Could I sustain a captive bred mandarin dragonet pair?

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I just got a pair from Biota - they are amazing. The male is about twice the size of the female and they get along great. Highly recommend. I’m still figuring out the feeding part but subscribing to AlgaeBarn for monthly pods as a safety net. I can’t seem to get any food to stick to the rocks or sand - nothing settles with my return pump. Any ideas how to mitigate that?

Turn your pump off when you feed.

 

[JayFish4004]

Turn your pump off when you feed.

I have considered this and tried it - it scares the crap out of me to do. I’ve read some horror stories of people forgetting to turn it back on.

Also how the heck do you know how much frozen brine to feed? My instinct wants to do like half a cube (mistake) but even like 1/6 of a cube seems like a ton.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I have considered this and tried it - it scares the crap out of me to do. I’ve read some horror stories of people forgetting to turn it back on.

Also how the heck do you know how much frozen brine to feed? My instinct wants to do like half a cube (mistake) but even like 1/6 of a cube seems like a ton.

Get an inexpensive controller or timer for your pump if you're worried you'll forget to turn it back on. There are a lot of ways to solve that problem, but you'll have to decide on one that works for you. If you have some experience with electronics (I do not), you can even build a switch that acts like the "feed mode" of a lot of pump controllers.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Get an inexpensive controller or timer for your pump if you're worried you'll forget to turn it back on. There are a lot of ways to solve that problem, but you'll have to decide on one that works for you. If you have some experience with electronics (I do not), you can even build a switch that acts like the "feed mode" of a lot of pump controllers.

One option is to buy a used Reefkeeper (they don't make them anymore so they are all used, lol) and program a feed delay.

 

[JayFish4004]

Get an inexpensive controller or timer for your pump if you're worried you'll forget to turn it back on. There are a lot of ways to solve that problem, but you'll have to decide on one that works for you. If you have some experience with electronics (I do not), you can even build a switch that acts like the "feed mode" of a lot of pump controllers.

Yeah i might not have a choice but to shut down the pump huh? I have a Red Sea Max Nano which is kind of an AIO deal so while turning the pump on and off is pretty convenient, it’s not super mod-able like my wavemakers.

It’s super funny to watch when I do it - the fish get super thrown off and stop eating. I have the pair of mandarins with a neon goby, pinkbar goby, citron goby, purple firefish, a pair of threadfin cardinals and a pair of barnacle blennies.

 

[Tamberav]

I just got a pair from Biota - they are amazing. The male is about twice the size of the female and they get along great. Highly recommend. I’m still figuring out the feeding part but subscribing to AlgaeBarn for monthly pods as a safety net. I can’t seem to get any food to stick to the rocks or sand - nothing settles with my return pump. Any ideas how to mitigate that?

thats awesome they actually paired up size differences and not just sold two fish as some venders do.

I always turned off the pumps for an hour when I feed frozen to the mandarins.