Anyone own a mandarin dragonette pair?

[Shilpan Patel]

I have a 105 gallon softie tank with clownfish, chromis and eventually a sailfim tang. NO wrasses. I have a refugium and amphipods. Tank is 2.5 years old with plenty of liverock.

I wanted a mandarin dragonette pair? Is this possible? Anyone kept one successfully? Any tips on quarantining them?

 

[Kirschy17]

Im pretty certain you are good to go. If u have a sump get a refugium going to be sure. Also i try to have a copepod farm up and running when having a dragonnet.

 

[eatbreakfast]

You should be good to add a mandy pr.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Ok thank you, that’s good to hear. I was worried having two maybe too difficult to have enough food for them to eat.

I assume the trick is to try coax them onto prepared food during quarantine...any tips of how to do this or what sorts of food can be used to do this?

Thank you kindly for the advice guys

 

[Paul B]

I have owned pairs of these for years. As long as you get a pair they are no problem. Males will kill each other. Your tank is a little young so you will have to feed them.

They spawn constantly if well fed.

 

[eatbreakfast]

If everything in your tank has been qt'd you could use rocks from the system, which will have pods. But don't put the rocks from qt back into the main system w/o soaking in freshwater to kill any pathogens from the mandarins.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Paul B that is a beautiful selection of fish thank you for showing us that oh I see, how long do you reccomend waiting before my tank is old enough?

Thank you eat breakfast, my tank recently went through fallow for ich last year so effectively it has been quarantined. Hmm mandarin pathogens is a tricky business. Do they tolerate cupramine?

 

[Paul B]

There is no time limit, it depends on the life in the tank. If you keep a sterile tank, mandarins will never do well as they need the life that naturally grows in there to eat and they eat constantly. You can feed them, but they will still need to get most of their nutrition from the substrait.
I do not quarantine anything and don't know how you would quarantine a mandarin because of them eating live food constantly. That would be a question for someone else who has a mandarin long term in a quarantined tank to answer.

 

[chowwil]

I have a pair of Ruby Red Dragonette in a 75gal for a year and had no problem. They learned to eat frozen food too.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Thank you everyone! I will start researching feeding further and keep an eye out in the shops for one which eats prepared food

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Has anyone used copper on a mandarin?

 

[Kirschy17]

Has anyone used copper on a mandarin?

Mandarin Dragonets do not tolerate copper medication.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Ahh ok thank you
I guess it’s time to invest in more equipment for TTM. Or learn about hypo. Hypo seems a bit dodgy though...hard to accomplish.

 

[Kirschy17]

Theres obviously some alternative methods aswell as some risks but mandarins tend to be resistant to common external parasites like ich and velvet since they have no scales but a mucus covered skin. I think you could get away skipping copperalternatives on mandarins.

Pls take this with a grain of salt! Im just reading much

 

[Toofattofish]

Thank you everyone! I will start researching feeding further and keep an eye out in the shops for one which eats prepared food

Unless you can feed 24/7, don't bother. It's more important that you have plenty of food as they need to have a constant food source.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Thank you for the advice