Green Dragonet

Medic755 · Mar 20, 2017

I am picking up a green dragonet tomorrow for my tank. I have plenty of live rock and tons of places for pods to hide and reproduce. The Dragonet does eat frozen Mysis so I am told which I will confirm in the morning. Will one feeding a day be ok for her or requires more?

ngoodermuth · Mar 20, 2017

How much live rock do you have, give or take? Even if it eats frozen, you want to be sure your system can support it. I used to feed mine mysis 2x day in a narrow vase (trained it to go there to keep the other fish away) it did great for a long time, was nice and fat, and then I had to move all my fish to QT to treat for Ich and it stopped eating frozen. I put it back in the DT and it wouldn't go near the vase anymore. They can just up and refuse prepared foods without notice.

Medic755 · Mar 20, 2017

About 30. Plus a block of marinepure in sump. Very cancerous and porous rock.

ngoodermuth · Mar 20, 2017

Maybe look into a DIY baby brine feeder if you want a little extra security. Or start a pod farm to seed your sump. I've seen people cycle live rock between the sump and a separate pod farm to help boost populations.

Medic755 · Mar 20, 2017

I saw plans for a pod farm on here. How would you dose that though?

ngoodermuth · Mar 20, 2017

From what I understand, you put a piece of rock in the pod farm, leave it there for a period of time so the pods colonize it, then add it to your sump and put a different piece back in the farm to colonize. You just keep rotating a few pieces between the two.

Medic755 · Mar 20, 2017

Seems easy enough. Thanks!

townjas · Mar 20, 2017

30 lbs of rock is not enough to support a mandarin. If he is eating frozen you should be OK, but without frozen you need minimum of 50lbs but 100ish would be preferable.

Best Fish-Jake · Mar 20, 2017

townjas said:
30 lbs of rock is not enough to support a mandarin. If he is eating frozen you should be OK, but without frozen you need minimum of 50lbs but 100ish would be preferable.

As long as there is a stable sized pod population, 30lbs is more than enough for a mandarin... the small amounts of moving around they do is for grazing

ngoodermuth · Mar 20, 2017

I unfortunately have to agree with townjas. Without supplemental feeding, 30 is not ideal. They pick ALL day.

davocean · Mar 21, 2017

I agree, while less than a 50g tank w/ appropriate amount of LR "can be done", it means going beyond means most would see as practical.
Mandarins eat 1-3 pods per minute on the average, all day, every day.
If your tank can not provide that many pods then you need to replicate that best as possible for long term, anything less is not responsible reef keeping and your mandarin can slowly starve out, and once you see that happening it's usually too late to bring them back to health.

sundog101 · Mar 21, 2017

Paul B's feeder
http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/diy-target-feeder-mandarinfish-pipefish-2804/

Unless you happen to have a large fuge, 30 lbs (guessing 30-40 gallons) won't support a mandarin long term. (Without supplemental feeding)

Medic755 · Mar 25, 2017

I got him home. Fat and happy. He eats frozen prepared foods. There is a section of the tank that the other fish leave alone so I think I will maybe try the feeder route as well. Thanks everyone. Also the fuge should be back online soon.

laga77 · Mar 26, 2017

You will need to add live Black worms and/or White Worms for long term success. Another good food is Nutramar OVA, which you can get from Marine Depot. More than one supplemental feeding a day would be better. All 8 of my Dragonets, 4 pairs, love the live worms.

Medic755 · Mar 26, 2017

laga77 said:
You will need to add live Black worms and/or White Worms for long term success. Another good food is Nutramar OVA, which you can get from Marine Depot. More than one supplemental feeding a day would be better. All 8 of my Dragonets, 4 pairs, love the live worms.

Anywhere in particular to get the black worms?

laga77 · Mar 26, 2017

Check locally at freshwater and reptile LFS. If not you can find them online. I am lucky,I have two places within 10 minutes that sell them.

sundog101 · Mar 26, 2017

I haven't found anyplace near me that sells blackworms or whiteworms, but as laga77 said they are online.
In my experience, whiteworms work better for mandarins because blackworms die really fast in saltwater.

Medic755 · Mar 26, 2017

sundog101 said:
I haven't found anyplace near me that sells blackworms or whiteworms, but as laga77 said they are online.
In my experience, whiteworms work better for mandarins because blackworms die really fast in saltwater.

Thanks, Maybe I can devise a way to auto feed some throughout the day.

NanoCrazed · Jun 24, 2017

Know this thread is a bit old but consider building a pod hotel. It's worked well for my mandarins...

Take a look at my thread on this if you would like some ideas