Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[AMAYEU]

Since we are on the diner topic, people use caper jars but digging through my kitchen the best container I could find was glass spice jars similar to s&p shakers.

 

I spoil Joe and use a baster. When I decide to feed, I find where he's hovering and concentrate the feeding on the rocks by him. What's funny is that he recognizes the tubing and will follow it. lol.

 

Didn't realize how long this feeder was, but it's almost 2 feet.

 

 

I used a LFS green rubber band so the rigid tubing would not slide or move when gluing.

 

 

 

Should throw up a Mandy pic.

 

Joe and tweedle dee are dinner partners. Actually the redhead steals food from Joe, but since the beginning I believe she acclimated and trained him to eat frozen foods. Having another fish eat side by side helps, I guess

 

Btw I think tweedle dee is my spawning female and is having an affair with joe. Hahaha

 

[FishBrawler]

Since we are on the diner topic, people use caper jars but digging through my kitchen the best container I could find was glass spice jars similar to s&p shakers.

 

I spoil Joe and use a baster. When I decide to feed, I find where he's hovering and concentrate the feeding on the rocks by him. What's funny is that he recognizes the tubing and will follow it. lol.

 

Didn't realize how long this feeder was, but it's almost 2 feet.

 

 

I used a LFS green rubber band so the rigid tubing would not slide or move when gluing.

 

 

 

Should throw up a Mandy pic.

 

Joe and tweedle dee are dinner partners. Actually the redhead steals food from Joe, but since the beginning I believe she acclimated and trained him to eat frozen foods. Having another fish eat side by side helps, I guess

 

Btw I think tweedle dee is my spawning female and is having an affair with joe. Hahaha

 

What is that other fish? Blenny? Goby?

[AMAYEU]

What is that other fish? Blenny? Goby?

Redhead goby http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+31+202&pcatid=202

[FishBrawler]

Redhead goby http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+31+202&pcatid=202

Thanks!

[drtybacn]

Valspar

 

[AMAYEU]

Valspar

 

 

Look at that belly. Wow.

[AMAYEU]

From above.

[Tamberav]

So what kind of pods did everyone seed their tank with? I did a bottle of Tisbe pods, whatever is in reef-cleaners cheato, and reefs2go copepods/amphipods.

 

I've seen my mandarin eat amphipods before. Not sure about copepods, they are too small for me to tell.

 

Even though my mandarin eats well, I want to keep plenty of snacks for him to hunt for.

 

Will the amphipods eat the copepods and kill off their population? Or will both survive? Curious what I should dose my next 40B with. Wondering if tisbe pods are a waste if the amphipods would eat them?

[jgpico]

I would love to own a mandarin but I have always shied away due to the size of tank I have. Do you guys think it would be possible for me to own one and keep it alive and happy in my 30 gallon? I think they are one of the most awesome fish we have access to in the hobby.

[metrokat]

So what kind of pods did everyone seed their tank with? I did a bottle of Tisbe pods, whatever is in reef-cleaners cheato, and reefs2go copepods/amphipods.

 

I've seen my mandarin eat amphipods before. Not sure about copepods, they are too small for me to tell.

 

Even though my mandarin eats well, I want to keep plenty of snacks for him to hunt for.

 

Will the amphipods eat the copepods and kill off their population? Or will both survive? Curious what I should dose my next 40B with. Wondering if tisbe pods are a waste if the amphipods would eat them?

I found Tisbe very slow to populate but I have not tried other pod cultures since last year. I routinely seed my fuge with both Tisbe and reefcleaners pods.

[ccapasso]

I seed my HoB Fuge with reefcleaners pods every now and then. I seem them growing in there like crazy though

 

 

Also, I've never tried frozen food with my (unnamed) mandarin. What would be a good suggestion to try and how on earth would I keep my other fish from eating it ?

[metrokat]

Nutramar Ova is very tasty for these guys so thaw a little bit of it for the Mandy and keep it ready. Feed the rest of the fish in one area of the tank and while they are busy, feed the ova to the mandy in his little corner. Hopefully the Mandy has a few spots he likes to hang out in which will work for this. Shut the flow off in the tank.

 

 

I see my HoB Fuge with reefcleaners pods every now and then. I seem them growing in there like crazy though

 

 

When I moved my tank about a month ago I had to rinse the fuge entirely and lost my pod population. RC pods are very good.

[Tamberav]

Thanks guys, I think I will order some reef-cleaner pods to seed my new fuge with. Maybe some Tisbe as well.

[metrokat]

Valspar

 

Want more pictures of this big guy please.

[fretfreak13]

I would love to own a mandarin but I have always shied away due to the size of tank I have. Do you guys think it would be possible for me to own one and keep it alive and happy in my 30 gallon? I think they are one of the most awesome fish we have access to in the hobby.

My little girl is in a 6 gallon and I've had her since November. She is fat and happy eating frozen PE and san fransisco bay mysis. You HAVE to find one eating prepaired foods, and that is no easy task. Every time you go to the LFS ask them to feed the mandarins. If they don't eat, don't buy. Period. It took me five years to find my little girl, and mandarins are what got me into the hobby in the first place.

 

So what kind of pods did everyone seed their tank with? I did a bottle of Tisbe pods, whatever is in reef-cleaners cheato, and reefs2go copepods/amphipods.

 

I've seen my mandarin eat amphipods before. Not sure about copepods, they are too small for me to tell.

 

Even though my mandarin eats well, I want to keep plenty of snacks for him to hunt for.

 

Will the amphipods eat the copepods and kill off their population? Or will both survive? Curious what I should dose my next 40B with. Wondering if tisbe pods are a waste if the amphipods would eat them?

 

I havn't dosed any! My little wierdo won't even eat pods anymore. There was a time I was thinking about tearing down my tank and releasing her into the 400g display tank at my LFS (I'm an employee), but I got to thinking differently. I spot feed her about three times daily. There are copepods ALL over my glass in my six gallon. However, no amphipods, she eats those. I was worried that if I actually put her in the enormous tank all the other fish would take her food and she wouldn't revert back to copepods and starve! lol

 

Also, here are pictures as promised! First is an FTS so you can see how small this tank really is. Second is her smashin on some mysis, and third is just her being adorable.

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

I've been keeping mandarins for a while now. About 7 months ago I stumbled upon a gorgeous red male in a LFS. He was absolutely starved but I figured why not try for $15...he'd be the perfect mate for my female if I could save him.

 

Well it took almost 3 weeks but I got him onto frozen brine shrimp and mysis. The other day I came home and found him dead for no apparent reason. Below is a picture from about 3 days before he died along with a couple of pics of the ladies and the tank they all shared. I attribute his sudden death to his condition when I got him. He was without a doubt in the top three or four non-dead fish I've seen as far as degree of starvation when I got him and it took a long time to fatten him up. He had just come into a good enough condition to begin showing spawning interest when he died

 

It's a 15 column and its planted mostly with caulerpa. I don't care what anyone says, proper care for these fish is far from what most believe. The healthiest mandarins in captivity are those kept in small, dedicated systems where they can be spot fed several times a day. Successful breeding, my goal, is achieved in tanks no larger than 24 gallons and believe it or not, these fish are not too hard to get onto frozen. It just takes patients and time. My two current fish are females and get along very well. They eat just about anything I feed them and I hope to find them both mates by this summer.

 

I'm going to work on getting enter close up pics of the girls so you guys can see how fat and healthy they are.

[jgpico]

I have been reading up on mandarins and obviously ORA popped up. If I am able to get my hands on an ORA mandarin would I be better off?

[FishBrawler]

I have been reading up on mandarins and obviously ORA popped up. If I am able to get my hands on an ORA mandarin would I be better off?

Supposedly they feed frozen and pellet!

[JoeDigiorgio]

I'm pretty sure they're only putting out spotted mandarins currently but they are very healthy when they send them out. I like ORA a lot but for what it's worth, spotteds are the easiest to train onto frozen food. If it takes 3 days for me to get one on mysis that's a long time.

[fretfreak13]

I've been keeping mandarins for a while now. About 7 months ago I stumbled upon a gorgeous red male in a LFS. He was absolutely starved but I figured why not try for $15...he'd be the perfect mate for my female if I could save him.

 

Well it took almost 3 weeks but I got him onto frozen brine shrimp and mysis. The other day I came home and found him dead for no apparent reason. Below is a picture from about 3 days before he died along with a couple of pics of the ladies and the tank they all shared. I attribute his sudden death to his condition when I got him. He was without a doubt in the top three or four non-dead fish I've seen as far as degree of starvation when I got him and it took a long time to fatten him up. He had just come into a good enough condition to begin showing spawning interest when he died

 

It's a 15 column and its planted mostly with caulerpa. I don't care what anyone says, proper care for these fish is far from what most believe. The healthiest mandarins in captivity are those kept in small, dedicated systems where they can be spot fed several times a day. Successful breeding, my goal, is achieved in tanks no larger than 24 gallons and believe it or not, these fish are not too hard to get onto frozen. It just takes patients and time. My two current fish are females and get along very well. They eat just about anything I feed them and I hope to find them both mates by this summer.

 

I'm going to work on getting enter close up pics of the girls so you guys can see how fat and healthy they are.

 

Aww, poor baby. Good for you for trying to save him. He probably had liver damage and there was nothing you could do for that.

 

 

I have been reading up on mandarins and obviously ORA popped up. If I am able to get my hands on an ORA mandarin would I be better off?

 

Yes, they do feed frozen. However, as an employee working at a store who deals with ORA, we get their mandarins sometimes and they don't always eat. I believe the stress from shipping causes them to lose their learned behavior and revert to their copepod eating instinct. It may be easier to re-train a mandy that once ate frozen, then stopped, though.

 

What I'm trying to say is that not all ORA mandarins will eat frozen for a hobbyist right off the bat. Your best bet is to just continuously ask your LFS to feed them in front of you.

[Tamberav]

I've been keeping mandarins for a while now. About 7 months ago I stumbled upon a gorgeous red male in a LFS. He was absolutely starved but I figured why not try for $15...he'd be the perfect mate for my female if I could save him.

 

Well it took almost 3 weeks but I got him onto frozen brine shrimp and mysis. The other day I came home and found him dead for no apparent reason. Below is a picture from about 3 days before he died along with a couple of pics of the ladies and the tank they all shared. I attribute his sudden death to his condition when I got him. He was without a doubt in the top three or four non-dead fish I've seen as far as degree of starvation when I got him and it took a long time to fatten him up. He had just come into a good enough condition to begin showing spawning interest when he died

 

It's a 15 column and its planted mostly with caulerpa. I don't care what anyone says, proper care for these fish is far from what most believe. The healthiest mandarins in captivity are those kept in small, dedicated systems where they can be spot fed several times a day. Successful breeding, my goal, is achieved in tanks no larger than 24 gallons and believe it or not, these fish are not too hard to get onto frozen. It just takes patients and time. My two current fish are females and get along very well. They eat just about anything I feed them and I hope to find them both mates by this summer.

 

I'm going to work on getting enter close up pics of the girls so you guys can see how fat and healthy they are.

 

Beautiful fish, sorry you lost him.

 

What size tank do you keep your mandarins in? I see they are together. I was thinking about adding a red female for my male once I upgrade or possibly getting a green spotted female but was concerned that a blue and a spotted would not get along.

[metrokat]

I've been keeping mandarins for a while now. About 7 months ago I stumbled upon a gorgeous red male in a LFS. He was absolutely starved but I figured why not try for $15...he'd be the perfect mate for my female if I could save him.

 

Well it took almost 3 weeks but I got him onto frozen brine shrimp and mysis. The other day I came home and found him dead for no apparent reason. Below is a picture from about 3 days before he died along with a couple of pics of the ladies and the tank they all shared. I attribute his sudden death to his condition when I got him. He was without a doubt in the top three or four non-dead fish I've seen as far as degree of starvation when I got him and it took a long time to fatten him up. He had just come into a good enough condition to begin showing spawning interest when he died

 

It's a 15 column and its planted mostly with caulerpa. I don't care what anyone says, proper care for these fish is far from what most believe. The healthiest mandarins in captivity are those kept in small, dedicated systems where they can be spot fed several times a day. Successful breeding, my goal, is achieved in tanks no larger than 24 gallons and believe it or not, these fish are not too hard to get onto frozen. It just takes patients and time. My two current fish are females and get along very well. They eat just about anything I feed them and I hope to find them both mates by this summer.

 

I'm going to work on getting enter close up pics of the girls so you guys can see how fat and healthy they are.

The coloration in the first picture is beautiful! I'm sorry your lost the little guy. I guess, like with everything in this hobby there is what you read and then there are real experiences such as yours. I hope you find some healthy males. Pictures would be awesome.

[JoeDigiorgio]

 

Beautiful fish, sorry you lost him.

 

What size tank do you keep your mandarins in? I see they are together. I was thinking about adding a red female for my male once I upgrade or possibly getting a green spotted female but was concerned that a blue and a spotted would not get along.

In my experience, dragonets of different species don't even acknowledge one another. There are three scenarios where aggression is inevitable.

 

The first, most common scenario is when two fish of the same species are kept together, regardless of the size of the aquarium, but one or both are malnourished. This is a recipe for disaster as survival of the fittest dictates that during times of need, there is no room for direct competitors. The next most common scenario is that where two members of the same species are of the same sex. I've found that males AND females are pretty intolerant of one another.

 

While this family is not known to form pair bonds, both males and females can be territorial towards others of the same sex while tolerating members of the opposite sex...given that everyone is in good condition and food is plenty. The least most common scenario occurs when a male and female are kept together and the male is not big enough to demand the respect of the female. In the wild, younger males are not welcomed in a females territory as they are inadequate mates and therefore must be driven off so a more adequate male can claim the territory. This is especially true with picturatus, I've seen. Female spotted mandarins have zero tolerance for males equal or lesser in size than them, while I've seen no aggression at all in pairs where the male is larger and both are well fed.

 

This last case leads me to believe that in the wild, mandarin males have a large territory that is made up of the territories of many females. A lot of footage of wild spawning a confirms that multiple females are involved in single spawning events but that a single dominant female is the only one actually spawning. I believe that in large enough tanks, harems can be a reality but in tanks this size, keeping the fish well fed would be so difficult that its likely females still won't tolerate one another.

[metrokat]

Wonderful information. thank you so much for sharing!

[JoeDigiorgio]

No Kat, thank you for starting this thread for people keeping these fish in small aquariums. Too often people on this site have to be afraid to say what they're keeping for fear of flamers when the irony is that this site was born of people wanting to push boundaries in this hobby to begin with.

 

I can't wait for the day when the '100lbs of live rock per fish' idea is no more for this species. It's far and away more irresponsible to allow a fish to fend for itself in a world YOU created than it is to take the time to get them onto frozen feed and keep them in a more compact sized tank where spot feeding is not only practical but very simple.