Question about pods

[BioCube Newb]

I have a biocube 29 gallon, the 2nd chamber i have dedicated to a refugium.  My question:  Will a refugium of that size breed enough pods to support a dragonet?

[Tired]

Nowhere close. Dragonets need to eat pods almost constantly to do well. There's not much to the average pod, after all. You could make the whole tank a 'fuge and you might still have trouble keeping that dragonet fed with it. 

 

However, some dragonet species are available as captive-bred specimens that will eat frozen foods. How often are you willing to feed? That may be your best option.

[BioCube Newb]

unfortunately job will only allow me to feed once a day, looks like this fish just isn't in the cards.

[Tired]

Some people keep dragonites happy on feeding once a day, but that's best done with a pretty heavily podded tank. I'd get your tank set up and wait awhile- you might end up with one that's just swarming with pods. 

You could also potentially culture pods in a separate enclosure and periodically add them in, not as the main food source, but as an addition to the frozen food diet. 

 

My suggestion would be to get few enough fish that you could still add a dragonet-sized fish, and just give it half a year or so, see how things shape up.

[BioCube Newb]

I'm not to heartbroken over it, my SO saw pics of one and fell in love.  But as you say we can see how it looks down the road

[Tired]

I don't blame your SO, they're amazing fish! So beautiful, and if you watch them, incredibly personable. They're kind of like little lizards. They scoot around looking for things, and they can move their heads independently of the rest of them, which is adorable in fish. Definitely a fish you could put on the list of things to try to keep in the future, just not the best for starter tanks. 

 

For a fish with the same general personality, try blennies. There's nothing that looks like a mandarin or target dragonet, but if your SO likes the scooters, rooster waspfish (if you can find one) are very neat, easy to care for, and look kind of similar. They're venomous, though not deadly, and pretty hardy if the parameters are stable. Just don't keep them with anything easily startled- I lost a blenny because it got scared and mistakenly darted straight into the waspfish. Waspfish hunker down and flare their spines when startled, so that ended badly for the blenny. Not a likely scenario, but I can vouch it's possible!

[BioCube Newb]

lol yeah probably not the best with a few firefish, if i had more time I'd think about raising pods to dose with.  Otherwise give it a couple years and aquacultured ones that take prepared food should be plentiful hopefully