Celebrating a Mandarin Victory!!

[Eienna]

My mandarin dragonet, Spike, is now eating New Life Spectrum pellets!!! I got to sit there and watch him snap up a whole bunch of them :') I also watched him take a couple of smaller frozen mysids that got stuck to my goniopora frag XD. It was obviously very deliberate...he's not eating either of them by accident. AWESOME!!!!! Mom says she saw him do it, too, but I was skeptical until now.

I'm so happy!! My favorite fish just made me much more confident that he'll do well long-term. New Life Spectrum is a terrific brand of food and should keep him good and healthy. I'll be trying to keep the pod population up regardless, but this is really really cool!

Edit: Just got a photo of him

 

[Eienna]

 

[m'akoyPINOY]

congrats!:xd:

 

[TerryLowe]

I'm jealous! Congrats!

 

[Joe Knows Reefs]

Congrats!!!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Awesome!!!

 

[Aqua fire/medic]

Keep up the good work

 

[Squishie89]

Congrats!

 

[Eienna]

Thanks, guys!! n.n

 

[Mike in CT]

Ok, but can you please get my kids to eat carrots? Lol

Congrats!

 

[Reef.ductionist]

Now THAT'S an achievement! Congrats!
I have been considering buying one and this gives me renewed optimism re the dragonet in captivity.

 

[DSP]

Congrats! Good to hear

 

[xrayjeeper83]

Can you give us some tips that worked for you?

 

[Eienna]

Ok, but can you please get my kids to eat carrots? Lol

Congrats!

Did you try cooking them with a brown-sugar glaze?

 

[Eienna]

Can you give us some tips that worked for you?

Well, the first thing is to start with a nice, fat one. I can't say I followed a "formula," really...but I bought him a bottle of tigger-pods every month and made sure he had hiding places so he felt secure. I have to be honest - I overfeed somewhat, meaning some food would always end up on the floor, so I imagine at some point he tried it or ate it by accident. When the pods ran low around the end of the month, in particular, he would be poking around. Some people do it by starving them until they eat it, but that often doesn't give them time to adjust before they get too weak. I think the short periods of lower pod populations was the ticket, as well as giving him the chance to get used to my tank. The fact that the clowns chow down on the stuff like there's no tomorrow probably helped him learn it was food, too XD.

I generally don't feed brine shrimp, btw. Mysis is higher in nutrients. Something to be considered, though, is that these guys have TINY mouths. If you're having trouble, your pieces of food might be too big. I use the Small Fish NLS formula for that tank.

EDIT: I've heard that Nutramar Ova is a great frozen to use to get them started on frozens, because they do sometimes eat small eggs in the wild (what fish doesn't?). I was just about to get him some but ended up not needing to - for that purpose, anyway.

Patience is helpful, as well as him being the only bottom-feeding fish in the tank.

 

[Eienna]

It occurs to me that Spike may have been captive-bred. I do know that according to the employees he'd been at my favorite fish store (Deep Sea Creations) for about four months. They weren't sure whether he was taking frozens or not, but he was in good shape, suggesting to me that they were feeding him pods. He was an exceptionally inquisitive specimen and has been pretty bold (now that he can see us - during the Great Phyto Bloom he got extremely skittish, but he's back to his old self now.)

I do have to wonder if one that eats frozens and pellets might teach another to do it. I'm considering getting him a mate and finding out...but that would require pods every month still if she doesn't...so it's a decision I've yet to make.

 

[xrayjeeper83]

I'm very tempted to get one. Thanks for the info