. All I have is a refugium where the pods procreate and when I throw out chaeto, I transfer them in and also have a pod hotel I move back and forth. My shrimps also all keep having babies....

 

[ChrisB4]

load the tank with pods. Make sure it is eating. Also see if the clowns are eating the pods because I had the issue where my clowns were devouring the pods and would chase my Goby off to eat the pods. Those fish are extremely hard to keep. Best of luck

My clowns are doing this. They seem to be really picky about what they'll eat. I'm surprised, because they're captive bred. They would rather eat the bbs that I dump in for the mandarins than their own food. I feed GP 50-100 micron size food at the same time as the bbs, to try to trick them into eating that instead. It's very frustrating.

 

[Anak’s Reef]

Hello all!
I got a small Aquacultured blue mandarin goby/ dragonet 2 days ago and I can not tell if it looks too skinny/ malnourished. I have looked at other threads and pics. I see my Mandarin pecking pretty often throughout the day and in some angles she looks ok, but I do see that lateral line pretty prominently.
There are pods and I have been supplementing with Masago eggs (as some have advised on this forum) which I am not sure if she has been eating.
Tank has been running for 8 months. And parameters are: salinity 1.024, pH8.1, Nitrates and phosphates are low.

I am considering going to the store and getting mysis and/or brine shrimp eggs.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated!
Much better seen on video:

That is a very very very skinny mandarin. Please buy a couple bottles of pods and help it out. It’s very sad to see a baby mandarin going through that, even if it’s captive bred, they can change their diet at any time and even if they eat frozen, they still need pods. My mandarin is captive bred and looks just like yours and she constantly eats pods. I timed her and she ate 36 pods per minute on average. I counted 5 times and that the average I got. If she is eating, she will peck the rock very quickly. But her some pods first, don’t do frozen or stick basters in her face just yet. It could scare her and she won’t have the energy to get away and she might go into shock, since she’s already so skinny, she might just hide and not eat and end up dying. She is very very skinny so buy a couple bottle of pods. It looks like you do not have a good population of pods in there because I can see her hunting and looking around, but not finding them.

 

[Anak’s Reef]

Or I guess I should say he, yours looks like a male. Doesn’t quite have the dorsal spike on it’s fun yet I think. Here’s a picture of my female, she’s not that fat yet but she is constantly eating which is what they should be doing. Please everyone, even if you really love these fish, please think about maturing and having pods in the tank before hand so they don’t starve. Mine is in a 20 gallon cube and this is my first tank, she has been in here for about 3 months and the only reason she is able to live in my tank as a newbie reefer is because she has enough pods.

 

[Uncle99]

If he’s pecking, he’s eating, just let him be.

 

[Fish man]

He's looking pretty skinny. As others have said, introduce pod's or try target feeding with pumps off. I got mine converted to frozen brine and pellets that way.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Their food source needs to be plenty as they consume a lot of food source, generally being pods. Mandarin fish are notoriously slow eaters and pecking does not always notate eating as they search also by pecking behavior. The secret to a long, healthy life is to ensure their food supply never dwindles. This is a challenge for many reefers as they are not clear on how much such a small fish consumes.
These fish are NOT the Easiest to satisfy and I emphasize again, they must have a Constant food source available and their Primary food source is in the form of enriched pods and even brine shrimp.

 

[John08007]

He mentioned that he pecks, but doesn't sound like its too often by his wording. My scooter blenny, which eats pods also is pecking every few inches.

Do you think he has become thinner since you got him? If not then I'm not too sure if I'd be concerned. If he was chubby, but now thin then you may want to get some more pods asap. I'm just not sure how long it takes pods in a bottle to grow to the point that they're a food source.

 

[Anak’s Reef]

Their food source needs to be plenty as they consume a lot of food source, generally being pods. Mandarin fish are notoriously slow eaters and pecking does not always notate eating as they search also by pecking behavior. The secret to a long, healthy life is to ensure their food supply never dwindles. This is a challenge for many reefers as they are not clear on how much such a small fish consumes.
These fish are NOT the Easiest to satisfy and I emphasize again, they must have a Constant food source available and their Primary food source is in the form of enriched pods and even brine shrimp.

I agree. Pecking is not easy and they do need a lot of food. I completely agree with ll of this. you want to make sure he’s pecking at the rocks a ton so it shows that he’s searching and eating.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Mine eats enriched brine shrimp. I second the brine shrimp hatchery. I got mine eating prepared food by feeding it baby brine shrimp and then introducing it to frozen brine shrimp. You can hatch the baby brine put the brine Into a pipette and spot feed the mandarin slowly when all the pumps are off. It takes a lot of dedication but sometimes these guys need alot of encouragement to get them to eat. Mine doesn't eat mysis shrimp some people have good luck with mysis but if they are small sometimes it's just too big for them.