Red Ruby Dragonet -- Any Experts?

[NanoCrazed]

Having a horrid time keeping ruby red dragonets and hoping someone can share your experiences and parameters where you've successfully kept ruby red long term. I may make one last attempt before giving up on these fish.

I have plenty of pods and have no problems keeping mandarins successfully... but none of my ruby reds ever seem to last more than 1 week. At first I was thinking that my lack of success is due to transit stress and the fish being overly skinny coming from the LFS (sunken stomachs). I've even tried buying the fish straight from the bag before the LFS releases them into their tanks to minimize stress. But now wondering if there's other requirements that they need or perhaps they are more sensitive to water quality like nitrates or stress.

My parameters are mostly perfect except for nitrates on the higher side at 20 ppm (taken right before my weekly water change).

One of the well known and reputable LFS here have had 100% fail at bringing in ruby red and having them last for more than a few days as well.

Would love to hear your experiences...

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Should be the same as a mandarin. Might have just gotten some to far gone.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

ne of the well known and reputable LFS here have had 100% fail at bringing in ruby red and having them last for more than a few days as well.

That is concerning.
I would look into mail order.

Extremely concerning. It's a fairly easy fish in an established tank. Far easier then a Mandy.

 

[NanoCrazed]

Ok. So i think I might have solved the mystery...

I traced down the wholesaler and they were kind enough to spend time with me to talk about their setup. Turns out they keep their salinity at 1.019 -- which is far lower than I had imagined. So, my drip acclimation is likely too short for a sensitive fish like red rubies even at 45 mins since my tank is NSW @ ~1.026.

That being said, would still love to hear suggestions on keeping red rubies, assuming that the above is only one contributing factor...

I'd like to get a species only red rubies tank going, and maybe attempt breeding some if I can successfully introduce them into my tanks...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ok. So i think I might have solved the mystery...

I traced down the wholesaler and they were kind enough to spend time with me to talk about their setup. Turns out they keep their salinity at 1.019 -- which is far lower than I had imagined. So, my drip acclimation is likely too short for a sensitive fish like red rubies even at 45 mins since my tank is NSW @ ~1.026.

That being said, would still love to hear suggestions on keeping red rubies, assuming that the above is only one contributing factor...

I'd like to get a species only red rubies tank going, and maybe attempt breeding some if I can successfully introduce them into my tanks...

Established thank w lots of bugs. They eat most everything. Not really that hard.

 

[Areseebee]

Ok. So i think I might have solved the mystery...

I traced down the wholesaler and they were kind enough to spend time with me to talk about their setup. Turns out they keep their salinity at 1.019 -- which is far lower than I had imagined. So, my drip acclimation is likely too short for a sensitive fish like red rubies even at 45 mins since my tank is NSW @ ~1.026.

That being said, would still love to hear suggestions on keeping red rubies, assuming that the above is only one contributing factor...

I'd like to get a species only red rubies tank going, and maybe attempt breeding some if I can successfully introduce them into my tanks...

Honestly, I wouldn't expect this to be the "smoking gun". What's your LFS's salinity at? Most of them keep around 1.02 anyways so the fact they can't keep them alive implies something else is going on, I think.

 

[NanoCrazed]

The fish were in the bag straight from the wholesaler...so never made it into the LFS tanks. According to the wholesaler, most of their red rubies spend about 6 - 9 days... and sometimes, up to 3 weeks in their tanks.

The only open question really is if their stock has access regularly to pods or if they are supplementing... I forgot to ask. Their red ruby supply do seem very emaciated -- perhaps they were captured with cyanide and what not. :/

They promised to send my LFS the fattest red rubies they have when they fill the order... so hopefully they'll have a better chance at survival... Will give it one more try (though I am tempted to get a pair from online hoping that the source of origin is different).

 

[Areseebee]

Wait, so it's still in shipping water then spends 45 minutes in drip acclimation? Typically you want to get a fish out of shipping water asap into temp/salinity matched water, even if it's just a transfer bucket in which you will slowly acclimate.

 

[NanoCrazed]

The wholesaler is local. So the fish is bagged the same morning and arrives at the LFS by 12p.

So it's technically shipping water but really no diff that LFS water give short distance. I picked them up around 12:30p and drive 15 mins home.

I do a float for about 30 mins to stabilize temperature since I am driving with AC on set at 68F and my tank runs at 80F (maybe hotter on warm days since I don't have a chiller yet), then do drip acclimation to bring up salinity for the fish to minimize shock from the differences in salt concentration.

 

[infinityends]

Not an expert. But IME the ruby reds are less hearty than standard or red scooters. Some times even worse than mandarins. Ive never had to try all that hard to keep dragonettes alive, maybe I've just been lucky. Definitely have had some die on me over the years.

I've generally had decent luck training them to eat brine shrimp to supplement them. Just have to reduce flow during feeding so a little can settle

Longest I had one was around 1.5 year before I had a velvet outbreak kill a bunch of fish.