I have a bit of a situation on my hands now.
I have a slightly new SW set up. It's only been up and running with fish in it for a couple months if that.
A rather fish-ignorant friend of mine decided to get me fish for my aquarium. (She owed me money, and I told her that she could buy me a pretty fish instead.) Unfortunatly she went ahead and did so without my aproval on what fish to get. She bought me a green mandarin dragonet.
I know from MANY MANY posts/internet queries, etc. that these guys require a well established aquarium with lots of little critters for these guys to eat. What I really can't believe is that the clerk at the store knew nothing about the fish and told her that he would eat regular fish food. And would be ok in a new aquarium. (They sold the fish for $20)
Now, my real problem is this. I've had this fish for about a week (the store only does a 3 day return, and even if I did return the fish he would have most likely died anyway due to thier inabilities to take care of thier own fish.)
The mandarin is at this point eating brine shrimp regularly. But I'm wondering what else I should do. I know a diet of only brine shrimp is not the healthiest thing in the world. I was also gonna try blood worms. Is there any way I can try to jump-start a culture of little critters/amphipods/copepods/etc. to make sure this guy stays nice and healthy, or is he doomed to starvation due to poor nutrition.
I have a slightly new SW set up. It's only been up and running with fish in it for a couple months if that.
A rather fish-ignorant friend of mine decided to get me fish for my aquarium. (She owed me money, and I told her that she could buy me a pretty fish instead.) Unfortunatly she went ahead and did so without my aproval on what fish to get. She bought me a green mandarin dragonet.
I know from MANY MANY posts/internet queries, etc. that these guys require a well established aquarium with lots of little critters for these guys to eat. What I really can't believe is that the clerk at the store knew nothing about the fish and told her that he would eat regular fish food. And would be ok in a new aquarium. (They sold the fish for $20)
Now, my real problem is this. I've had this fish for about a week (the store only does a 3 day return, and even if I did return the fish he would have most likely died anyway due to thier inabilities to take care of thier own fish.)
The mandarin is at this point eating brine shrimp regularly. But I'm wondering what else I should do. I know a diet of only brine shrimp is not the healthiest thing in the world. I was also gonna try blood worms. Is there any way I can try to jump-start a culture of little critters/amphipods/copepods/etc. to make sure this guy stays nice and healthy, or is he doomed to starvation due to poor nutrition.
