Mandarin gobies, again...

[logtail]

I went to my LFS 2 weeks ago, with the intent to purchase one of these bad boys. There were two in the store, but when the guy put one in a bag, it flopped over lifelessly. So I said "Gimme the other one- I'm not buying a dead fish." He then grabbed the other one, which promptly flopped over in the bag.
So I went back a week later, and the same thing happened. The LFS guy said "Well, they eat live food, so we don't feed em whem we get em. So they may be weak from starvation."

What the hell!!! I've heard LFS guys are friggin morons, but is this guy an idiot, or are these fish normally like this? Should they even be selling a fish they're just going to starve? I mean, I wouldn't have even bothered to put one of these guys in my tank if it weren't teaming with copes, so why do the LFSs do this????

Seems like a terrible waste to me.

[Cichlid-Man]

This is common for Madarins. Its hard to find one that will eat prepared foods and you will be lucky if you do find one like that.

[quaddity]

Originally Posted by logtail

I went to my LFS 2 weeks ago, with the intent to purchase one of these bad boys. There were two in the store, but when the guy put one in a bag, it flopped over lifelessly. So I said "Gimme the other one- I'm not buying a dead fish." He then grabbed the other one, which promptly flopped over in the bag.
So I went back a week later, and the same thing happened. The LFS guy said "Well, they eat live food, so we don't feed em whem we get em. So they may be weak from starvation."

What the hell!!! I've heard LFS guys are friggin morons, but is this guy an idiot, or are these fish normally like this? Should they even be selling a fish they're just going to starve? I mean, I wouldn't have even bothered to put one of these guys in my tank if it weren't teaming with copes, so why do the LFSs do this????

Seems like a terrible waste to me.

Because they are not a good LFS apparently. You need a large tank and refugium with a substantial coepod population if you want them to live past a couple months.

[logtail]

I have tons of copepods, but a 10 gallon tank. Is this a bad environment for these fish? I've heard that as long you have cracks and crevices for these guys to hide in, the mandarins will do well. Am I wrong about this? I don't want to get a fish that won't thrive in the setup I have.

[Fuzz16]

the population of copepods in a 10g will be gone within a day if not less because mandarins have a high metabolism and are searching and eating constantly. then he will probably starve if not eating frozen food

try a target mandarin...they dont look as pretty as the blues or whatever people will call them, but they have a tendency to eat frozen foods better. you should have them feed it at the store to see if its eating.
then also...i know some places sell copepods and you could set up a place in the tank where the mandarin cant get to it, put some algae, rubble, rocks and what not there so the copepods can populate

[logtail]

That sounds good. I have a pile of live rock all up against the back wall of the tank, almost to the surface. This means that the whole back area isn't accessible to a fish. Do you think that is enough?

[Fuzz16]

ehh...i dont know.
i think really yo need to either supplement the tank with live copepods or find a mandrain that eats frozen