Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[AMAYEU]

Draco passed away.

What!!! So so sorry. RIP

[namxas]

Had this fish for about 8 years...it ate everything.

 

 

 

 

This was taken towards the end of his life...you can see he was starting to go off his feed, as he's a bit thin...

 

[BadCrab]

Sorry Kat

[Tamberav]

Dang, I'm really sorry Kat Do you think he could have caught anything from Bella? I remember you saying she was acting strange before.

[crazyfishgirl]

Oh no :/ I'm so sorry Kat. That's just awful to hear.

[metrokat]

Bella is swimming about, healthy, looking happy. Draco was alert till yesterday, still wasn;t eating or swimming and then I did not see him all morning so this afternoon I tore apart the fuge and he was dead. He was in a little cave, still perfect looking, right side up, nobody had munched on him (have hundred of bristle worms and a brittle starfish in the fuge), only his eyes were gone. Other wise his body still had color and looked completely free from disease. I took a picture of him but not sure I want to post it.

[JoeDigiorgio]

I feel terrible about this...he was the inspiration for this entire thread and proof that we should advocate a whole new approach to keeping this family of fish.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Had this fish for about 8 years...it ate everything.

 

 

 

 

This was taken towards the end of his life...you can see he was starting to go off his feed, as he's a bit thin...

 

What foods made up the bulk of the diet he was taking in? I'd like to get a comprehensive list of foods that are giving people long term success with these species (multiple years). I mentioned several pages back the article in Coral Magazine that first inspired me to take up the dragonets as the focus of my hobby, and in that article mysis, amphipods and blackworms are listed as the best combination of feeds to have these guys on as far as replicating a natural diet (and breeding), while things like Ova and pellets were cited as excellent additions to the diet, adding lots of fats and protein.

 

I personally believe in mysis and black worms. I've seen the difference they can make in skinny fish and in putting healthy fish over the edge from healthy to breeding condition. In my opinion, the dragonets' wild diet CAN be recreated with commercial feeds available to the average hobbyist. Its all about getting them to take it eagerly...which I think we've confirmed is not as daunting a task as once thought.

[VABumpkin]

Bella is swimming about, healthy, looking happy. Draco was alert till yesterday, still wasn;t eating or swimming and then I did not see him all morning so this afternoon I tore apart the fuge and he was dead. He was in a little cave, still perfect looking, right side up, nobody had munched on him (have hundred of bristle worms and a brittle starfish in the fuge), only his eyes were gone. Other wise his body still had color and looked completely free from disease. I took a picture of him but not sure I want to post it.

 

Kat, so sorry to hear this! He was beautiful and the care you gave him was more than a little fishy could have asked for (who else would have tended to him so mother-like?). Let's just hope Bella lives a long healthy life in your care! I think you really should post the pic, there might be something you missed that an expert could see. Also, you can contact Snorvich (Steve) on Reef Central, he has helped me with fish problems a few times, he's basically the arch professor of fish, he might know what went wrong. Steve even keeps Sea Dragons, so that should tell you something.

[crazyfishgirl]

So I think Saturday is the day Tangerine goes in the big tank with Ferdinand and the others, ill be home all day so will be able to keep a close eye out for any aggression and backsliding on eating frozen. I need to get her out of the 8g , it's covered in cyano from all the over feeding I'm doing.

[oldSWseamomma]

Bella is swimming about, healthy, looking happy. Draco was alert till yesterday, still wasn;t eating or swimming and then I did not see him all morning so this afternoon I tore apart the fuge and he was dead. He was in a little cave, still perfect looking, right side up, nobody had munched on him (have hundred of bristle worms and a brittle starfish in the fuge), only his eyes were gone. Other wise his body still had color and looked completely free from disease. I took a picture of him but not sure I want to post it.

Oh nooooooooooo not Gorgeous Draco I am so very, very sorry Kat.

[oldSWseamomma]

 

Just a thought - one of my mandarins died from being constantly stressed out by the Coral Beauty I had in the tank (in fact the CB stressed out all the fish) and he was relentless towards the mandy. I'm just wondering if maybe Draco seemed stressed by Bella? I'm not experienced in keeping two mandy's so I don't know if she stressed him or not.

[VABumpkin]

I think the rough housing between two mandies isn't stressful to either of them simply because it's natural for pairs to act that way (unless they're both males). And I believe it's the same for all fish, that if a different species starts pestering them it's much more stressful than the same species.

[JoeDigiorgio]

I actually agree with that statement. I've always kept fish in groups, harems and pairs as they'd be found in the wild and never had problems with it, even with species that general knowledge would advise against doing this with such as angels, basslets and mandarins. However, in situations where two incompatible species were together, it seems that separation must happen quickly or there can be significant damage.

 

One thing I have noticed though, and I'm not saying I think it happened between your CB and mandarin, is that inter-species aggression is a significantly more common occurrence when one of the fish involved is unhealthy or sick. I've found that this can result in the unfair sump imprisonment of many fish/inverts that are actually probably not to blame for the death of the victim. Just my $.02 lol

[MGDMIRAGE]

Sorry Kat

[namxas]

What foods made up the bulk of the diet he was taking in? I'd like to get a comprehensive list of foods that are giving people long term success with these species (multiple years). I mentioned several pages back the article in Coral Magazine that first inspired me to take up the dragonets as the focus of my hobby, and in that article mysis, amphipods and blackworms are listed as the best combination of feeds to have these guys on as far as replicating a natural diet (and breeding), while things like Ova and pellets were cited as excellent additions to the diet, adding lots of fats and protein.

 

I personally believe in mysis and black worms. I've seen the difference they can make in skinny fish and in putting healthy fish over the edge from healthy to breeding condition. In my opinion, the dragonets' wild diet CAN be recreated with commercial feeds available to the average hobbyist. Its all about getting them to take it eagerly...which I think we've confirmed is not as daunting a task as once thought.

 

Actually, you and I are on the same page regarding live blackworms and mysis. Another food that helped were enriched live Artemia. Once the mandy figured out that food comes in other forms besides pods, it never looked back, so to speak. Another food it loved were micro-brittles...it would soften one up (munch-spit-munch-spit-munch) and swallow them down.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Yes. I almost always use live artemia in combination with frozen artemia enriched with Dan's Feed (SeahorseSource) to wean them over and from there it's straight to mysis and blackworms.

[metrokat]

Just a thought - one of my mandarins died from being constantly stressed out by the Coral Beauty I had in the tank (in fact the CB stressed out all the fish) and he was relentless towards the mandy. I'm just wondering if maybe Draco seemed stressed by Bella? I'm not experienced in keeping two mandy's so I don't know if she stressed him or not.

She did charge at him in the first couple of weeks that she was added to the tank but that had changed to where she would go close to him if she saw him and deliberately swim to him. At that point he would show off and flare all his fins and look like a peacock. He was in the fuge for 3-4 days before he died so even if he was stressed, he had time to himself to recover but he never did.

[VABumpkin]

Were there any other fish bullying Draco? Even just a territorial signal can severely stress a small animal out. I have experience with it first hand with dart frogs. The dominant individual might not physically attack the other animal, but simply the signals it sends can stress it out. Eventually the stress leads to death.

[metrokat]

Were there any other fish bullying Draco? Even just a territorial signal can severely stress a small animal out. I have experience with it first hand with dart frogs. The dominant individual might not physically attack the other animal, but simply the signals it sends can stress it out. Eventually the stress leads to death.

He was perfectly great for 15 months of his life in the tank. Something happened in the last 10 days of his life. No new fish additions, no frags, nothing.

[oldSWseamomma]

She did charge at him in the first couple of weeks that she was added to the tank but that had changed to where she would go close to him if she saw him and deliberately swim to him. At that point he would show off and flare all his fins and look like a peacock. He was in the fuge for 3-4 days before he died so even if he was stressed, he had time to himself to recover but he never did.

Well it probably wasn't Bella and will always be a mystery. I still hate this for you

[VABumpkin]

[metrokat]

I know. He is missed.

[KristinNoelle87]

I'm sorry about Draco. I've been following this thread for awhile, he was a beautiful fish.

[Based]

Heres Bullseye, and a couple of photobombers, so ill introduce them too.. Harlequin shrimp is named Kabutops and the flameback is named Golf Wang