How Long before adding a dragonet

[SAWFISH]

I am interested in eventually getting a mandarin dragonet for my new 90 gallon build.

Ideally I am going to start adding copepods to my tank now. I am windering how long can I expect to wait before my pod popultion could support a mandirin dragonet . I am also interested to mnow if there are any guidelines for the amount of rock/size of refugium to even establish a colony large enough to support the copepods? I have a refugium but it is small and I am wondering if it would ever be large enough to support the pod population required to support a mandirin dragonet?

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

Hi @SAWFISH welcome to R2R!!! I see this question or something like it asked at least once a week. So instead of my normal paragraph I am going to use the statement I make at the end of that paragraph along with one thing I see my little girl do. At times she can chimp down up to 30 pods a minute! Think of it this way. They are the hummingbirds of the reef. Those little fins that keep them hovering oh so elegantly never stop moving unless they are all cocooned up for sleepy time. I waited a long time to have mine and know she would be happy and healthy. In the end you are going to choose the best time you think to add one but I personally waited until I saw such a population that as soon as soon as my little girl hit the tank out of qt she immediately slamming down pods in the tank and she hasn’t slowed down! I hope this somewhat helps in your decision making process. And again welcome to R2R!!!

 

[dadnjesse]

If you get one that is Biota or ORA Captive Bred, you have a better chance of them eating other food that Coepods.

 

[sam2110]

I've wanted 1 for so long, my LFS have the perfect pair that are eating frozen foods, Even though I know they are eating frozen foods I am still holding out a few more months to ensure an abundance of food readily available. They are both being kept very healthy for me. With the extra peace of mind that they will have been feed on frozen food for almost 6 months its well worth the wait and extra money. My tank will be around 12 months when they finally go in.

My advice would be dont rush as your going to have the fish for years if done correctly, so whats the point in trying to skip a few months of waiting. 2nd I would try and by ones that have been trained to eat frozen food, remember just because they eat frozen in the LFS it doesn't mean they will eat frozen in your tank.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

If you get one that is Biota or ORA Captive Bred, you have a better chance of them eating other food that Coepods.

I’m going to nip this statement in the bud in this thread here and now. While this is a true statement and mine does grab food from the water column and I believe being that she came from ORA to be one of the main reasons she made it through qt on prepared foods, no baby mandarin will live very long in a fresh reef with no pod population unless you plan of feeding that tank once an hour or maybe every other hour during the mandarins waking hours! Please see my hummingbird statement above!!!!! That is about as simply as I can explain it. They have to eat constantly to be healthy. They burn too many calories with their specific mode of movement through the water to live and grow healthy without a stable pod population.

 

[Labora]

It depends on your aquarium and expertise. My saltwater tank cycled and had copepods within 2-3 months without buying 1 copepod. No idea how they got there, but these are the type of positive signs you want to see.

Maybe introduce some copepods and see if they survive in your tank like they do mine. I don't even have chaeto algae.

Anyway, you'll want to setup a refugium if you want the dragonet obviously. But its a fast start.

 

[dadnjesse]

I’m going to nip this statement in the bud in this thread here and now. While this is a true statement and mine does grab food from the water column and I believe being that she came from ORA to be one of the main reasons she made it through qt on prepared foods, no baby mandarin will live very long in a fresh reef with no pod population unless you plan of feeding that tank once an hour or maybe every other hour during the mandarins waking hours! Please see my hummingbird statement above!!!!! That is about as simply as I can explain it. They have to eat constantly to be healthy. They burn too many calories with their specific mode of movement through the water to live and grow healthy without a stable pod population.

I never said they don't need coepods.

 

[Tired]

It depends on how many pods were added when you started, and if the tank has the maturity to support a healthy copepod population. Live rock would be a great start to that, but you didn't specify if you used it. If not, you should add some- copepods gotta eat too, and the well-established algae and biofilm on live rock (as in, ocean rock, not just "we put this in a sales tank at our store for a week") is great for that.

Getting an ORA mandarin is a great idea. But you should expect prepared foods to be a secondary part of its diet, and for it to mostly eat copepods.

If you want to check your copepod population, shut your pumps off at night for about 20 minutes, then look and see how many are on the walls. If you plan to get a mandarin, you'll want to see plenty.

 

[dzfish17]

Even with a tank that has pods a mandarin can wipe out the population in a relatively short amount of time. Make sure you keep an eye on things as you may have to culture more in another container. Just my experience with them. Good luck

 

[SAWFISH]

Thank You for all the suggestions, all this information has been extremely helpful. So in others experience it would be good to have supplemental copepods from time to time even after starting a population in the tank. Does anyone have any businesses that they would suggest purchasing copepods from. Also do copepods tend to do better in tanks with or without sand beds. My plans are to do a tank without a sandbed and I wonder if that will hurts the population size of the copepods

 

[dzfish17]

You don't need a sand bed... We used to use a 5 gal bucket with a sm air pump for aeration

 

[Uncle99]

Lots of 1 year old rock in minimum 50g and no other exclusive POD eater. That works.
This one 4 years old and never fed once. Won’t touch anything that’s not alive. More of a hunter than scavenger.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

Lots of 1 year old rock in minimum 50g and no other exclusive POD eater. That works.
This one 4 years old and never fed once. Won’t touch anything that’s not alive. More of a hunter than scavenger.

Stunning and fat!!!! Good job!!!! My little girl is nice and thick across her back just like that! And growing like a weed!!!

 

[SAWFISH]

Lots of 1 year old rock in minimum 50g and no other exclusive POD eater. That works.
This one 4 years old and never fed once. Won’t touch anything that’s not alive. More of a hunter than scavenger.

Awesome thank you for the advice, amazing dragonet you have there!