Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[JoeDigiorgio]

Well fed males of different species probably won't fight.

 

Aggression in your situation is secondary to food not space. What inevitably happens is one out competes the other leaving one or both feeling like there is something worth fighting for. Micro fauna populations are fickle and come and go in waves over time whether it seems so or not so you can't rely on them that way.

 

You're not going to find a lot of support here for not getting them onto prepared food, and even less for trying it with more than one. Like I said, you're going to do whatever you want so no point in looking for approval.

 

Healthy mandarins will try new things. There's really no reason to not find things to at least reliably supplement both with in addition to letting them enjoy amphipods and what not while you're away from the tank.

[bpb]

I appreciate the write up. Despite my post count I'm not entirely new, just spent the bulk of my time on RC and my local reef forums. I've had my male target Mandy for 2 years now and he's doing fantastic. Just never has take. To any form of prepared foods despite my frequent efforts. It hasn't been an issue at all, as i have set my sump up specifically with pod growing in mind. I realize no setup is fool proof but it's done well. I even removed my protein skimmer partially to preserve pod populations.

 

I'm also a big proponent of the "it's your tank do what you want, you're only seeking advice for someone to validate a bad idea" adage so I do take that to heart. I haven't had my heart set on a second mandarin, just have a friend getting out who has a beautiful blue mandarin in his tank and I wanted to get more opinions on adopting it.

 

Based on responses which make perfect sense I'm going to pass. I am attatched to mine at this point and don't want to do anything to put him in jeopardy

[JoeDigiorgio]

Is the blue eating anything reliably? How big is your tank? I don't mean to be/sound rude but there's a lot of people looking for support of bad ideas and they get testy when they don't get it.

 

I'm not saying it isn't possible. Well fed mandarins don't like to fight but blue are especially mean once they decide fighting is an option. If one were going to lose it would be the one you're more attached to.

It could be as simple as finding just one frozen food they love, and allowing the pods in the tank do the rest. That guarantees they get at least a nice full belly once or twice a day and don't resort to fighting.

[lkoechle]

You could also use my situation as a cautionary tale. I have two mandys. Male will eat prepared, I have not found anything for the female even though she was sold to me as eating g prepared. Now I have Ich in my display and have to move everyone. It will be very interesting to see if I have two mandys in the end. If the female was eating prepared, I could confidently tell you yes, they will both be alive, but since she isn't, I can't say that for sure. Prepared foods is a good safeguard for these circumstances.

[bpb]

Not rude to give sound advice. I had reservations so I asked. Tank is probably on the small side for 2. Even a mated pair. 90 display 40 sump, no skimming, all 3 chambers filled completely with rock.

 

I've tried quite a bit with frozen to no avail. Formula 1&2 frozen, various hikari packs, PE mysis, cyclopeeze, reef chili, all manner of nls pellets, San Francisco Bay frozen packs. Reef frenzy, reef roids, rods food. Ignores it all even when target fed. He's not shy or afraid of my hand either

[JoeDigiorgio]

Not rude to give sound advice. I had reservations so I asked. Tank is probably on the small side for 2. Even a mated pair. 90 display 40 sump, no skimming, all 3 chambers filled completely with rock.

I've tried quite a bit with frozen to no avail. Formula 1&2 frozen, various hikari packs, PE mysis, cyclopeeze, reef chili, all manner of nls pellets, San Francisco Bay frozen packs. Reef frenzy, reef roids, rods food. Ignores it all even when target fed. He's not shy or afraid of my hand either

Try live black worms. Most stores can get them if you ask nicely.

 

In my honest opinion a 90 is actually too big and here is why I feel that way. In a tank with that much space, it's next to impossible to target feed, which I'm sure you've experienced. They move away from the pipette, other fish come in, the mandarin never learns the pipette is a good thing not a bad one. I'd be willing to bet that in a more confined area, you'd get your mandarin eating prepped foods quickly.

[lkoechle]

bpb, If you look back a couple pages, you can see the mandarin box I built. It worked for my male, but my female has yet to go in it.

[pokerdobe]

What do you guys think about lobster roe? We have a group buy going on and I bought a pack of lobster eggs. Hoping this is something my mandarin will like.

[lessergeneration]

What do you guys think about lobster roe? We have a group buy going on and I bought a pack of lobster eggs. Hoping this is something my mandarin will like.

At one time i fed mine crayfish eggs haha. As long as they aren't too large i don't see an issue

[JoeDigiorgio]

What do you guys think about lobster roe? We have a group buy going on and I bought a pack of lobster eggs. Hoping this is something my mandarin will like.

 

Is the group buy happening in America? I want in.

[metrokat]

Is the group buy happening in America? I want in.

me too

[LebaneseDlight]

Joined the club this week. Pair of Red Scooters from my LFS (lucky me) Unique Corals. Eating frozen mysis from day one. The smaller one looks hungry though. I've supplemented with a ton of pods. Fingas Crossed!

 

http://vid33.photobucket.com/albums/d72/gregsarkissian/IMG_3394.mp4

 

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[pokerdobe]

Is the group buy happening in America? I want in.

 

 

me too

 

 

It's on the local Houston reef club. I don't know if they're accepting orders from non-members but never hurts to ask.

 

http://www.marsh-reef.org/marshian-group-buys-~-members-only/46405-ova-alternative-lobster-eggs-3.html

 

Link to the topic.

[jamescstein]

My wife bought 3 ruby reds at Reefapalooza. 2 females and 1 male. Guess what this is...

 

 

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

OMG I want them!!!

And fertile to boot.

[metrokat]

Wow

[jamescstein]

We have larvae

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

Are you culturing anything to take a shot at raising them?

[gulfsurfer101]

I have rotifers. I can send you lots and lots of them.

Here's a pic I got today as a matter of fact as I had all pumps killed and was feeding my coral a bunch of live rotifers.

 

[jamescstein]

We have rots, copepods, phyto of various forms in various stages of thriving and crashing.

 

My wife is attempting to raise them. To be honest we weren't expecting them to spawn at this stage. However, we had a mass die off last night. There are still a couple alive but most have died.

 

 

Still no mouths and the yolk sac isn't completely absorbed. Wondering if they even had a chance to begin with as the parents were in pretty bad shape when we got them. They are just now starting to look healthy.

 

This is her thread on RC thread for the Ruby Red (Synchiropus stellatus) http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23716194

This is her thread on RC thread for her Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2469073

 

We are pretty sure her male splendius is sterile.

[gulfsurfer101]

My red mandarin is so elusive, whenever he is visible and I get my shot into focus, he's gone! It's so annoying lol.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Odd that you had so much die off before the end of prolarvae. You're probably right that it had to do with the parents' condition. What kind of copepod are you culturing right now? I'd bet Parvocalanus would get the job done for you.

[jamescstein]

Odd that you had so much die off before the end of prolarvae. You're probably right that it had to do with the parents' condition. What kind of copepod are you culturing right now? I'd bet Parvocalanus would get the job done for you.

 

Yes parvo, tisbe, pseudo, a-tonza and tiggers. The parvo is specifically for the mandrain larvae since they need small pelagic pods for food.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Well...I agree parvo would be best but I'm sure you're aware that spotted mandarins have been settled on A tonsa which many consider easier to culture. I just got my Iso cultures back up and running for parvo myself to supplement my orchid dottybacks and hopefully get some picturatus to settlement this summer.

 

 

Oh...and I picked up a very nice male ruby red today. Stumbled upon him while I was store hopping looking for healthy female picturatus. Didn't find my spotted mandarin but now I have one half of two different dragonet projects for the summer lol wish two halves made a whole for me.

[metrokat]

Jake Adams

12:57 PM (23 hours ago)

to me

Oh Hey Kat,

Thanks for the tip, I will keep an eye out for the return of Ova in my neighborhood LFS.

Jake