I just received my new dragonet from the Algae Barn. They said it would be .75-1inches but this think is hardly .5inches. It’s so tiny I had trouble seeing it when I opened it up. She’s alive but tiny. I’m nervous to put it in my tank. I have a two clowns, a Valentin puffer, lemon peel angel and a dotty back. All about 3-4inches. IM WORRIED THIS GUY WILL BECOME A SNACK. I have a small 3.5 gallon QT but I had no established copepod population. This dragonet is tank raises but I dont know if it’ll eat flakes yet since it’s so small. What do I do? Do I risk putting it in my tank? I was told not to QT dragonets since they need an established tank.
New Dragonet is Too Small
- Thread starter Ksparadeo
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MERKEY
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I'd start it in the small qt.
If it was tanked raised it should be eating pellets or small mysis shrimp.
Start by seeing if it eats that first. If it does theb3
5g will be ok for a moment. You may need to go to petco and get a 10g for $10 on their dollar sale.
The puffer will definitely try to see if it can eat the fish. If it can it will eat it.....maybe not in %100 of cases but I wouldn't risk it.
If it was tanked raised it should be eating pellets or small mysis shrimp.
Start by seeing if it eats that first. If it does theb3
5g will be ok for a moment. You may need to go to petco and get a 10g for $10 on their dollar sale.
The puffer will definitely try to see if it can eat the fish. If it can it will eat it.....maybe not in %100 of cases but I wouldn't risk it.
DungSl1nger
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I had the same issue, I put her in a 6.7 gallon empty tank with some live brine and some fresh pods from algae barn. I also have sieves to catch pods from my display and dump in to the observation tank.you could probably do the same with a coffee filter or filter sock.
Miller535
Valuable Member
Algaebarn feeds their mandarin "Can o cyclops", this is what they have to say about it, I copied it directly from their site:
AlgaeBarn regularly feeds Can O' Cyclops and Nano Brine to the Biota Captive Bred Mandarin fish at our facilities. This practice helps ensure that these mandarins will accept a readily available and storable dry food. We highly suggest that if you have any small fish, or if you have purchased a captive bred mandarin from us, that you try out Can O' Cyclops. Did you know that Mandarin fish feed in similar ways to a humming bird -- constantly eating all day. By supplementing their diet with prepared food at regular periods in the day, the mandarin fish can consume several "big" meals while constantly snacking on live copepods. This will help ensure that the mandarins are consuming a sufficient amount of calories to grow and develop.
AlgaeBarn regularly feeds Can O' Cyclops and Nano Brine to the Biota Captive Bred Mandarin fish at our facilities. This practice helps ensure that these mandarins will accept a readily available and storable dry food. We highly suggest that if you have any small fish, or if you have purchased a captive bred mandarin from us, that you try out Can O' Cyclops. Did you know that Mandarin fish feed in similar ways to a humming bird -- constantly eating all day. By supplementing their diet with prepared food at regular periods in the day, the mandarin fish can consume several "big" meals while constantly snacking on live copepods. This will help ensure that the mandarins are consuming a sufficient amount of calories to grow and develop.
Ksparadeo
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That’s helpful! I’m running to the pet store now to grab some more live sand so I can put it in the bottom of my quarantine tank since it doesn’t have any. I’ll leave him in the bag for now I think he should be fine. I should only be about a half an hour or so. He’s guaranteed for a few weeks so I’m not too worried about leaving him. I think algae barn is on Amazon too so I’m pretty sure if I buy that it’ll come prime. I’ll have to double check though. I’m also going to empty the water from my QT tank and replace it with water from my tank hopefully some of the copepods will come with it
jerrod
Active Member
If you have any small rubble rock in your tank move a few of those to quarantine as well as there should be some copepods on them. when I first got mine I would rotate rock rubble between the 2 tanks to bring more copepods over.
Miller535
Valuable Member
This would be a good thing to do, as it would bring pods, and kind of "insta cycle" your qt.
Crustaceon
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Pods are great, but live baby brine and a pipet will be your best friends in this case. It’s cheap and easy enough to do a small daily hatch and with the qt pumps off, you can just pipet them onto the bottom near the mandarin. It’ll go nuts and will likely see normal-sized frozen brine as food when it gets bigger, especially if it initially comes out of the same pipet.
MERKEY
Cronies
Careful adding live sand as it will or could cause a mini "cycle".
Rinse the sand extremely well before putting it in the QT and you should be good to go.
alton
Valuable Member
I would contact Biota and ask what they feed and what temperature is best for the little guy? When my Ora baby clowns came in I set up a 10 gallon just for them with liverock and corals. Little that I knew when I contacted Ora what to feed them they also told me raising the temp to 80-82 would help them eat better.
Crustaceon
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I wouldn’t bother with adding sand. Instead. I would take whatever sized rock out the display that would sufficiently act to denitrify and provide some shelter for stress-relief (a small section of pvc tube in addition couldn’t hurt). Rotating rock rubble is a fantastic idea. That mandarin will be large enough for your tank in a few months anyways and for now it would probably be better to treat this as an actual quarantine situation and not a long-term housing one. Small waterchanges twice a week just to remove detritus will be sufficient for nutrient control. As noted, if you don’t have a good supply of pods on hand, you might want to get some from your lfs if possible as baby brine will take between 18-36 hours to hatch and you’ll want to ensure it’ll have live food for right now. There is no guarantee a mandarin will take anything less than that and they tend to go downhill pretty fast if they aren’t eating.
In addition to previous suggestions, I would also contact AlgaeBarn. They are a nice group. If mandarin is smaller than what you ordered they might give you discount on a pod order. They also have a pod program.
In addition, look up Paul B.’s mandarin feeder instructions. I used it in addition to my tank’s pod population.
www.saltwatersmarts.com
In addition, look up Paul B.’s mandarin feeder instructions. I used it in addition to my tank’s pod population.
DIY Target Feeder for Mandarinfish (and Pipefish)
We as aquarists tend to keep all sorts of creatures in our tanks, and some of them present a challenge to feed. We know what fish eat, and we know how fish eat, but sometimes the fish’s schedule do…
www.saltwatersmarts.com
AnneO
Community Member
My mandarins love frozen (well, thawed!) lobster eggs which should be small enough for her to eat. And they are super nutritious so I would definitely try those as they are quite readily available at LFSs
