mandarin vs. scooter dragonet. Which one would be better?

[Crabby48]

Thank you all for the advice. I think it's pretty obvious which one I'm going to get. I've been contacting my lfs if they can get captive bred fish for me, but they haven't said if they can for sure yet, so if I can't get it at the lfs, whats the best place to get it from? and should I get it from ORA or Biota?

Recommend Only get one that is already fat from the lfs

 

[Crabby48]

Thank you all for the advice. I think it's pretty obvious which one I'm going to get. I've been contacting my lfs if they can get captive bred fish for me, but they haven't said if they can for sure yet, so if I can't get it at the lfs, whats the best place to get it from? and should I get it from ORA or Biota?

Recommend Only get one that is already fat from the lfs

 

[OrionN]

I have a female ManDarin that eats whatever I feed the other fish, she’s right out there grabbing food I got lucky with her- I also have pods in the tank.
I wanted to get a male as well, but wanted to get a captive bred so I ordered directly from Biota. They have great customer service and you can specify which sex you want. Yes they are tiny babies but have been raised on pellets and other food (if you look at the Biota sponsor thread Jake tells what they feed them). I feed the same, right now the male is in a separate tank until he is large enough to meet the female.. he is growing quickl.y. I would suggest going Biota.

The male Mandarin need to be larger than the female, or else she will beat him up. Since your female is larger than the male, it is unlikely that you can get them together unless you can somehow slow the growth of the female and speed up the growth of the male.

 

[40g Nano]

I got an ORA scooter
Cute little guy

 

[jazzfisher]

The male Mandarin need to be larger than the female, or else she will beat him up. Since your female is larger than the male, it is unlikely that you can get them together unless you can somehow slow the growth of the female and speed up the growth of the male.

Yep am aware. She hasn’t really grown (longer) very fast. She’s nice and full bodied though.. hoping the male grows fast so eventually I can introduce them.

 

[mucky1957]

I have a female mandarin who has been in the tank for 6yr now. I have had 2 males and neither lasted a year ? I used to run my own phyto/pods set up but stopped about 3 yr ago when I was having issues with phyto crashing. I haven't had live pods in the tank since then but do feed frozen. She is fat, healthy and hopefully will keep going for many more years. I did look at adding dragonets but they were so small so I didn't bother

 

[Therinx]

I have a scooter and its eaten like the rest of my fish since day 1. Have him a year now. He picks the rocks but also glides up and grabs food as i put it in the tank. Sounds like i got lucky?

 

[laverda]

Had a pair of scooters that would dance together as the lights dimmed. Quite amazing. Got a lot of pods in the chaeto fuge and my current blue mandarin is a couple years old and out after dinner. Picking at the rocks.

Sounds like they may have spawning. I has a pair spawning regularly for a long time.

 

[sorloe]

Going to get the dragonette myself once my tank is established.

 

[Neros503]

Just wanted to update saying that my lfs got a rare order of fish from ORA including some red mandarins. I generally prefer the blue mandarins, but I also really wanted to get one in person and not have to pay shipping, so I managed to get the last one, and we're picking it up this weekend It's about 3/4 inch and is about $85, which is better than the prices online.

 

[Uncle99]

 

[Uncle99]

Just wanted to update saying that my lfs got a rare order of fish from ORA including some red mandarins. I generally prefer the blue mandarins, but I also really wanted to get one in person and not have to pay shipping, so I managed to get the last one, and we're picking it up this weekend It's about 3/4 inch and is about $85, which is better than the prices online.

Red....wow....I’d get one of those for any price.
Have fun

 

[Neros503]

Well, I got out of school early, and I didn't have enough patience to wait for tomorrow so we went and picked up the mandarin. He's very small, but worth the money. My lfs says he'll eat frozen, but I haven't tested feeding yet other than all the copepods that he's eaten. I do worry about him and the anemones but he's been fine so far. My tank has quite a lot of algae so I couldn't get any good pictures, but when I do, I'll post them

 

[Neros503]

Here he is!

Is he actually a red mandarin? he looks more like a blue to me.

 

[jaganshi066]

Here he is!

Is he actually a red mandarin? he looks more like a blue to me.

Either way he’s beautiful