Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[uwphoto]

A little Mandarin Love.

Not in my tank! This was taken in the Philippines. You can see the female is full of eggs.

You have to be in the water starting at sunset and then wait very quietly if you want to see them spawn.

 

 

[HarryPotter]

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.

 

 

Question- so why don't the lobster eggs just settle to the bottom? Or are they actual eggs and hatching?

[sheen]

 

 

Question- so why don't the lobster eggs just settle to the bottom? Or are they actual eggs and hatching?

They aren't viable eggs and they just settle - the mesh gives the eggs a bit more traction than rock and the jar is going to be positioned so that the shrimp can't just hop on it. Still working on final placement.

[lkoechle]

So, I thought Luna-P (my mandarin) was dead. She has been missing for well over a month. And if she wasn't missing because she was dead, I was fairly certain she'd be dead because she was missing. I don't think I have a lot of pods in my tank so she gets fed sweetfish roe. But since she's missing, I'm not feeding, etc you get the picture. So, sad me.

 

Well, I decided to do something different yesterday with frozen feeding, I soaked their fish mash in SELCO Boost because I had found an unopened bottle and also found an unopened package of PE mysis. So, I mixed all that together and as soon as it hits the water, out pops Luna-P from a hole in the LR.

 

I immediately turned on Luna-P's feed mode (I just have pumps dialed back for feeding big fish so Luna-P has her own "pumpless" setting), and was going to go find some fish eggs until I saw her eating the mysis. She ate at least 5 small PE mysis. Today, she ate 7 and when I thought she was done, I turned the pumps back on. EXCEPT appareantly she wanted the shrimp that was too big for her that a nass had snagged. I missed videoing the tug of war (I was on the phone with my husband relaying the current Luna-P update, you can see she is terribly skinny) between her and the nass, but I did get her picking at the shrimp.

 

Hopefully, with her new found food, I can get weight back on her. She has a nice little pot belly now but so skinny

 

[Alexraptor]

Well Ao Shun seems to be handling his exile pretty well.

He beat the living shit out of my female mandarin for no reason, suddenly just snapped and went postal on her after 3-4 months of incident-free togetherness, so I exiled him to my reef tank.

 

 

The female has made a full recovery since btw.

[pinky]

I have a small female in my 29 gallon BC have had her for about 14 months, and she has the whole tank to herself (and has for almost the whole time except the 2 months I tried to save a male I rescued from the lfs, that was a sad fish and he never did recuperate). My female was slim when I got her but not too bad and she was slow to accept anything I offered besides bbs, but she got a taste for the other foods and is nice and plump. This system is set up for her needs so im heavy on the rocks and algae to provide her will ample hunting grounds. My only complaint is how shy she is so I think I want to add a tank mate that wont bother her. What kind of fish have you all had success with as tank mates to your mandarins? I think I would like one that swims more seeing how she hugs the sand and rocks all the time and I have nice open space in the front of all the rocks.

[pinky]

Here is her artsy photo,

 

 

not the most recent photo (june 2015) cause she is very shy but see here she has a nice belly,

 

 

Here she is hunting her bbs feeder (November 2015)

 

 

A

[Newstead]

My first fish impulse buy ... went to get a goby for my pistol shrimp and asked to see it eat. The goby was in a tank with 3 spotted mandarins. When the mysis hit the water, the goby and one of the mandarins went after them - I watched the mandarin eat 3 mysis in a row. Guess what came home with me? The goby and shrimp found each other within 10 minutes and Jimi, the mandarin, has spent the day hunting pods.

.

[D3monic]

My male learned the hard way not to steal food from the anemone. Hopefully he makes it, been a few days doesn't look like it's getting any worse... nor any better. I'm only assuming it was the nem. I got no other inhabitants that could of done that.

 

[SquishyFishy]

Just picked up a Ruby in Austin for $40. Got some new pods because mine are so big...but they promised he is eating frozen Mysis. I'm making a feeding station using Harry Potters example. Any suggestions. He's well fed so far looking plump, but I'm nervous!

[sheen]

Wanted to share a quick video of an adorable baby Synchiropus picturatus at 42 days post hatch. Lots of work to get this far but this was my first settlement and success. The next batch is also at settlement. Enjoy!

 

 

Just picked up a Ruby in Austin for $40. Got some new pods because mine are so big...but they promised he is eating frozen Mysis. I'm making a feeding station using Harry Potters example. Any suggestions. He's well fed so far looking plump, but I'm nervous!

Nice! Your "he" is most definitely a "she"! I have been looking for a female to start my breeding project with these but healthy females are hard to come by. Good find!

[BulkRate]

Quick PSA to all you mandarin keepers out there: V2O Foods' soft-frozen ZooPlankton & MicroPlankton blends seem to be incredible.

 

I've been feeding it to my little ruby and he snaps it out of the water column. Donated a tablespoon of it to the nearby store that'd just received a shipment of mandarins for more testing just to see if it's generally accepted, or just happens to be for mine. More if I find out.

 

 

Oh and at long last here's a pic of my little guy - unfortunately the female succumbed to some kind of fin rot/septicemia over the next couple of days (as did the other two at the store in short order). You all are not kidding - healthy females seem as rare as hen's teeth.

[metrokat]

Sorry about your fish, keep us posted on that food response from the LFS.

[BulkRate]

Will do!

 

Of course the LFS folks initially tried feeding it with the holding tank's pump/overflow running so it was sucked out within moments & they're closed today/tomorrow. But they said they'll try again while they have the system in maintenance mode over the next few business days and let me know by the end of the week.

 

Yeah, the female was a gamble as all three were already looking a little rough but nobody expected the sudden decline/death. Fortunately it seems to not have been passed on to my other male ruby, or the Kannaplex treatment regimen did it's thing. (this was 2 months ago)

[BulkRate]

Short answer, every ruby mandarin at the local store (5-6 in their latest shipment) appear to like V2O NanoV Zooplankton soft-frozen food from the get-go.

 

It took some doing to get the moons to align & have the staff cut the overflow & circulation pumps off to let the stuff blow in the residual current & settle (not quite sure what they were expecting the mandarins to do with it otherwise, but they've been pretty knowledgeable in other areas so so be it). All of the little guys started pecking away at rocks & snagging bits our of the water column in short order.

 

I haven't heard yet as to whether the big striped greens back in their coral tanks also go for it or not.

[sheen]

 

Taken 8/15/16. Roughly 90 day old S. picturatus. About 15mm long (TL) at this point.

[Nstocks]

I'm having a lot of trouble with my second mandarin (different tanks) in that he's not eating anything!

 

He hunts around the rock work, even where I've poured a bottle of copepods in but does not seem to take any interest. (I've previously trained a mandarin to eat lobster eggs and the LFS trained him on tiny pellet food!)

 

I came across a method of 'force feeding' the mandarin, by isolating it within a plastic bottle. It seems a bit cruel though

 

I've read black worms could work, but they easily pollute the water...

[Nstocks]

Really worried about Mandarin. I'd say in 2-3 weeks it'll be dead from starvation.

 

Would it be worth the risk to isolate the Mandarin in the tank to feed him alone so that he can more easily eat the foods I offer? (no flow blowing it around and without other inhabitants chasing after the food?) Perhaps a breeder box?

 

I've been trying a method similar to the one below, but there's no interest in this Mandarin going into a chamber and when it does, the shrimp/snails have consumed the food. My previous mandarin ate very well out of a shot glass! (lobster eggs)

 

http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

[Newstead]

Really worried about Mandarin. I'd say in 2-3 weeks it'll be dead from starvation.

 

Would it be worth the risk to isolate the Mandarin in the tank to feed him alone so that he can more easily eat the foods I offer? (no flow blowing it around and without other inhabitants chasing after the food?) Perhaps a breeder box?

 

I've been trying a method similar to the one below, but there's no interest in this Mandarin going into a chamber and when it does, the shrimp/snails have consumed the food. My previous mandarin ate very well out of a shot glass! (lobster eggs)

 

http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

I would try a breeder box ... how is your mandarin doing now?

[pokerdobe]

So who else is seeing Nutramar back in stock? I just picked up 10 packs today.

[Newstead]

So who else is seeing Nutramar back in stock? I just picked up 10 packs today.

Woah ... at your LFS? Would love to get some, even tho my mandarin eats mysis.

[pokerdobe]

Woah ... at your LFS? Would love to get some, even tho my mandarin eats mysis.

 

Yeah. I was just wondering if anyone else was seeing them? The LFS here just ordered 50 packs a couple days ago and I think they're down to less then 10.

[BulkRate]

So who else is seeing Nutramar back in stock? I just picked up 10 packs today.

 

You better pack the 9 other ones you're going to store in 2x layers of ziplock bags, then chuck it in the coldest part of a chest freezer.

 

That stuff's gold, I tells ya...GOLD!

 

EDIT: funny enough, I just got a pm from my local reef club about it being back in stock erm... locally. I wonder how long before the supply dries up and we're all left with prima-donna mandarins that will accept no substitute?

[pokerdobe]

 

You better pack the 9 other ones you're going to store in 2x layers of ziplock bags, then chuck it in the coldest part of a chest freezer.

 

That stuff's gold, I tells ya...GOLD!

 

EDIT: funny enough, I just got a pm from my local reef club about it being back in stock erm... locally. I wonder how long before the supply dries up and we're all left with prima-donna mandarins that will accept no substitute?

 

My mandies are fatasses. They eat everything and anything. So far, I've actually found the lobster and prawn eggs far more useful in transitioning anthias and finicky wrasses to other foods.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Found these two golden boys at the LFS:

 

 

Mother sailfin dragonet. Almost 6" long each and as thick as a sausage. Both males and in prime condition - didn't get one for obvious reasons that the bioload would be a killer, and you'll need an incredibly large, established system to host one. The first time I saw these fish on sale was nearly 4 years ago.