Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[BulkRate]

That's just plain awesome, teenyreef.

 

In other news I'm back! At least in this thread's qualifiers. Local store had a LOT of ruby reds hanging out in their prop tanks from a shipment a month ago & made me an offer I couldn't refuse (happy birthday to me!). And it eats cyclopeze/reef caviar like it's going out of style.

 

Little guy's a bit too shy on introduction for me to get a picture better than proof-of-Bigfoot/UFO quality, but its starting to hop around and colored back up quickly - WOW as in it's visible from across the room in terms of how bright the red/white/yellow is.

 

Now to see if it makes it past the 1-2 week mark... I'm very hopeful as this is nothing like my experience with the splendidus.

[uwdanno]

sup dragonet lova's

 

I have a Ruby Red thats eating Mysis well - trained by my LFS.

 

How are you guys all feeding multiple times a day? Ive been shutting of the pumps and blasting the sand bed and rocks with mysis in the morning and the evenings. Its winter in Minnesota which means - time to get the f@#$ out of town and go to Florida for a week. Has anyone come up with a good method of autofeeding that isn't pods?

 

Any luck with an autofeeder with .5mm pellets?

[RollaJase]

sup dragonet lova's

 

I have a Ruby Red thats eating Mysis well - trained by my LFS.

 

How are you guys all feeding multiple times a day? Ive been shutting of the pumps and blasting the sand bed and rocks with mysis in the morning and the evenings. Its winter in Minnesota which means - time to get the f@#$ out of town and go to Florida for a week. Has anyone come up with a good method of autofeeding that isn't pods?

 

Any luck with an autofeeder with .5mm pellets?

My mandy doesn't eat dry foods and I only feed the fish frozen foods once per day. I'll drop some pellets in the water if I am home during the day but that is really only weekends. I do have an auto feeder for pellets but find it either feeds way too much or not enough. I find the mandy is happy cruising around and feeding off pods if I go away for a few days and no one remembers to feed the tank. Any chance you could have someone pop in one per day to feed frozen foods to make life a bit easier for you?

[uwdanno]

My mandy doesn't eat dry foods and I only feed the fish frozen foods once per day. I'll drop some pellets in the water if I am home during the day but that is really only weekends. I do have an auto feeder for pellets but find it either feeds way too much or not enough. I find the mandy is happy cruising around and feeding off pods if I go away for a few days and no one remembers to feed the tank. Any chance you could have someone pop in one per day to feed frozen foods to make life a bit easier for you?

Thanks man. That helps a lot.

 

I do have people that could drop in after a day or two. My nephew helped pick him out- hence the name Spiderman- he lives across the street and would jump at the chance to tank sit (with his dad and mom).

 

[RollaJase]

Quick question for you all.

 

Ever since moving from my 30G to the 55G I have noticed that my mandarin is hunting at the water surface at night. This is something that never happened at night in my 30G, in fact, my mandy was never active at night previously. After some reading it seems that they go to the water surface at night to hunt or to spawn (solitary mandarin, doubt it is spawning). Has anyone experienced this themselves?

 

My theory is that since moving to the new tank the pod population has been seriously reduced and mandy isn't eating its fill during the day and is resorting to hunting at night. Mandy is still nice and plump and eats lots of frozen foods when I feed in the evening so I'm not concerned at this stage but will keep a close eye on the behavior. My sump is full of live rock and I have a nice clump of cheato in there, I can see that the pod population is growing. I may add a few of these pieces from the sump to the DT at night to try and move over some of the pod population and accelerate the population growth in the DT.

[uwdanno]

Happy frozen eater

 

[D3monic]

8 day old Ruby Red Mandarin Larvae.

 

 

Very nice dude! Back when I was trying I never got them past a few days either. Always seemed to run into one problem or another. Usually a rotifer culture crashing on me at the worst time.

[metrokat]

Quick question for you all.

 

Ever since moving from my 30G to the 55G I have noticed that my mandarin is hunting at the water surface at night. This is something that never happened at night in my 30G, in fact, my mandy was never active at night previously. After some reading it seems that they go to the water surface at night to hunt or to spawn (solitary mandarin, doubt it is spawning). Has anyone experienced this themselves?

 

My theory is that since moving to the new tank the pod population has been seriously reduced and mandy isn't eating its fill during the day and is resorting to hunting at night. Mandy is still nice and plump and eats lots of frozen foods when I feed in the evening so I'm not concerned at this stage but will keep a close eye on the behavior. My sump is full of live rock and I have a nice clump of cheato in there, I can see that the pod population is growing. I may add a few of these pieces from the sump to the DT at night to try and move over some of the pod population and accelerate the population growth in the DT.

It's likely a mating dance. Poor Mandy needs a mate.

[RollaJase]

It's likely a mating dance. Poor Mandy needs a mate.

From what I have observed it doesn't look like any of the mating displays that I found online. Looks more like he/she is hovering under the water surface and then pecking at the surface. A mate would be cool though, never really thought about sexing my mandarin and hunting for a mate that will eat frozen foods.

[D3monic]

 

 

 

 

[jamescstein]

Very nice dude! Back when I was trying I never got them past a few days either. Always seemed to run into one problem or another. Usually a rotifer culture crashing on me at the worst time.

 

Same.. They are active and appear to be hunting but they don't make it. We haven't even bothered to hatch them out lately. Been dealing with too many RL things.

[metrokat]

 

 

 

 

wow

[HarryPotter]

My first good photo of spot!

 

[D3monic]

My first good photo of spot!

 

Very nice shot!

[Tamberav]

Pair of captive bred scooters on Diver's Den, red's should come in March

 

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=297196

[jolee0722]

Has anyone confirmed if they eat frozen and/or pellets and flakes?

 

Pair of captive bred scooters on Diver's Den, red's should come in March

 

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=297196

[BulkRate]

I have never owned a more camera-shy fish.

 

Out and about every day/evening - MUCH more active than my red splendidus ever was. But man, bring out the smartphone camera even from an arm's length away and POOF - he's gone. Seems to have no fear of my kids pressing right up to the side of the tank or my own ugly mug, though.

 

Still a bit on the skinny side for my peace of mind - these guys really, really do need more than one feeding a day. But it seems to get pecking on practically anything that goes into the tank, provided it's broken down into .2mm/100micron size. Hiraki marine-S pellets, LRS fish frenzy, decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. "Solomon" is still training me on where exactly he likes to eat.

 

Pics as soon as I can trick him into posing.

[hinnenkm]

Some incredible fish in this thread I've got a pair of mandarin dragonets who are now in my 30 gallon, as well as a pair of the ruby reds who are in my 17 gallon. My ruby reds are spawning nightly and for those of you who have tried raising them, I'm curious as to what egg collection methods you've used? There are a few local people who are interested in trying to breed these guys/at least make an attempt at it.
Thanks!

[sheen]

Has anyone confirmed if they eat frozen and/or pellets and flakes?

 

That's probably my pair (can't see the DD pic). I am planning on breeding these. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the fish. After a two hour long drip acclimation the male was eating Hikari mysis in 20 minutes. The female started eating not much after- she was a little scared of my feeding tube but attacks it now with aplomb. Super robust and healthy. They came in looking like they hadn't eaten in a few days, but nothing abnormal. I am convinced these things do not have a concept of being full- both will eat mysis until they are like little balloons and keep eating. My wild caught S. picturatus and ruby red will quit eating when full, but these things don't stop. I did test pellets and they would eat Hikari S, but spit out Spectrum 0.5mm. But I prefer to feed frozen instead of pellets. I was able to get my hands on some Ruto lobster eggs yesterday (Nutramar Ova basically) and they ate that up like maniacs. Then again, all my dragonets (all trained) ate that stuff up too like crazy. I will post up a eating video later on.

Oh and, the last two nights male was displaying to the female after lights out, they were chasing and doing some mini rises/dancing. I didn't stay long to see if there was an actual rise though. The female isn't hydrating eggs yet.

Anyway, to answer your question, yes they are eating prepared foods easily. But they are still a dragonet so the usual rules apply. They will always get beaten to the food and so you have to target feed and cut all flow. I have two tanks designated for dragonets this is easy for me but if you don't find a way to deliver the food consistently they will still suffer. The good news is that they come in with incredible vigor compared to your wild caught dragonet that has been through layers and layers of shipping stress.

[D3monic]

Some incredible fish in this thread I've got a pair of mandarin dragonets who are now in my 30 gallon, as well as a pair of the ruby reds who are in my 17 gallon. My ruby reds are spawning nightly and for those of you who have tried raising them, I'm curious as to what egg collection methods you've used? There are a few local people who are interested in trying to breed these guys/at least make an attempt at it.

Thanks!

 

Mine would spawn like clockwork around 9:30 pm I would just kick off the pumps, let them do their thing and the eggs generally float so I would use a small cup to scoop them out and a pipeette/turkey baster for the ones that didn't stick together.

 

One night I forgot to turn the pumps back on and lost half my live stock including my mandarins. After that incident I had a breeding pair of scooters in that tank and I had the controller programmed to turn the pumps off after lights out and back on 45 min later.

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually they just use the pumps turning off as the trigger to spawn.

[hinnenkm]

 

Mine would spawn like clockwork around 9:30 pm I would just kick off the pumps, let them do their thing and the eggs generally float so I would use a small cup to scoop them out and a pipeette/turkey baster for the ones that didn't stick together.

 

One night I forgot to turn the pumps back on and lost half my live stock including my mandarins. After that incident I had a breeding pair of scooters in that tank and I had the controller programmed to turn the pumps off after lights out and back on 45 min later.

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually they just use the pumps turning off as the trigger to spawn.

Wow, thanks for sharing all of that! I hope I can get to the point of starting to collect eggs, but I don't think the female is releasing, because she is getting fatter and fatter. I am wondering how to get her to start releasing the eggs? I talked to someone who is locally known for a lot of breeding success with a variety of fish and also a couple other people and it seems like she won't release until there is enough room in the tank (height). I've got the Mr. Aqua 17 and it's 14.2 inches tall, but they don't even go all the way to the top when they rise...

Is there any other solution besides transferring them to a different tank or getting something taller do you think?

Thanks!

[sheen]

What are you using as a larval first feed?

Mine would spawn like clockwork around 9:30 pm I would just kick off the pumps, let them do their thing and the eggs generally float so I would use a small cup to scoop them out and a pipeette/turkey baster for the ones that didn't stick together.

 

One night I forgot to turn the pumps back on and lost half my live stock including my mandarins. After that incident I had a breeding pair of scooters in that tank and I had the controller programmed to turn the pumps off after lights out and back on 45 min later.

 

Eventually they just use the pumps turning off as the trigger to spawn.

 

[D3monic]

What are you using as a larval first feed?

It's been quite a few years but I believe ss rotifers where what I was using. I also experimented with letting a rotifer culture crash and using the smaller ciliates

[sheen]

Here are a few of my dragonets eating the lobster eggs I got a few days ago. They are all trained to eat from a feeding tube but took to this without training. I am figuring out a feeding area that can be shrimp proof- I rubber-banded some mesh cloth to a jar for now. This is a few minutes in and they are still eagerly feeding.

[D3monic]

such chunky monkeys

 

I used to use a shell as a feeding dish, right now I have a crummy stand thing I made but next payday i'm ordering one of these off ebay as a food dish

 

 

either that or this one but I like the first one better.

 

 

I like the looks of the first one better, then I can just use a 1/2 pvc pipe to pour food into dish like I did with my shells.

 

I also like the idea of the shrimp feeding dishes but anything on the sand bed just gets molested by the darn nas snails and hermits.

 

http://www.hinterfeld.com/aquarium-clear-acrylic-shrimp-feeding-dish-food-270mm-tube-set-p-1264.html