Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[el_ote]

lol... whats a good price for them? (links dead for me.) thats where I got my ova from.

[patback]

Not a mandarin, but here's my newest addition. I'll take a better pic when I do some tank maintenance and don't have to focus past algae and salt creep.

[Tamberav]

lol... whats a good price for them? (links dead for me.) thats where I got my ova from.

 

dr foster and smith sells them for $7 a pack

 

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.

 

Ya I cried a little when I paid $10 per at the fish store.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Not gonna lie, I pay $11.99 at the LFS but when it's just me, that's cheaper than paying shipping on a $7 pack. This week I was planning to get a big order together with some friends but the Drs are currently out

 

Pat...that is a mandarin...?

[Tamberav]

Not gonna lie, I pay $11.99 at the LFS but when it's just me, that's cheaper than paying shipping on a $7 pack. This week I was planning to get a big order together with some friends but the Drs are currently out

 

Pat...that is a mandarin...?

 

LFS? What's that? Don't have such things here

[JoeDigiorgio]

LFS? What's that? Don't have such things here

 

Shut it, you're doing pretty well over there from what I can see

[Tamberav]

Shut it, you're doing pretty well over there from what I can see

 

Fedex makes so much $ off me!

[metrokat]

Fosters and smith will get their stock at the end of the month. $6.99 Plus overnight shipping.

[patback]

Not gonna lie, I pay $11.99 at the LFS but when it's just me, that's cheaper than paying shipping on a $7 pack. This week I was planning to get a big order together with some friends but the Drs are currently out

Pat...that is a mandarin...?

well, yeah, but most people with myself included think of the psychedelic swirls and patterns when someone says mandarin. I just consider the spotted mandarin as a dragonet. Ideally I wanted A ruby red dragonet but the only lfs that gets them in is on my shit list, and I know my gf really wanted one of these little guys.

[Based]

I have no clue if I ever updated this forum, but a few weeks ago bullseye passed. He was acting really strange when I went to feed him. I want to say he brushed up against my anemone because he did have a discoloration spot near the end of his body. He stayed in one spot breathing hard for at least an hour or two then I flashed a flash light in the tank and he darted. I miss the little guy. When I get my 46 gallon I'll give a blue/green mandarin and possibly another target mandarin a shot. Also Thor is doing great but the night of the day I found bullseye dead, Thor floated to the top at night with his tail twisted letting the current take him wherever, bullseye did that once in a while..

[JoeDigiorgio]

I have no clue if I ever updated this forum, but a few weeks ago bullseye passed. He was acting really strange when I went to feed him. I want to say he brushed up against my anemone because he did have a discoloration spot near the end of his body. He stayed in one spot breathing hard for at least an hour or two then I flashed a flash light in the tank and he darted. I miss the little guy. When I get my 46 gallon I'll give a blue/green mandarin and possibly another target mandarin a shot. Also Thor is doing great but the night of the day I found bullseye dead, Thor floated to the top at night with his tail twisted letting the current take him wherever, bullseye did that once in a while..

On rare occasion my female would float around like that eating baby hermit crabs as they were released. She was so smart. I miss that ####ing fish

 

Fosters and smith will get their stock at the end of the month. $6.99 Plus overnight shipping.

Are you going off their projected dates or do you know this from experience? Never made a purchase from them to be honest.

[metrokat]

DFS is excellent they stick by their projected dates.

[BulkRate]

I'm lucky down here... Three stores accessible to me have Nutramar for $8-11.. yes a markup but convenient - I only have the one splendidus female and no plans to add another in the current tank. The shipping on the food kills the online purchase value in my case.

 

Incidentally, what do you do for flow in a mandy-centric tank? The Korallia285 seemed to be too much, and the mp10's "lagoon mode" isn't wowing me for much the same reason. Mayhap an evo 160? (9 gallon "cube")

[HVani]

Nutramar ova is $15 a pack here. Lukily I don't go through it too fast since my dragonets eat a variety of things.

[Tamberav]

I'm lucky down here... Three stores accessible to me have Nutramar for $8-11.. yes a markup but convenient - I only have the one splendidus female and no plans to add another in the current tank. The shipping on the food kills the online purchase value in my case.

 

Incidentally, what do you do for flow in a mandy-centric tank? The Korallia285 seemed to be too much, and the mp10's "lagoon mode" isn't wowing me for much the same reason. Mayhap an evo 160? (9 gallon "cube")

 

Mine don't have any problems with high flow and sometimes sit right in front of the power head going full blast on them. They are much stronger swimmers than they appear

[JoeDigiorgio]

Agreed. They don't mind flow. Just kick off the circulation pumps for feeding.

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

Here is my new/first mandarin. I really was hoping for a blue one, but I promised myself I would only get a fat/mysis eating mandy. This guy was the nicest out of the five or six they had. I think he is quite fetching pic was taken at dinner time, please forgive the Ova falling all around him.

 

[BulkRate]

Huh... maybe I'm totally mis-reading my little girl. She hangs out all day behind the rockwork & in the macroalgae and doesn't venture out in to the front sections of the tank until the pumps are cut; at which point she's immediately out and about. I've been concerned because it's taking a LONG time for her to put the weight back on despite eating with gusto each night (target feeding a mix of Nutramar/crushed NLS Spectrum pellets). A guess was that she was having to swim too hard to fight the flow in the tank, but it seems that I'm not too far off the mark, powerhead-wise.

 

Now, could this just be the result of food training ("pumps are off!...where's the food?") reaction versus the fish avoiding higher flow areas?

 

Pics later tonight - I'd appreciate an opinion on her figure two months in (no, that did not come out right ).

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

You said she eats "each nigh." Are you only feeding once a day? If that is the case, try feeding 2-3x a day.

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66620096@N02/12418596873/'>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66620096@N02/12418596873/'>Mandarin and Mysis by http://www.flickr.com/people/66620096@N02/'>J.L Photography, on Flickr

[BulkRate]

Huh... maybe I'm totally mis-reading my little girl. She hangs out all day behind the rockwork & in the macroalgae and doesn't venture out in to the front sections of the tank until the pumps are cut; at which point she's immediately out and about. I've been concerned because it's taking a LONG time for her to put the weight back on despite eating with gusto each night (target feeding a mix of Nutramar/crushed NLS Spectrum pellets). A guess was that she was having to swim too hard to fight the flow in the tank, but it seems that I'm not too far off the mark, powerhead-wise.

 

Now, could this just be the result of food training ("pumps are off!...where's the food?") reaction versus the fish avoiding higher flow areas?

 

Pics later tonight - I'd appreciate an opinion on her figure two months in (no, that did not come out right ).

 

OK... took longer than expected to get back here. Who'da thought a measly 1-3" of snow/ice mix would constitute a state-wide emergency? But so it does if you're down south and there's only 4 snowplows/salt trucks in the entire metro area and every power/phone/cable line is mounted on easily-downed poles.

 

On second thought (looking back over my earlier pics), she doesn't look as bad to me now as the pics from when she first arrived. But every now and then she'll turn suddenly and it'll look like her belly's got a pinky-nail shaped concave dent that seems to me to be hinting at the starving mandarin shots we've all come to dread. Opinions?

 

I've started live foods (newly hatched BBS) in the morning before I head off to work to ensure she's got something to hunt down & graze upon during the day in between the nightly feedings. Any more and the hair algae in the tank goes dominant (got really bad there for awhile during the prepared-food training process).

[Mr. Microscope]

 

Mandarin and Mysis by J.L Photography, on Flickr

[metrokat]

OK... took longer than expected to get back here. Who'da thought a measly 1-3" of snow/ice mix would constitute a state-wide emergency? But so it does if you're down south and there's only 4 snowplows/salt trucks in the entire metro area and every power/phone/cable line is mounted on easily-downed poles.

 

On second thought (looking back over my earlier pics), she doesn't look as bad to me now as the pics from when she first arrived. But every now and then she'll turn suddenly and it'll look like her belly's got a pinky-nail shaped concave dent that seems to me to be hinting at the starving mandarin shots we've all come to dread. Opinions?

 

I've started live foods (newly hatched BBS) in the morning before I head off to work to ensure she's got something to hunt down & graze upon during the day in between the nightly feedings. Any more and the hair algae in the tank goes dominant (got really bad there for awhile during the prepared-food training process).

She looks fatter than Sam.

 

And I was stuck in Atlanta 2 weeks ago during your 2 inches of snow.

[metrokat]

Bella is charging at Sam today. Since she is not hydrated, I am taking this as a sign of Sam deteriorating.

[BulkRate]

I'm sorry that Sam isn't doing well... He seemed to have so much going for him on arrival.

 

So I should be encouraged, or still apprehensive about little-as-yet-unnamed mandarin? The rest of the fam's getting antsy about my trepidation, as she's been in the tank since early December.