Mandarin dragonet idea

[snowflakeclown119]

Hello I just got a mandarin dragonet that eats frozen cubes and was wondering if I could create a little Refugium in the tank. It would be a little plastic box with tiny holes and on the inside it would be macro algae and rock for Copepods. I've seen the idea before but was wondering if it was worth trying it out.

 

[Reefnewb]

IMO things like this rarely work unless its huge... usually the dragonet will just wipe out a whole pod population before it gets a chance to seed. but im glad its eating frozen! what size tank?

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R
How long has your tank been running? Can you give us a little more information on your tank?

 

[snowflakeclown119]

This tank has been running for 1 1/2 years and went through one awful crash. The tank has plenty of live rock and sand with peaceful tank mates that don't pick on him

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yo may be best to use a hob refugium. either the pricey ones from cpr or a hob breeder box like I used on my 30g for several years with my first mandarin.
In the new tank, even with a fuge ,Last year i found an old dead birdsnest skeleton and used fishing line to make a "chato tree" for the mandys dragonets and pipes to feed from. Did that just for fun, worked pretty well.
I did have to trim the tree from time to time

And Welcome to Reef2reef!

IMO keep a diverse frozen food diet if hes eating it. Capellini roe, nutramar ova, mysis, baby brine. keep in ming even if hes not eating all of it, the pods are too, and benefiting from the nutrints.
From time to time Id sprinkle flake food and coral frenzy on the top of the chato in the hob to spur blooms and gut load the pods.
keep the hob clean.
If the tank is small (30) keep a close eye on the bugs and mandy, imo ime a mandy in a smaller tank needs to be species specific. That would be the mandy. IMO. as its the trickiest.