Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[metrokat]

i just got my mandarin two days ago i tried feeding her mysis and she just looked at it hopefully she eats it I'm thinking its the switching of tanks, at the store i saw her eat some pellets and frozen food ! any suggestions other than the breeder box ?

Get the foods she was eating at the store.

[Jorgieee]

i put her in a breeder net with some mysis and pellets, and she didn't even bother eating any she just sat there and watched. i was thinking of trying live brine shrimp to see if that would work any suggestions ?

[Obsessed Reefer]

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https://flic.kr/p/oPkteM'>Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 6.25.37 PM by https://www.flickr.com/people/126151760@N05/'>darth.slover, on Flickr

 

UGH! lol.

[Jorgieee]

I was wondering if I leave my mandarin in the breeder net over night or let him free again till the next feed thanks !

[CronicReefer]

I was wondering if I leave my mandarin in the breeder net over night or let him free again till the next feed thanks !

I would take him out. You should have pods in your tank that he can munch on between feeding.

[Jorgieee]

I don't have pods in there at the moment. The Lfs where I got him at had it on frozen foods

[metrokat]

I don't have pods in there at the moment. The Lfs where I got him at had it on frozen foods

You need to act. Get the same foods the fish was eating from the store you bought it at.

If it was eating frozen then it's normal for it not to eat pellets.

 

Live brine shrimp, hatch baby brine shrimp, get live black worms, if not available get live blood worms. These are your live options.

 

And every tank has pods. It's part of the reef eco system.

 

Came here to say Live Aquaria has red mandarins in stock.

[JoeDigiorgio]

If the fish was already eating, why bother putting it in a breeder box? I just can't see the benefit in a small tank.

[Based]

Well my male green/blue that i bought back in July is doing great! He's eating pellets like a champ, wish i could of gotten him onto frozen but he jumped from the breeders net into the display area and i was not able to re net him. But i decided to name him Nova . Today i bought a target mandarin! He's pretty small compared to my blue/green, but i have him in a breeders net for i can train him onto prepared foods. I basically bought the target due to the green/blue being shy, and my old target mandarin use to be afraid of nothing. Ill get pictures of the two tomorrow!

[kimberbee]

Anyone have a pod culture in a separate tank to help supplement their mandarin/dragonet diet? I've got a few questions...

 

I was thinking about setting up a small 2-4 gallon pod farm up in hopes that in a few months I can add a mandarin to my tank.

[BulkRate]

I did for a while, but stopped when a couple local stores started reliably carrying Algagen's Tsibe pods and another locally-cultured mix. $10-20 a month to not have to do anything more won out in my push to simplify my foray into the hobby... so sue me.

 

I've kept two tanks (one 9 gallon nano and one .5 gallon shrimp pico) running with fairly good results for almost 3 years, but can't seem to culture anything to save my life.

[kimberbee]

I did for a while, but stopped when a couple local stores started reliably carrying Algagen's Tsibe pods and another locally-cultured mix. $10-20 a month to not have to do anything more won out in my push to simplify my foray into the hobby... so sue me.

 

I've kept two tanks (one 9 gallon nano and one .5 gallon shrimp pico) running with fairly good results for almost 3 years, but can't seem to culture anything to save my life.

 

I suppose I could look and see what local options I have available to me if they are relatively cheap. Thanks!

[BulkRate]

You;re welcome. Keep in mind that getting the fish onto prepared foods is largely why there's 60 pages worth of mostly success stories here... and that feeding ANY bottled live copepods as a staple diet will get VERY expensive in short order.

 

I mainly use the supplemental pods to cover any nutritional need not being met by the nightly target feeding and morning's squirt of decap'd brine shrimp eggs.

[kimberbee]

You;re welcome. Keep in mind that getting the fish onto prepared foods is largely why there's 60 pages worth of mostly success stories here... and that feeding ANY bottled live copepods as a staple diet will get VERY expensive in short order.

 

I mainly use the supplemental pods to cover any nutritional need not being met by the nightly target feeding and morning's squirt of decap'd brine shrimp eggs.

 

Yup! There's also a few other fish I'd like that would eat pods too. I figure if a little pod farm is easy, it would just be a supplement/snack.

[CronicReefer]

Anyone have a pod culture in a separate tank to help supplement their mandarin/dragonet diet?

A good way to help keep the pod population up is to throw some chaeto into your display behind some rock in a few places. If you are going to train the mandarin you purchase, pod population will not be so important. My ruby dragonet has gotten at least twice as fat off of nothing but pods since I purchased him 4weeks ago. I only added one bottle of Dr. G's Pods when I bought him and the population has stayed growing.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Dr G's pods are tigriopus. They don't populate aquariums because they're pelagic and get filtered out of the water very quickly between mechanic filtration and livestock.

 

Instead of wasting money on copepods a better investment would be the amphipods reefs2go puts on special like 100 times a year.

 

And btw Tim, keydiver, always has tisbe available on here for anyone looking for it cheap so get it from him if you're gonna get it.

[Tamberav]

I cultivate pods in my tank by just planting macro algae in it. I decided to replace the sand recently for something finer and when I pulled the macro up, it was like a swarm of cockroaches.

[Tamberav]

For anyone on the fence about dragnets, so far, the ruby's have been much easier to care for than the spotteds/blue/greens.

 

They don't seem to need to be fed nearly as often or as much and keep weight better on pods. Makes sense since they have a slimmer and smaller body form.

[CronicReefer]

For anyone on the fence about dragnets, so far, the ruby's have been much easier to care for than the spotteds/blue/greens.

 

They don't seem to need to be fed nearly as often or as much and keep weight better on pods. Makes sense since they have a slimmer and smaller body form.

Do you know if the ruby stay hidden for a couple days or are known to jump. Mine has been missing for two days and I'm thinking he jumped out and my cat ate him.

[JoeDigiorgio]

I've been playing with the idea of getting another ruby for my female. I think I'm going to wait until I am ready to pair my banggai cardinal so I can just deal with quarantine once lol

[Tamberav]

Do you know if the ruby stay hidden for a couple days or are known to jump. Mine has been missing for two days and I'm thinking he jumped out and my cat ate him.

 

They definitely jump. I lost one through 1/4 inch netting awhile back. Mine hid when I first got them but now they are out all the time. If he died in the tank, you wouldn't find a body either from the CUC.

 

How long have you had him?

[CronicReefer]

They definitely jump. I lost one through 1/4 inch netting awhile back. Mine hid when I first got them but now they are out all the time. If he died in the tank, you wouldn't find a body either from the CUC.

 

How long have you had him?

A little over a month. I have a hard time believing he died in the tank unless he had a parasite I was unaware of. I only have 6 dwarf hermits so I'd be surprised if they ate the body that fast. He was about 1.75"

[Tamberav]

A little over a month. I have a hard time believing he died in the tank unless he had a parasite I was unaware of. I only have 6 dwarf hermits so I'd be surprised if they ate the body that fast. He was about 1.75"

 

The hidden bristle worms would have ate him within hours, maybe faster since he was small. I don't think people realize these guys turn a fish body to nothing so fast. It's amazing in a gross way...

 

If he was fat and healthy (sometimes they come in skinny from the LFS and need some TLC) and you don't have a top... very possible he jumped. Dragonets are definitely jumpers.

[CronicReefer]

The hidden bristle worms would have ate him within hours.

 

If he was fat and healthy (sometimes they come in skinny from the LFS and need some TLC) and you don't have a top... very possible he jumped. Dragonets are definitely jumpers.

I'm thinking he jumped if this is something common. It's just strange since I've never seen him leave the bottom. He was skinny when I purchased him but he had more than doubled in girth since then. Definitely going to miss the little guy.

[Tamberav]

I'm thinking he jumped if this is something common. It's just strange since I've never seen him leave the bottom. He was skinny when I purchased him but he had more than doubled in girth since then. Definitely going to miss the little guy.

 

Sounds like he was healthy then, sorry for the loss

 

We don't think of these bottom dwellers as jumpers but gobies, blennies, jawfish all have these tendencies. It's weird a fish that spends most of its time on the bottom is inclined to go carpet surfing.