Mandarin Dragonette FOTM- May 08'

Thought I would add some good links were we are discussing the care of these fish.It would be great if we could get people to post there experiences with keeping these fish so we can help others succeed.TIA


http://www.3reef.com/forums/tropical-fish/how-long-should-i-wait-get-mandarin-113142.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-food/mandarin-dragonet-feeding-117256.html

 

My situation was not very ordinary with my green mandarin. I added her as my first fish to my tank. I saw tons of pods after my tank cycled and a good deal on her at a LFS so I got her. I did not QT her as I thought that would be very difficult but it turned out to be fine.

What I did was buy a kent sea squirt and some live brine. I put the brine in a critter keeper with an air stone until I was ready to feed them all to the mandarin. I fed the brine shrimp with phytoplan and let them turn all nice and green. I would then suck some up with the sea squirt and squirt them by my mandarin. It took her about a week to realize that food came from that thing. She still remembers that food comes from it today even though I don't feed live as much anymore. Sometimes I could trick her to eat mysis or rods from the sea squirt, but she would take one bite and look at me like "what is this stuff?". Today she is still a fat little blimp and I must have pods galore because I only buy her shrimp as a treat now. She very well may be eating pellets that fall to the ground and I wouldn't know it. She is very daring for a mandarin and will take things that float by.

I guess my point to this is that a mandarin is very possible to take care of, but they require a lot of special care, especially at the beginning when they are skinny from the LFS. no matter what you can get them to eat, they will still like pods more.

 

For your one success story there are hundreds if not thousands of mandarins that were add to tanks too new and too early that perished.

It's also very possible to keep octopi and sea horses, but it's something I do not encourage. Why because, newer hobbyist like to think they are up for the challenge, they will be the ones cry success. How do I know this, because I did the same thing.

Mandarins are not alone in this "I beat the odds syndrome". They go hand in hand with Copper Banded butterflies, Moorish Idols.

My intent is not to offend or be-little others experience with the fish, but hope that others can learn from my mistakes.

 

great ideal vinny here's mine.


vinny i have kept a dragon in my 50 sq tank how over 5 years and he's beautiful, i've never bought pods but, i have kept 10 or more pep shrimp in this tank and the fish does eat mysic and brine and blood worms to he also eats the offspring of these pep shrimp they reproduce often and keep and abundance of food in the tank for him maybe this is another way to keep this fish alive in our tanks

 

I took a video of my pair eating Nutramar Ova off of a Favia coral. It's a simple way to supplement their diet, and less of the food goes to waste because the coral will eat what's left. I usually get the food right on the coral, but it's a little difficult using the camera and feeding tube at the same time. You can see that they are accustomed to the tube and not afraid of it.

 

Very cool! Did you find they liked nutramar ova better than other foods? or were these guys already eating this food? my mandarin won't touch cyclops but I think she'll pick at rod's food sometimes.

 

They had to be trained on the Nutramar. So far, it's the only prepared food they will eat.

 

I lucked out. Mine ate anything I put in the tank and lived 8 years. He died after an injury which blinded him in one eye and he was never the same after that.


---
- ----------------
Sent from Tapatalk, so please forgive grammar and spelling

 

Hopefully one day my tank will be able to support this beautiful fish!