Why so many fish problems?

[Paul B]

It seems to me that there are so many posts asking how to care for a particular fish "after" it was bought. Copperbands and mandarins seem to be at the top of the list for advice, and both of those fish are not hard to care for but they do require just a little different methods to feed than something like a clown fish which will eat cardboard and still spawn. These fish should be fed what they were designed to eat and not "taught" to eat something you may have hanging around the house. Mandarins eat pods or any small "live" creature. Some will eat pellets or frozen food but that is not their diet and they will probably not live to their normal life span which is "probably" close to ten years or more. Copperbands live well over 10 years' but in the sea they eat worms as I have spent time with them underwater and that snout was designed to pull worms out of rocks. I always use live blackworms but earthworms are also fine if small enough. Frozen bloodworms are also fine if they are real "bloodworms" and not insect larvae that are often called bloodworms. Copperbands will also eat clams and clams are one of the best foods for them. Almost none of them will eat pellets or flakes and those foods should not be fed to anything in my opinion but especially copperbands and mandarins. Many people feed a mandarin frozen food and if it eats it, they feel that is a good thing. Well, it may be good for you, but that fish needs to eat every few seconds as it can not store that frozen food and it will just get pushed through a short tube that is has for a digestive system. It gets little nutrition from that as that is not how it was designed to eat. Mandarins are a very easy, disease resistant, little maintenance fish if they are put in the correct "mature" large enough tank that is not to sterile and is loaded with self replicating pods. If you have to add pods from a store, your mandarin will starve unless there are pods reproducing on their own. I have been keeping both mandarins and copperbands since the 70s and have no problems with either of them. If your mandarin is living on frozen food, it is also catching pods on it's own. An easy food to feed a mandarin is new born brine shrimp that should be offered every day in a feeder so the food stays near the bottom where that fish eats. This is all just my opinion of course.

Copperband and mandarins eating new born brine shrimp from a feeder.



Pregnant mandarin

 

[sirrealism]

Fantastic post Paul.

 

[PSU4ME]

Good post Paul. I think people come to this realization after trial and error unfortunately. I've always wanted a CBB but I have very little natural food in my tank for him (I have no feather dusters!) so I leave him at the pet store.

 

[pgrtgunner]

Thanks Paul, I love my Mandarins!!

 

[Paul B]

Pgrgunner, they probably love you also.

Where were you a gunner?

 

[DaveK]

It seems to me that there are so many posts asking how to care for a particular fish "after" it was bought. Copperbands and mandarins seem to be at the top of the list for advice, ...

How true this is. The really sad part is that unless these fish gets proper feeding, they are not going to do well, and many die. In addition there are many other fish that will do well on dry flakes or pellets, and are just as colorful. This would make the alternative fish a much better choice for many others.

 

[Blndbunny]

Fantastic post! Personally I love spending hours researching animals, I know that it's saved me lots of heart ache over buying a cool animal I could never keep alive. It's a hard hobby to take your time with but in the end it pays off.

Now if only the LFS would research what they purchase, and quit giving delicate animals a death sentence. I hate seeing dragonets and butterflies in tanks with little to no live rock :-(

 

[PSU4ME]

Now if only the LFS would research what they purchase, and quit giving delicate animals a death sentence. I hate seeing dragonets and butterflies in tanks with little to no live rock :-(

Seriously, at least give them a fighting chance to transition into someone elses tank......but no, they get shipped out with thin bellies!

 

[pgrtgunner]

Hi Paul

I was a tail gunner for the PGR (Patriot Guard Riders). We always had at least 30-40 motorcycles in an escort of a Veteran's
motorcade to his/her final resting place. I was responsible for the bikes to go back and forth to lanes on the highways.

You can become a member for free. You don't have to ride a bike or be a vet, you just have to show respect. There are over 250,000 of us.
Please visit www.patriotguardriders.org. Read the letters of appreciation, they will pull at your heart strings.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Pgtgunner. I am a Viet Nam Vet but have not been on a bike in over 40 years. I will check it out, thanks.

I can't find the Letters of Appreciation there

 

[pgrtgunner]

Thanks for your service Paul. I put in for Nam 3 times, but my oldest bro did 3 tours so I
couldn't go. He was drafted and did 28 years and got out as a Command Sgt. Major. He still
thinks he's in.

Wow, they have really changed the home page. You have to join to see the rest of the site.

 

[DaveK]

...
Now if only the LFS would research what they purchase, and quit giving delicate animals a death sentence. I hate seeing dragonets and butterflies in tanks with little to no live rock ...

To be a bit fair to the LFS, they often don't get a whole lot of choice in what they get in and have in stock. All too often the LFS has to take more or less what the shipper or wholesaler has to offer. In other words, if they want certain fish, they got to take fish they don't want as part of the deal.

You also need to consider that the LFS has to get the fish out for the tank for a sale. This would be impossible if they put the required amount of live rock in the sale tank. Consider most LFSs act as a holding point until the fish are sold. Even if they have the knowledge, they don't really have the people, time or space to "do it right".

 

[Blndbunny]

Sorry I wasn't trying to sound obnoxious, condensending or uneducated in the ways of small buisness with my post. It was more of an in a perfect world we wouldn't see these animals so easily avalible, they would be more of a special order kind of situation. It was simply a wish for the well being of the animals

 

[Paul B]

Ptrgunner, I only did one tour and that was enough. I was an E5

 

[NanaReefer]

An LFS is faxed/emailed a list of all available livestock from any given wholesaler. The LFS then chooses what they want to order. They are in full control of what enters their stores. They DO NOT have to take anything they do not want.

 

[pgrtgunner]

Paul B: Amen brother.
I was sent to Korea up on the DMZ. My brother was stationed at
the same camp I was 18 years later.

Army, 1966 to 1969

 

[Paul B]

I spent the year in the mountains on the Cambodian border going back and forth through Viet Nam trying to destroy the Ho Chi Minh trail

 

[DianaKay]

I waited until my tank was a year mature & an inline refugium to grow pods & Chaetomorpha BEFORE I bought a mandarin. I saw him looking for pods in the LFS holding tank. Even with pods visible to me (with my magnifying lens) in my tank: Sadly he didn't survive. I wonder if he'd been too malnourished before I put him in my tank there's no way to know but I made up my mind that I won't try again.
Those special needs fish are too much of a worry for me.
Fortunately in 2 years of having my tank, the mandarin is my only fish loss.
All 8 (maxed out, I know!!) of my fish are growing & getting along OK.
It's just easier to keep the more worry free fish.
Unless you are into taking on special challenges, don't buy them.

 

[Oxylebius]

Unless you are into taking on special challenges, don't buy them.

Agree

 

[pgrtgunner]

Paul: I bet it was enough.

My first night in Korea, 3 men in my company were killed by North Koreans. I was 19, on guard duty, and it was
raining which turned to snow. I was so damned scared, even the snow flakes hitting the quandson huts made me jump.

You were probably about the same age Paul when you were first in country.