Dragonets And Their Slime Coats.

Quah · Dec 22, 2016

I've been reading about the copious amount of slime a dragonet can produce and I've experienced this first hand. I've also read that because of their super thick slime coat many parasites have a hard time attaching to them. What are the thoughts on QT'ing a dragonet due to their slime coat and their dietary needs? In this case, I am speaking of a well maintained female Spotted Mandarin that will soon be moved into an ideally crypt free aquarium but does not readily eat prepared foods?

Oscar47f · Dec 22, 2016

I would quarantine it regardless you never know lol.... have you tried feeding it fish eggs? or frozen calanus from Pycine energetics? I would get a pod culture going in your DT as well...

melypr1985 · Dec 22, 2016

They can still be carriers of ick and other parasites, but it does take quite a bad infestation to take one down. I would QT them using TTM then into a QT for observation and stocked with pods, or you can try to train them onto frozen at this point. Of course they will still need the pods since frozen alone cannot sustain them for long.

Humblefish · Dec 22, 2016

There have been reports of mandarins eating this in QT:

And food with fish or shrimp eggs is worth a shot.

Quah · Dec 22, 2016

I've been seeding it with amphipods from a fishless nano I have, and I've also planned to buy Algae Barn copepods to seed it. She has eaten prepared foods when I had her in a 75 but when she moved into the larger tank she mostly just hunts her pods. If I seed my tank with mysids and other smaller inverts from my DT - how likely is it that they can carry crypt in the cyst stage? And should snails be QT'd completely too?

melypr1985 · Dec 22, 2016

Quah said:
I've been seeding it with amphipods from a fishless nano I have, and I've also planned to buy Algae Barn copepods to seed it. She has eaten prepared foods when I had her in a 75 but when she moved into the larger tank she mostly just hunts her pods. If I seed my tank with mysids and other smaller inverts from my DT - how likely is it that they can carry crypt in the cyst stage? And should snails be QT'd completely too?

They have an exoskeleton so I'd say that it's possible. Snails, certainly should be QT'd for the full 76 days. I realize it's somewhat difficult to QT pods, so I'm not sure what you would do about that. I actually don't think I've ever considered it. I doubt @AlgaeBarn keeps fish in their pod systems since they would just eat all the stock. Maybe they can tell us if any fish share the same water as their cultures.

Quah · Dec 22, 2016

melypr1985 said:
They have an exoskeleton so I'd say that it's possible. Snails, certainly should be QT'd for the full 76 days. I realize it's somewhat difficult to QT pods, so I'm not sure what you would do about that. I actually don't think I've ever considered it. I doubt @AlgaeBarn keeps fish in their pod systems since they would just eat all the stock. Maybe they can tell us if any fish share the same water as their cultures.

I'm not worried about the pods so much as I am snails or amphipods / mysids / brittlestars or anything I try to harvest to seed my otherwise barren tank. I have an army of stomatella snails in my coral nano that have never seen a fish but I don't think they'll do much in a 240. I guess I'll be wiping the glass a lot and bring my tangs through QT first and the dragonet last to let a pod population build up. One more thing - macro algae for the refugium is chaeto is it considered hard or soft? I imagine it should get a full QT too. This Crypt free thing is hard work.

melypr1985 · Dec 22, 2016

Quah said:
I'm not worried about the pods so much as I am snails or amphipods / mysids / brittlestars or anything I try to harvest to seed my otherwise barren tank. I have an army of stomatella snails in my coral nano that have never seen a fish but I don't think they'll do much in a 240. I guess I'll be wiping the glass a lot and bring my tangs through QT first and the dragonet last to let a pod population build up. One more thing - macro algae for the refugium is chaeto is it considered hard or soft? I imagine it should get a full QT too. This Crypt free thing is hard work.

The macro algae can just be rinsed into a bucket with fresh saltwater. it wont harbor cycsts on it. Starfish won't carry them over either. Anything with a hard shell or exoskeleton can theoretically carry ick and others into the tank, so it's a risk. It'd be better if you could just leave that tank running without fish while you QT'd the current livestock. If you have 76 days, then might as well do it that way. Then everything in that old tank is parasite free.

AlgaeBarn · Dec 24, 2016

Hi there,

The answer is absolutely not. We do not keep fish and pods in the same system. In fact, we don't even keep fish and pods in the same facility. We leased and built out an entirely separate facility for all of our fish and other organism we are starting to sell. This is an issue we take very seriously. Our Pods are all grown in 100% synthetic sea water and being in Colorado, we are very far away from the ocean so there is no chance our pods can introduce anything unwanted into your system. Thanks for asking!

melypr1985 · Dec 24, 2016

AlgaeBarn said:
Hi there,

The answer is absolutely not. We do not keep fish and pods in the same system. In fact, we don't even keep fish and pods in the same facility. We leased and built out an entirely separate facility for all of our fish and other organism we are starting to sell. This is an issue we take very seriously. Our Pods are all grown in 100% synthetic sea water and being in Colorado, we are very far away from the ocean so there is no chance our pods can introduce anything unwanted into your system. Thanks for asking!

Thanks for the assurance! That's great to know