Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

I'm a few weeks away from getting a mandy. I'm thinking of using a diner. For those of you who use one, did you pick the place for your diner or put it in a place your mandy visits on his/her own? Do you remove the diner after feeding?

 

Thanks!

[JoeDigiorgio]

Guess whose back in the dragonet game...pics to come.

[gsgentry]

My DT tank is almost done cycling and full of pods. I am also cycling my QT tank now as well. Couple of questions though...

 

 

1) Do you all QT your Mandarins?

2) Would it be best to get him as my first fish so he doesn't have to fight others for food and this allows time to make sure I can find something else that he will eat?

3) Reading through this thread, there are many different foods you all use. Is there maybe 3 "most common" that work that I could start with?

 

 

Thank you everyone and I love all your beautiful fish!!!

[Snow_Phoenix]

My DT tank is almost done cycling and full of pods. I am also cycling my QT tank now as well. Couple of questions though...

 

 

1) Do you all QT your Mandarins?

2) Would it be best to get him as my first fish so he doesn't have to fight others for food and this allows time to make sure I can find something else that he will eat?

3) Reading through this thread, there are many different foods you all use. Is there maybe 3 "most common" that work that I could start with?

 

 

Thank you everyone and I love all your beautiful fish!!!

 

1) Mandarin are usually ich-resistant, but they can succumb to certain diseases just like any other fish. With that being said, no, I didn't QT my Mandarin. Only because he was already in an established system and over a year old before being handed down to me.

 

2) Absolutely not. I made a mistake of starting up a 12G macro tank and putting a Mandy in there as my first fish, and when the system collapsed and I lost everything (except the Mandy), it was an eye opener. Also, my Mandy decimated the entire pod population in the 12G macro tank within a week. What you're getting in a new tank is a pod bloom, which is fairly common and will dwindle over time as the tank stabilizes. This pod bloom is temporary though, and even if you put in a Mandy, he or she will decimate the entire pod population fairly quickly. I personally wouldn't recommend anyone keeping a Mandy in a system less than 50G, unless it's trained onto frozen and you're dosing the tank with pods fairly often. I'm keeping my Mandy in my 30G simply because I managed to get him onto pellets, Repashy paste, frozen brine and frozen mysis. I am also planning on ordering pods from a local biotech firm to supplement his diet since the primary food of Mandys are live, and not frozen. So unless you're getting a Mandy that's trained or one of the ORA specimens, I wouldn't recommend you getting one - especially as a first fish.

 

3) Pods, Live Baby Brine Shrimp and Live blackworms. You could do frozen stuff like mysis, brine and bloodworms, but monitor your nitrate and PO4 levels constantly.

[GHill762]

I also invited him to be my guest on nano reef radio but he didn't reply to that.

nano reef radio? what's this?

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some snapshots of my Mandy, Michael. He's been with me for almost three months now (if I'm not mistaken) and he was originally from someone else's 180G system for around a year. So yeah, he's over a year old. Currently on Repashy Spawn & Grow, Hikari Marine S Pellets, NQ Copepods (live), Frozen Mysis, Frozen Brine and Frozen Bloodworms.

 

He loves stealing the food from my coral.

 

 

 

[Tamberav]

+1, I wouldn't get a mandy 1st. I would be worried the new system wouldn't be able to handle the frequent feedings and crash or cause a algae bloom.

[gsgentry]

Thanks for the info. I guess my thought process was good.. just not practical. I will wait a little while and talk to a couple of my LFS and see if they have come across any that are eating various foods and go from there. I am sure a mandarin would take out my pod population in a day.

[Snow_Phoenix]

+1, I wouldn't get a mandy 1st. I would be worried the new system wouldn't be able to handle the frequent feedings and crash or cause a algae bloom.

 

I agree with Tamberav on this one. I lost around 20+ dwarf white hermits at a go because my nano couldn't cope with the constant feedings I was giving to my Mandy. Thank goodness Michael (my Mandy) survived it, but I'd say it was purely luck that he did. Right now I only have one dwarf white hermit in my bigger 30G system, and he's adorable to watch as he scuttles around in a shell three times bigger than himself. He's basically a living testimony of my stupidity and my impatience. So I honestly wouldn't recommend anyone keeping a Mandy in a new system.

 

If you are still insistent on keeping one though, make sure you have a strong setup and a mature system to cope with all the feedings. That, and a trained dragonet if possible.

[JoeDigiorgio]

1) Mandarin are usually ich-resistant, but they can succumb to certain diseases just like any other fish. With that being said, no, I didn't QT my Mandarin. Only because he was already in an established system and over a year old before being handed down to me.

 

2) Absolutely not. I made a mistake of starting up a 12G macro tank and putting a Mandy in there as my first fish, and when the system collapsed and I lost everything (except the Mandy), it was an eye opener. Also, my Mandy decimated the entire pod population in the 12G macro tank within a week. What you're getting in a new tank is a pod bloom, which is fairly common and will dwindle over time as the tank stabilizes. This pod bloom is temporary though, and even if you put in a Mandy, he or she will decimate the entire pod population fairly quickly. I personally wouldn't recommend anyone keeping a Mandy in a system less than 50G, unless it's trained onto frozen and you're dosing the tank with pods fairly often. I'm keeping my Mandy in my 30G simply because I managed to get him onto pellets, Repashy paste, frozen brine and frozen mysis. I am also planning on ordering pods from a local biotech firm to supplement his diet since the primary food of Mandys are live, and not frozen. So unless you're getting a Mandy that's trained or one of the ORA specimens, I wouldn't recommend you getting one - especially as a first fish.

 

3) Pods, Live Baby Brine Shrimp and Live blackworms. You could do frozen stuff like mysis, brine and bloodworms, but monitor your nitrate and PO4 levels constantly.

 

My only point of contention with this post is the idea that dosing pods is a must. It is most definitely not for a properly cared for/trained fish. It's nice to do but the most readily available ones are the tigriopus, which will not populate a conventional aquarium as they are pelagic. Amphipods and tisbe are the only ones worth getting and even tisbe doesn't hold numbers well so it's not a great investment. Once on frozen foods, its entirely possible to keep a happy healthy dragonet on commercially available frozen diet. Also, just as an FYI, I don't think ORA has released any dragonets in a year or so, so I wouldn't rely on that. Mine ate mostly Ova, mysis and enriched adult brine with blackworms and even baby guppies as supplement.

 

Also, in regards to QT, they're disease resistant but a bare bottom tank is a great way to monitor what and how much he is eating for a few weeks to put some weight on him and work on getting him to eat a better variety without the stress of other fish competing with him. Much quicker and easier than in the display.

[gsgentry]

Good info... I don't have any problem with dosing pods occasionally, but I know they will devour them in no time and don't want the expense of that being their ONLY food.

[Tamberav]

I don't know if I have seen enough mandy's kept for many many years on frozen alone. I mean lifespan wise. One of the causes of 'mysterious' death in aquaria is fatty liver disease caused by our lovely frozen foods and mandy's getting fed more than your typical clownfish.

 

I could be out of my league here but It's something to think about when a fat healthy fish suddenly loses his appetite and perishes.

 

I guess I am just saying there is a lot we don't know and mandarin's eating frozen and breeding in captivity is just a blip in the timeline still. I know you always say to have a well rounded diet and I 100% agree I guess I just wouldn't write pods off in that diet.

 

My only point of contention with this post is the idea that dosing pods is a must. It is most definitely not for a properly cared for/trained fish. It's nice to do but the most readily available ones are the tigriopus, which will not populate a conventional aquarium as they are pelagic. Amphipods and tisbe are the only ones worth getting and even tisbe doesn't hold numbers well so it's not a great investment. Once on frozen foods, its entirely possible to keep a happy healthy dragonet on commercially available frozen diet. Also, just as an FYI, I don't think ORA has released any dragonets in a year or so, so I wouldn't rely on that. Mine ate mostly Ova, mysis and enriched adult brine with blackworms and even baby guppies as supplement. Also, in regards to QT, they're disease resistant but a bare bottom tank is a great way to monitor what and how much he is eating for a few weeks to put some weight on him and work on getting him to eat a better variety without the stress of other fish competing with him. Much quicker and easier than in the display.

[GHill762]

I don't know if I have seen enough mandy's kept for many many years on frozen alone. I mean lifespan wise. One of the causes of 'mysterious' death in aquaria is fatty liver disease caused by our lovely frozen foods and mandy's getting fed more than your typical clownfish.

 

It's something to think about when a fat healthy fish suddenly loses his appetite and perishes.

and they don't have a stomach to hold food, so you'd have to be constantly dripping frozen into the tank..

 

paulb's live food feeder is probably the best idea, but then you have to have a constant supply of live foods..

[Boggers]

ORA has stopped their Mandarin breeding due to lack of sales. There was also a lot of negative feedback that not all would eat frozen/pellets right off the bat. Mine eats the frozen mixture I put in for everyone else, and I buy live pods every 5 months or so. He is a fat little man and loves to come out mostly at dusk.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Fatty liver disease is a result of poor DHA/EPA ratios in the fish foods we offer. Salt water fish have different fat requirements than fresh. PaulB hit it on the head when he did that write up including fish oil pills in the diets of his fish.

 

The ever popular PE mysis is a...freshwater mysis. Most of the meal used in dried pellets are either spirulina based, a freshwater algae, or shrimp based (shrimp are nothing special by way of HUFA).

 

For these reasons, I include a lot of shrimp, for protein and color, with a lot of fish/shrimp egg products, silversides and fish oil tabs in my DIY foods. I include spirulina because its cheap and available as roughage veggie matter but I do my best to make up those HUFAs with oily silversides and caviars of different sources (Ova, R.O.E, DrG Caviar etc).

[Kirky]

Would like to show my little ruby red scooter we picked up yesterday as our Lfs had them on offer at half price £25. Only down side doesn't eat frozen food so going to culture some bbs and copepods to keep him happy and healthy.

http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/kirky1993/media/image_zpsccb1ec70.jpg.html'>

http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/kirky1993/media/image_zps7bee1dec.jpg.html'>

[frag collector]

I will get in on this when I get back home...my manderin got sucked up into a powerhead and survived! Lol

 

 

he/she is doing well now.... very established tank here n mine is happy!!!

 

 

yours all are BEAUTIFUL!!

[GHill762]

Would like to show my little ruby red scooter we picked up yesterday as our Lfs had them on offer at half price £25. Only down side doesn't eat frozen food so going to culture some bbs and copepods to keep him happy and healthy.

[metrokat]

Ive been away from home since Wednesday morning and when I get back tomorrow night it will be 5 full days since Sam would have been target fed. I am going to get live black worms and prepare for small daily water changes .

[metrokat]

The prognosis on Sam is not good. He eats what is offered to him but is outcompeted for food if left to his own devices. He is getting skinnier by the day even though the hand feeding daily of brine shrimp (his fav food) and live black worms give him a little bulge around his throat area for a little bit. I can see his bones and a sunken tummy and it breaks my heart.

 

He loves OVA too but he won't sit around pecking at it for any length of time. I might have to get an acrylic box to isolate him in or put him in the fuge. If this continues...

[JoeDigiorgio]

What's the deal!? I haven't been able to find Ova in stores or online in like 2 months....

[Tamberav]

What's the deal!? I haven't been able to find Ova in stores or online in like 2 months....

 

I noticed that too. Luckily I was taking a trip like... 2.5 hours south of me and found a store there that had some.

 

If any come in stock... let me know. I only got 2 packs since the fish store was charging a lot more than online.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Yea you too. If you notice a site that has it shoot me a pm. The fish are starting to think something's wrong LOL

[Tamberav]

Yea you too. If you notice a site that has it shoot me a pm. The fish are starting to think something's wrong LOL

 

Kinda spendy but looks like this place has some.

 

http://www.neptuneaquatics.com/supply/nutramar-ova-prawn-eggs-100-gram

[JoeDigiorgio]

Mother of God. No wonder they still have. That's more expensive than any LFS. The kids can keep eating the agar slushy I made them for that much money.