Advice for keeping a Mandarin Dragonet

[Deschutes541]

Hi Everyone. I was looking for advice regarding my eventual purchase of a Mandarin. I have a 90 gallon DT and a 30 gallon sump. The rock in the DT is half live rock from a prior tank and the other half is cured Marco rock. My sump has a refugium that is filled with Marco rubble as well ceramic rings and chaeto. The tank has been running for 2 months. My parameters are PH 8, Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, Nitrate 25 and dKh 9.4. I do see copepods occasionally in the DT but they tend to be rather large, at least for copepods. I can post a picture if anyone is curious. Current inhabitants are two clowns.

My plan is to buy a aquacultured specimen in four months. It would be great if they took prepared food. That being said, I want to ensure my copepod is sufficient in case they aren't interested.

My question is, would it be a good idea to buy copepods now to seed my tank? If so, what type(s) of copepods should I buy? Any other advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help.

 

[AcroNem]

I was going to say you should try to acquire a captive bred specimen, but I see that's what you plan on doing. It should take prepared foods but will probably also eat copepods as well. Adding a good mix of species and feeding phytoplankton nightly will help keep their p I population up, also any corals you have will thank you as many spefies feed on it as well.

 

[Deschutes541]

I was going to say you should try to acquire a captive bred specimen, but I see that's what you plan on doing. It should take prepared foods but will probably also eat copepods as well. Adding a good mix of species and feeding phytoplankton nightly will help keep their p I population up, also any corals you have will thank you as many spefies feed on it as well.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[MichaelReefer]

Highly recommend you contact Penny, from AquaCorals. I bought a mysis eating Dragonet from her, about a year ago. She shipped him to California. He came fat, healthy, and active. He eats both Mysis and Copepods. Penny was SUPER nice, and it was well worth the money. I still have the lil guy today. She will even send you pictures/videos of your fish before he/she ships. She "trains" them on site, so she personally has them there at her store and does all the hard work for you.

https://aquacorals.com/

 

[Rjukan]

My advice is to make sure you don't get another fish that is an active pod eater, like most wrasses for example. That will go a long way in keeping the pod population robust for the mandarin.

 

[code4]

Penny is really nice. I have 3 mandarins at the present time. I can tell you that they all were quarantined first. I fed them baby brine shrimp during that time. That fattened them up. Then I added them to my tanks. I have added pods to my tanks. I mostly bought Tigger pods from Reef Nutrition. Their bottles are loaded every time with pods. Over time they all started eating almost anything I put in the tank. Best time to check out your pod population is after the lights have been out. Or before they come on. Do not scare them when you attempt to feed them. Over time mine have figured out I am feeding them and come to me. Patience. And there is always Paul B's feeder.

2 of my current mandarins were impulse buys. They were to thin not to buy. I know, that encourages them to catch and sale more. I could not help myself.

 

[Deschutes541]

Penny is really nice. I have 3 mandarins at the present time. I can tell you that they all were quarantined first. I fed them baby brine shrimp during that time. That fattened them up. Then I added them to my tanks. I have added pods to my tanks. I mostly bought Tigger pods from Reef Nutrition. Their bottles are loaded every time with pods. Over time they all started eating almost anything I put in the tank. Best time to check out your pod population is after the lights have been out. Or before they come on. Do not scare them when you attempt to feed them. Over time mine have figured out I am feeding them and come to me. Patience. And there is always Paul B's feeder.

2 of my current mandarins were impulse buys. They were to thin not to buy. I know, that encourages them to catch and sale more. I could not help myself.

I was concerned about quarantining them due to their reliance on copepods but I can feed brine shrimp. Thanks for the advice.

I typically use Coppersafe in my QT. Would that be safe for a Mandarin? My qt is a 10 gallon with a sponge filter, heater and a few PVC pipes.

 

[NashobaTek]

I keep tsibe pods for mine, all 3 are fat. I catch the male eating grated shrimp occasionally but I have yet to see the females eating grated shrimp.

 

[K7BMG]

I want a dragonet, but I just do not see pods in my tank ever.
I have gotten pods from Algae Barn, and Poseidon.
I more or less wont go back to AB as three shipments of pods produced nothing.
One shipment of limpets were dead.

I am reluctant to buy more, from anyone as I feel it will be a waste of money.
But who knows maybe I will try Reef Nutrition.

I do not think any of my fish eat them.
1 Potters Angel
1 Kole Tang
2 Snowflake clowns
1 Flame Hawk.
1 Cardinal.

 

[Crustaceon]

You don’t need pods for a mandarin. I can tell you from experience, any mandarin will absolute decimate a pod population within a matter of weeks. This is regardless of rock amount and typical refugium size (if your fuge is bigger than your dt, then you have other issues to worry about). Buying pods to keep a mandarin is really impractical and gets expensive real quick. You only need to entice it to eat frozen foods like brine or even better, mysis. A good way to start is by turning off all of your pumps, using a pipet and squirting some live baby brine about 3” in front of it. Typically after a week and sneaking a frozen brine or mysis into the pipet mix, most dragonets will associate the pipet with food and will maul any shrimp-looking thing that comes out of it, alive or dead. Mine is at the point where I just add a cube of frozen mysis to the backside of my jebao slw, turn off the return pump and let the shrimpies blow around the tank. I then turn the jebaos off and the dragonet hits the buffet line for ten minutes. I’ve had my current dragonet for six months without adding a single pod seeding to the tank and I don’t run a fuge/scrubber or macro algae of any sort.

 

[NashobaTek]

I want a dragonet, but I just do not see pods in my tank ever.
I have gotten pods from Algae Barn, and Poseidon.
I more or less wont go back to AB as three shipments of pods produced nothing.
One shipment of limpets were dead.

I am reluctant to buy more, from anyone as I feel it will be a waste of money.
But who knows maybe I will try Reef Nutrition.

I do not think any of my fish eat them.
1 Potters Angel
1 Kole Tang
2 Snowflake clowns
1 Flame Hawk.
1 Cardinal.

Try podyourreef.com they're out of Texas, fast shipping and every bottle I have gotten I see tons of pods swimming with the naked eye. Just put light behind the bottle and look through it.

I do also add fresh hatched brine shrimp every day, so that's another option.

 

[Fishurama]

I keep a mated scooter blenny(male) and a psychedelic dragonet(female) and once every month or 2 i add a bottle of pods. Half in the sump where I keep live rock and the other half in the DT. I originally got these guys since I switched from an aggressive tank which had a lot pods, which started to eat my zoas as I was switching over to a reef. I also have an ornate leopard wrasse and a Dusky wrasse, all pods eaters, in my 120, so it's doable to have wrasses and other fish that eat pods.
I did not QT either of my dragonets or even my Ornate leopard wrasse do to their diets and how their digestive tract works.

I want a dragonet, but I just do not see pods in my tank ever.
I have gotten pods from Algae Barn, and Poseidon.
I more or less wont go back to AB as three shipments of pods produced nothing.
One shipment of limpets were dead.

I am reluctant to buy more, from anyone as I feel it will be a waste of money.
But who knows maybe I will try Reef Nutrition.

I do not think any of my fish eat them.
1 Potters Angel
1 Kole Tang
2 Snowflake clowns
1 Flame Hawk.
1 Cardinal.

Fish generally wont touch them as they have a very thick layer of slimecoat which is toxic. My Dusky wrasse picked at my psychedelic dragonet for a few weeks here and there but stopped as every time it did it would immediately spit it out and stop and swim away LOL. My snowflake eel below wont even touch them so you are safe. The male guards the female, it's too funny.

 

[AcroNem]

I was concerned about quarantining them due to their reliance on copepods but I can feed brine shrimp. Thanks for the advice.

I typically use Coppersafe in my QT. Would that be safe for a Mandarin? My qt is a 10 gallon with a sponge filter, heater and a few PVC pipes.

I would advise against not using copper. I've used Metronidazole and formalin safely.

You don’t need pods for a mandarin. I can tell you from experience, any mandarin will absolute decimate a pod population within a matter of weeks. This is regardless of rock amount and typical refugium size (if your fuge is bigger than your dt, then you have other issues to worry about). Buying pods to keep a mandarin is really impractical and gets expensive real quick. You only need to entice it to eat frozen foods like brine or even better, mysis. A good way to start is by turning off all of your pumps, using a pipet and squirting some live baby brine about 3” in front of it. Typically after a week and sneaking a frozen brine or mysis into the pipet mix, most dragonets will associate the pipet with food and will maul any shrimp-looking thing that comes out of it, alive or dead. Mine is at the point where I just add a cube of frozen mysis to the backside of my jebao slw, turn off the return pump and let the shrimpies blow around the tank. I then turn the jebaos off and the dragonet hits the buffet line for ten minutes. I’ve had my current dragonet for six months without adding a single pod seeding to the tank and I don’t run a fuge/scrubber or macro algae of any sort.

I disagree. I can tell you from experience, most wild mandarins will not take to frozen food, as evidenced by the countless hobbyists who've starved them even when using methods similar to what you've described. They have their reputation for a reason. I've partly transitioned a couple but they still relied heavily on live foods to stay healthy. Yours likely still feeds on microfauna in your system all day.

 

[Humble_Reefer]

You don’t need pods for a mandarin. I can tell you from experience, any mandarin will absolute decimate a pod population within a matter of weeks. This is regardless of rock amount and typical refugium size (if your fuge is bigger than your dt, then you have other issues to worry about).

Weird. I've had my wild caught mandarin in my 65 with a 20 fuge for almost 2 yrs. Never see him eating frozen, only pecking at pods. Every tank is its own thing I guess...

My advice to OP would be wait until your tank is at least a year old with a fuge. Cant speak to the trained mandarins but sounds like many have had success.

 

[Deschutes541]

Weird. I've had my wild caught mandarin in my 65 with a 20 fuge for almost 2 yrs. Never see him eating frozen, only pecking at pods. Every tank is its own thing I guess...

My advice to OP would be wait until your tank is at least a year old with a fuge. Cant speak to the trained mandarins but sounds like many have had success.

I think you're probably right. I was hoping to have one at six months but it's probably best to wait a year. If I do wait a year, would it be possible to keep one without supplemental pod dosing?

 

[NashobaTek]

I think you're probably right. I was hoping to have one at six months but it's probably best to wait a year. If I do wait a year, would it be possible to keep one without supplemental pod dosing?

Maybe, but only if you see it eating food other than pods. I wouldn't have mandrins without pods for food even if they're eating other food. They have to eat constantly.

 

[Humble_Reefer]

Maybe, but only if you see it eating food other than pods. I wouldn't have mandrins without pods for food even if they're eating other food. They have to eat constantly.

In a tank that size? Definitely possible. Especially with a good fuge going. Just be mindful of stocking other fish that will be hitting the pod population hard, many wrasses. (e.g. sixline, melanurus, leopard) will outcompete the mandarin. I had tl move my melanurus to the frag tank when the mandarin started getting skinny, but he's plumping up again. Also be mindful of your rock types and scape, the more places for pods to hide the easier it will be to sustain a population. Dosing your tank once with a diverse population of pods while you wait wouldnt hurt. If your in the Toronto area, I can give you some for free

 

[Osidedude]

I want a dragonet, but I just do not see pods in my tank ever.
I have gotten pods from Algae Barn, and Poseidon.
I more or less wont go back to AB as three shipments of pods produced nothing.
One shipment of limpets were dead.

I am reluctant to buy more, from anyone as I feel it will be a waste of money.
But who knows maybe I will try Reef Nutrition.

I do not think any of my fish eat them.
1 Potters Angel
1 Kole Tang
2 Snowflake clowns
1 Flame Hawk.
1 Cardinal.

You wont be disappointed with anything Reef Nutrition sells...avid buyer of their products

 

[Humble_Reefer]

Dosing really isnt hard or space/time intensive. I dosed for a little while after my melanurus wrasse decimated my population. Get a 2 gallon plastic juice dispenser, airstone & whisper pump, and feed it a couple millilitres of organic spirulina power mixed in water per day. Not a huge deal if you go away for the weekend, and if you go away longer, put them in a pop bottle on the fridge and they'll hibernate for months. Once per month I would drain the juice jar completely, straining thousands of pods, dump them in and save a bit to start the next batch. Takes about $30-40 and 30 mins per month, and this would allow you to get a mandarin much sooner (like in a month or two).

 

[mitch91175]

You don’t need pods for a mandarin. I can tell you from experience, any mandarin will absolute decimate a pod population within a matter of weeks. This is regardless of rock amount and typical refugium size (if your fuge is bigger than your dt, then you have other issues to worry about). Buying pods to keep a mandarin is really impractical and gets expensive real quick. You only need to entice it to eat frozen foods like brine or even better, mysis. A good way to start is by turning off all of your pumps, using a pipet and squirting some live baby brine about 3” in front of it. Typically after a week and sneaking a frozen brine or mysis into the pipet mix, most dragonets will associate the pipet with food and will maul any shrimp-looking thing that comes out of it, alive or dead. Mine is at the point where I just add a cube of frozen mysis to the backside of my jebao slw, turn off the return pump and let the shrimpies blow around the tank. I then turn the jebaos off and the dragonet hits the buffet line for ten minutes. I’ve had my current dragonet for six months without adding a single pod seeding to the tank and I don’t run a fuge/scrubber or macro algae of any sort.

Yeah pods aren't necessary but have a purpose, but again aren't necessary. A healthy fish will learn to eat from other tank occupants. Key is are those other occupants aggressive feeders? If they are that can potentially be an issue, but if going into a community tank and new fish isn't stressed, it'll eat more times than not what you feed the other fish (could take a few days).

If it doesn't eat then having some of its natural food source available is a good idea.

If it's the only fish in the tank it could take longer to train, but not always the case. Observe the fish and if you find an area in the tank where it roams frequently, put the food in that area and try to be out of sight.