Mandarin Dragonet

[oysterk]

I like mandarin dragonets, and I have a large enough pod population to sustain one. I have two clowns and a yellowtail damsel though, do you think it's a good idea to get one? I have a 29 gallon.

[lobster876]

nope.... even in a 55 they starve out in maybe a year max

[Alexraptor]

nope.... even in a 55 they starve out in maybe a year max

 

People seriously need to stop spreading this nonsensical dogma.

 

Given the proper care a single Mandarin can easily be kept in even a 10 gallon tank with minimum supportive feeding.

[lobster876]

They can live for 20 plus years in a wild. just because they can survive temporarily in a 10 gallon does not mean they should . It may take some time but mark my words they can and will starve out

[Alexraptor]

Sorry, but that just simply isn't true.

[lobster876]

Im a volunteer at woods hole Oceanographic and have been working with a few others on a project on Mandarins and fish similar to mandarins. Our results have found that certain enzymes are slowly depleted and some hormones slowly are unable to be made. This can kill them or make them more susceptible to diseases such as ich and marine velvet.

[Dolphins18]

If you feed your fuge pods every few months and keep the pod population high there is no possible way they will die off of starvation. If the pod population is kept up what is the difference between keeping them in a 29g and a 55g from a food standpoint?

[Alexraptor]

Im a volunteer at woods hole Oceanographic and have been working with a few others on a project on Mandarins and fish similar to mandarins. Our results have found that certain enzymes are slowly depleted and some hormones slowly are unable to be made. This can kill them or make them more susceptible to diseases such as ich and marine velvet.

 

Yes yes I'm sure you have various methodologies to do number crunching with and test out a few scenarios, good for you.

But the fact is great strides have been made by hobbyists in recent years in regards to keeping mandarins. There are quite a few people on just this forum who's success with Mandarin Dragonets is measured in years, myself included.

 

There are fatty and high protein food available today that weren't in the past. And some of us have figured out how to set up systems that can produce the critters mandarin's feed on at a sustainable rate, even without a fuge. Amphipods, Copepods, Ostracods, worms and even small gastropods. Add things like fish roe, lobster and prawn eggs into the mix and you got their entire diet covered.

[tetraodon]

Im a volunteer at woods hole Oceanographic and have been working with a few others on a project on Mandarins and fish similar to mandarins. Our results have found that certain enzymes are slowly depleted and some hormones slowly are unable to be made. This can kill them or make them more susceptible to diseases such as ich and marine velvet.

since you stated you volunteer at woods hole, do you have any more proof other than anecdotal evidence on a vague set of criteria?

[lobster876]

Not at the moment as this project was just started in december of 2015. We are basing our claims using a certain Algorithm that was created by the manager of the project. We are eagerly awaiting what our spring results will show in comparison to our algorithm

.