Mandarinfish in 20g?

[ChgoGoodGirl]

They don’t care about clowns,
They don’t seem to care about any fish.
They do care about PODS, and your talking about 500-1000 per day.

So if you seed, first check the ACTUAL count in your bottle, you want to make sure that the actual count is in fact in the thousands and not just dump the bottle. Some sources say 5000 in bottle, Maybe not so many, always check.

Feeding Mandy by the bottle is quite expensive.
Naturally occurring PODS is best, cheapest, most successful for mandys.
Easiest fish to keep, went correct environment is provided, die in months otherwise.
May be some exceptions.....but not likely the rule..
I have not been very lucky with captives, max was always under a year, so I suspect lack of food thing.
30 years keeping them
Below has been in my DT 4 years now, a wild caught and spotted.

Aww she is a cute little fatty!

 

[ChgoGoodGirl]

Would you say the wild caught ones are harder to keep or not?

I couldnt say as ive probably never owned a captive bread one. Ive also never really tried to train them to eat frozen which I think the thought process is when people suggest ORA Mandarins.

Do you live somewhere that has a mom and pop fish store?

 

[Dark_Knightt]

I couldnt say as ive probably never owned a captive bread one. Ive also never really tried to train them to eat frozen which I think the thought process is when people suggest ORA Mandarins.

Do you live somewhere that has a mom and pop fish store?

Wdym,Mom and Pop fish store?

 

[Dark_Knightt]

I couldnt say as ive probably never owned a captive bread one. Ive also never really tried to train them to eat frozen which I think the thought process is when people suggest ORA Mandarins.

Do you live somewhere that has a mom and pop fish store?

Just googled meaning, no not 1 that sells saltwater fish

 

[josvanmeer]

Ultimately it does not matter what kind of dragonet you purchase (type of dragonet or wild/captive bred), they are trainable to eat frozen/pellets and always will eat pods, it's up to you.

 

[ChgoGoodGirl]

Ahhh ok

( lol not sure if 'mom and pop' is an American term or just something us old people say. ;Woot)

 

[nereefpat]

"it doesnt have a stomach"?

Finding an online reference (not counting message boards) will be tough, but I'll see what I can do.

It's not as uncommon as it sounds for a fish to not have a true stomach. Some Cyprinids (minnows, et al) don't either. The point is that the digestive tract is a tube, without a large space to hold and digest food. They can't gorge themselves and be sustained that way. They need constant grazing of small items. The size of the mouth is another indication of their prey.

 

[Dark_Knightt]

It isn't like any other fish. It doesn't have a stomach. It needs to eat several pods a minute. So the tank needs to produce several pods a minute.

It will be really difficult to be successful in such a small tank. A big tank, or a big fuge with a lot of rock is best, or you could spend a fortune on pods in a bottle.

Ik this is an old thread but lets start it back up. Ive been doing research, and i think i have a better solution. I think adding a female ruby red dragonet would be smarter. Theyre smaller than mandarins, and female ruby reds are smaller than the males, meaning it would eat less pods. I would keep my plan from before, except i would be cultivating pods in a QT when im done QT the ruby red. While its qurantining, i would be growing the pod population for a long time. My LFS friend said he would ween a mandarin onto frozen and prepared foods, so i tihnk he would do this for a ruby red. Once i ask him to do it, ill add pods, then when i pick up the fish like 4 months later, i add more pods, then i put her in the DT, and use the old QT to cultivate pods. Also, what size QT should i use for this?