Advice for keeping a Mandarin Dragonet

[Clownfish_Boy]

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.

You are absolutely right, wild caught Mandarins will generally starve to death before you can train them to take food.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I once had a Mandarin in a FOWLR setup that thrived on colonies of these tiny little white worms which I had established from a reef tank at my LFS. The worms self-propagated and kept the Mandarin fat and happy.

 

[ReefBeta]

The large copepods you see is more likely to be amphipod. You won't be able to see copepods much in DT except shining a flashlight at night to the glass. Mandarin won't eat amphipods, they're too fast for it.

Seeding some pod is good for bio diversity in the tank. I always do when starting new tank. Also remember to get some phytoplankton and dose it for couple months to give the pods better chance to establish.

But back to mandarin, you don't really need buy and feed pods. There is a better alternative: baby brine shrimp. Get a good hatching setup so that you can hatch a ml of eggs every day will be enough to keep it going till it learn to take frozen. Brine Shrimp Direct Hatchery Dish works the best from my experience.

I have kept four mandarin in the past. One in a 18 gallon AIO, one in a 55 gallon no sump, twice in a 42 gallons with 15 gallon sump. All of them started onto frozen food in several months. If you want to train mandarin to frozen faster, use frozen bloodworms.

 

[Uncle99]

My wild caught mandarin eats nothing but PODS in my 65g. I never added any PODS, but waited 1 year before putting him in......4 years later, he still only eats PODS, so they must be replicating at a self sustaining rate.
He is the only exclusive POD eater in the tank. Easiest fish to keep if you have good rock a year old.

 

[Crustaceon]

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.

I’ve trained over a dozen mandarins to take frozen food, some of which were from other reefers and were on the verge of starvation. IME, I have never seen a dragonet that would not take frozen foods after being properly acclimated to them.

 

[HTXReefer]

I have both a male and female mandarin. Both were captive bred and I tried unsuccessfully to train them to eat other food but all they’ll eat is pods. I started my tank with these fish in mind and started seeding pods as soon as I put the first fish in. Within 3 months my pod population was sufficient. Pods reproduce very quickly. I would suggest you seed the tank with pods and feed phytoplankton for at least 3 months before you add the fish. You can also start a copepod culture which are extremely easy and cheap. There are quite a few threads on here about how to start one.

 

[Crustaceon]

Some dragonets will take live baby brine. Some will take nutramar ova. Some will even take full size brine shrimp right off the bat with some sneakiness with the pipet but this is EXTREMELY rare. You can’t just dump full sized frozen brine or mysis into the tank and expect them to eat it right away. That’s not “training” your dragonet. I’ve never seen them eat frozen rotifers or cyclopods. In every case, all pumps MUST be turned off. All food MUST be lightly swished in front of the dragonet, especially if it’s something large like a brine or mysis shrimp. Either way, they MUST be fed at least twice a day like this for 1-2 weeks. That’s the average before things “click” with them. The most important thing is to not stress the fish out by messing with it. You have to present the food in such a way that it thinks it’s swimming in front of it.

 

[Crustaceon]

I never said it was easy. It does take some diligence though.

 

[Uncle99]

My Mandarin does not eat, it hunts, if it’s not moving on rocks, glass or sand, he just does not touch.
There’s plenty of mysis and brine available, just does not seem to even pay it notice.
Maybe a big difference between wild and captive, but I would think the “hunt” is instinctive.

 

[code4]

As you see there are many opinions. I have only used CP in quarantine for mine. And I should mention I have a pair in one tank and a female in another. I also added one into a 65 gallon newly cycled redsea tank. I did not do my homework. I used Paul B's feeder and added tigger pods a couple of times and he survived for years. Do what you think will work for you. Just be patient and don't scare the little guy. Our fish list seems fine. Mine are with two regal angels, white tail bristle tooth tang, large butterfly fish...

 

[Crustaceon]

My Mandarin does not eat, it hunts, if it’s not moving on rocks, glass or sand, he just does not touch.
There’s plenty of mysis and brine available, just does not seem to even pay it notice.
Maybe a big difference between wild and captive, but I would think the “hunt” is instinctive.

The hunt is instinctive. When I train my dragonets, I have to lightly swish the food in front of them to simulate it being alive. They’ll never take food that’s just sitting on the bottom right off the bat. That takes time to develop.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

The hunt is instinctive. When I train my dragonets, I have to lightly swish the food in front of them to simulate it being alive. They’ll never take food that’s just sitting on the bottom right off the bat. That takes time to develop.

What do you use to get the food down in front of the fish ? My tank is 24" high, and I would need something long to reach a mandarin at the bottom....

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I just found out the name of something on which a Mandarin will thrive, even in a fish-only tank - Tiny white Annelid Detritus Worms. They can be found in some reef tanks; I once had a population established in a FOWLR on which a Mandarin thrived. They were easy to establish, I just put the culture in the tank and in a month's time had my Mandarin in there feasting on the worms !

 

[code4]

In case anyone was wondering, mine are all wild caught. One I have had for many years. Can't remember what year. Over 7 though. I use a very long baster to shoot thawed food in my tanks. I will get the exact name of my favorite one for you tomorrow.

Shelley

 

[najer]

I have two in different tanks and have no idea if they take fish food or not, they hunt all day, built in design feature, it is how their digestive system is supposed to work.
Live phyto for you pod health and your tank in general will love you for it!

This is my little rescue girl, I've had her for about 6 months now and she was one of five at the lfs that were virtually starved and was the only one still pecking, I left the other four and it broke my heart, I have never found a trigger food to get them to start eating again and I have tried a few times.
She started hunting about 30 seconds after she went in.

Before anyone starts about the visible line check out the fat store across her back and she is growing.

 

[Paul B]

Sorry but a mandarin will not live any where near it's life span on prepared or not live foods. They live at least 10 years as that is almost always how long mine live and they are very easy to spawn, but not on food that you have to add and not on store bought copepods unless you are a billionaire.

I feel your tank is much to new no matter what you feed. You can build my Mandarin feeder but that fish really needs a mature tank with plenty of self producing pods.

I have two of them now and I never feed them. Mandarins are the easiest, least maintenance fish there is but you need the correct tank.
6 months or a few years is not success with mandarins.

 

[Crustaceon]

What do you use to get the food down in front of the fish ? My tank is 24" high, and I would need something long to reach a mandarin at the bottom....

I use a pipet and don’t worry about putting my hand in the tank if I need to.

 

[Crustaceon]

Sorry but a mandarin will not live any where near it's life span on prepared or not live foods. They live at least 10 years as that is almost always how long mine live and they are very easy to spawn, but not on food that you have to add and not on store bought copepods unless you are a billionaire.

I feel your tank is much to new no matter what you feed. You can build my Mandarin feeder but that fish really needs a mature tank with plenty of self producing pods.

I have two of them now and I never feed them. Mandarins are the easiest, least maintenance fish there is but you need the correct tank.
6 months or a few years is not success with mandarins.

I’ve kept single specimens for over five years. They were traded to other reefers as they were established and eating frozen. One of them is nearing eight years of age.

 

[Paul B]

I’ve kept single specimens for over five years. They were traded to other reefers as they were established and eating frozen. One of them is nearing eight years of age.

Then I am wrong for 8 years
But I still feel that fish was getting much food from the tank itself.

 

[Deschutes541]

Sorry but a mandarin will not live any where near it's life span on prepared or not live foods. They live at least 10 years as that is almost always how long mine live and they are very easy to spawn, but not on food that you have to add and not on store bought copepods unless you are a billionaire.

I feel your tank is much to new no matter what you feed. You can build my Mandarin feeder but that fish really needs a mature tank with plenty of self producing pods.

I have two of them now and I never feed them. Mandarins are the easiest, least maintenance fish there is but you need the correct tank.
6 months or a few years is not success with mandarins.

Thank you for the insight. Great looking Mandarins by the way.

When I began the thread, my initial plan was to buy some copepods now and wait until my tank was 6 months old to buy a Mandarin. After seeing some of the responses, I'm going to wait at least a year. I would honestly prefer to NOT feed prepared food. My preferred situation would be for my Mandarin to singularly eat copepods.

What do you think is my best path to success? I recognize they're a difficult fish to keep. I don't want to be "that guy" who posts a picture of his starving Mandarin and asks whats going on.