Official Mandarin and Dragonet Show off thread

[phasezero]

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

 

[metrokat]

Wow pjazero. Just wow. They look great, the female looks hydrated to me, have they been spawning?

 

That's good to hear. How's he been doing lately? On a bright note, surprisingly enough, Tangerine is still alive and kicking, I never see her eating, so she must be doing it on the sly. But alive she is. A little thin, but hey, I'll take it.

Sam did not make it. Except for pecking at OVA once and maybe trying one black worm, he did not eat at all. He did not even peck at the rocks for pods and there are pods because Bella is always pecking at them all day long. I wrote a long heartbroken email to bluezoo and they answered all my questions about how he was collected, where he came from etc. Tjwu assured me he was eating before he was shipped to me. I can only conclude that he was a extremely stressed in shipping or sick. He was not skinny so he did not starve to death even though he did not eat for the 10 days he was with me. :(I'm not going to order online again, it is too stressful for me and the fish. I'd much rather take my chances with a fish I see at the LFS. Both Draco and Bella came from a LFS.

[kush.]

not sure if you guys remember me but my mandy is doing awsome i'll get some pictures up tomorrow if not tonight!

[BulkRate]

Wow pjazero. Just wow. They look great, the female looks hydrated to me, have they been spawning?

 

Sam did not make it. Except for pecking at OVA once and maybe trying one black worm, he did not eat at all. He did not even peck at the rocks for pods and there are pods because Bella is always pecking at them all day long. I wrote a long heartbroken email to bluezoo and they answered all my questions about how he was collected, where he came from etc. Tjwu assured me he was eating before he was shipped to me. I can only conclude that he was a extremely stressed in shipping or sick. He was not skinny so he did not starve to death even though he did not eat for the 10 days he was with me. :(I'm not going to order online again, it is too stressful for me and the fish. I'd much rather take my chances with a fish I see at the LFS. Both Draco and Bella came from a LFS.

Sorry to hear... he was spectacular.

 

Right with you on the policy of getting fish via local only options. Corals/macros online, sure but there's orders of magnitude more things to go wrong with fish. Plus I like to pick out that one with just that little extra personality if possible.

 

Bonus in that better stores often go out of their way for a good customer an custom order.

[Tamberav]

Sorry to hear Kat. My tiny red girl is still alive and eating but she is very skinny, pretty much like phasezero's before pictures. Her sides are indented. I am upset Bluezoo would send me such a mandarin. I just hope she pulls through it.

 

My other blue came from LA and he arrived VERY fat. Maybe I got lucky or maybe they just don't ship skinny mandarins.

[guitarvp]

Our little guy Poncho

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

Idk what the issue is but ever since my last thread update (which was like a month ago), N-R wont let me post any pics...which is really upsetting since I have a bunch of updated pictures of the tanks and some new stuff I've picked up. Like one of the prettiest mandarins I've ever seen and a pair of blue striped pipefish.

 

Oh, and for my friends on here who are familiar with my tanks, I picked up an absolutely stunning spawning pair of onyx clownfish only to have the male jump out on me the other day...so I picked up a nice male I stumbled on in the LFS two days ago...who jumped last night. WTF I hate my life.

 

So I know how you're feeling Kat. I hate to hear that kinda news from people who do things right.

[Tamberav]

Idk what the issue is but ever since my last thread update (which was like a month ago), N-R wont let me post any pics...which is really upsetting since I have a bunch of updated pictures of the tanks and some new stuff I've picked up. Like one of the prettiest mandarins I've ever seen and a pair of blue striped pipefish.

 

Oh, and for my friends on here who are familiar with my tanks, I picked up an absolutely stunning spawning pair of onyx clownfish only to have the male jump out on me the other day...so I picked up a nice male I stumbled on in the LFS two days ago...who jumped last night. WTF I hate my life.

 

So I know how you're feeling Kat. I hate to hear that kinda news from people who do things right.

 

Get a top.. .. you make clownfish want to kill themselves.

[JoeDigiorgio]

I think maybe my female onyx talks too much or she nags or something. That's the only possible explanation.

[JoeDigiorgio]

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

 

I just noticed this post...I am so impressed! You gotta explain to us what it took to get those results. I typically consider these guys too far gone by time they look that bad but your fish are some of the nicest I've seen yet on here.

[crazyfishgirl]

I'm sorry to hear about Sam , Kat.

[oldSWseamomma]

Kat I'm so sorry to hear about Sam. I read somewhere (wish I could find the site again) that when they catch the bigger males in the wild even tho they are eating they are so stressed out from capture that their bodies can't handle the stress and starts turning against them. My LFS has a 200 gal tank with the biggest Mandarin I have ever seen - he easily is at or over 6 inches long and they put him in that tank as a baby so you may be better off getting a medium sized male next time instead of a larger or x-large guy. BTW Daenery is now a little over 3 inches long - twice her size when I got her in April. :0) She actually swims to the top and eats the SA pellets that float as well as NLS pellets that sink, Ova, small frozen brine shrimp and of course she gets 2 bottles of pods a month (1 tisbe and 1 tigger) she loves the tigger pods the best. Hope your next Mandy boy is THE ONE for your little Bella

[SmorgishBorg]

Just got my little guy 5 days ago and couldn't be happier with him. He was a little skinny when I first picked him up at the store but hes now starting to gain some weight. Its amazing how fast my little guy picked up on frozen food training, a little example by a fuzzy dwarf lion and he picked the idea right up. Hes on mysis right now but I hope to get him onto pellets too. Its hard to get a good picture of him since he never stops moving but here's two.

[Tamberav]

BTW reefs2go is doing their 2000 pods for $25 deal atm.

[JoeDigiorgio]

BTW reefs2go is doing their 2000 pods for $25 deal atm.

Jumped on it lol I split it with a friend.

 

Seriously though, can someone help me out with posting pics? For some reason N-R wont allow me to post pics. It keeps saying that uploading is not allowed I have so many pics of my new mandarin and pipefish that I want to brag with!!!

[metrokat]

email them to me Joe, I'll post for ya

[metrokat]

My new Mandarin has been with me a week and likes to do a dolphin flip when he sees a frozen brine shrimp floating by.

I haven't found a name for him yet but I am a bit concerned about food. He has an appetite and is cruising the tank for food at all times, he eats small particle frozen, live BBS, frozen brine shrimp. I have not seen him actually eat a live black worm yet.

 

The trouble is that like all mandarins, he takes his own sweet time to eat, and the more aggressive fish like my 24/7 hormonal Clownfish and the Bangaii cardinal are very aggressive when it comes to food. No matter how much food I give them before I feed the mandarins, they make a beeline soon enough to the food surrounding the mandarins.

 

So I need to fatten my new guy. Isolating him into a breeder net can be stressful. But I don't know what else to try. The mandarin diner I had made is an open container so the other fish will get to it too. Thoughts?

[JoeDigiorgio]

Kat I've been so busy this week I haven't gotten to email you those pics yet...I need a vacation.

 

Anyway, when my mandarins used to live with the clowns, I tried the diner type feeder and I couldn't get it to perform the way I wanted. Food would always get blown out, the clowns would figure out how to get in, new mandarins were afraid to go inside...so I gave up on it and just started to feed by kicking off the pumps for a while and spraying the mysis/cyclopeeze/Ova/brine salad across the sand bed in front of the tank.

 

End result? A neat party trick where I can make all of my fish gather at the front glass with the flick of a switch

[metrokat]

I do that too Joe. The mandarins like to stay in the back of of the tank though. I just feed live black worms. ROE. Mysis. And copepods.

[Tamberav]

Maybe fatten him up in the fuge?

 

I had a similar problem, didn't like battling the fish or shrimp away from the mandarins. That is why I have the 29g mandy only tank now.

[Based]

I don't know if its just my Mandarin, but on a rare occasion i will find him in the morning floating at the top with his tail twisted near his head letting the pump take him where ever. Scares the crap out of me.

[metrokat]

His own personal bidet?

[Polarcollision]

This makes me happy! Anyone else notice their mandarin eating spaghetti worms?

 

[Tamberav]

I have seen mine try to eat a snail before. lol

[Polarcollision]

I have seen mine try to eat a snail before. lol

:-) silly little fish. I'm upgrading my aquarium next week and am overrun by spaghetti worms and giant amphipods. Coral and fish are well fed!. Looking forward to having room for fish that like to munch and keep them in check