For those who have/have had a Mandarin Dragonet (any type is oK)

alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by CindyLoWho
I've had a little female for about 2 years. They need lots of live rock with critters to eat. They are not good frozen food eaters and they wont compete with other tank mates for live food, like brine shrimp, if the tank mates are aggressive eaters.

Exactly. I got a mandarin when my tank was fairly new. The lfs showed me it eating frozen mysis BEFORE I even considered buying it. However, it is a pain in the neck because I have to try to isolate it and then squirt the mysis at it while keeping the other fish away. Mandarins are not aggressive at all when it comes to going after food.
Also, frozen brine has zero nutritional value and a mandarin eating only that will still die from malnutrition.
 
mark_d

mark_d

Member
Originally Posted by alyssia
Exactly. I got a mandarin when my tank was fairly new. The lfs showed me it eating frozen mysis BEFORE I even considered buying it. However, it is a pain in the neck because I have to try to isolate it and then squirt the mysis at it while keeping the other fish away. Mandarins are not aggressive at all when it comes to going after food.
Also, frozen brine has zero nutritional value and a mandarin eating only that will still die from malnutrition.
Will it live off of mysis? I think thats what the local LFS feeds the mandarin they just got... this <__< suspicious
 
nofish4u!!

nofish4u!!

Member
something weird... my sister has 2 clowns that she has had for over 12 years and she does not do water changes and only feeds them mysis shrimp. They are very healthy and constantly laying eggs. I wouldn't recommend that anyone else only feed their fish shrimp, but I guess it can be done.
 
murph

murph

Active Member
Lots of good advice in the thread.
Also its sometimes difficult to find cheato at LFS but several sites on the net have it and an order of this with a bag of pods would be great start.
Its also important to avoid fish that will compete with the mandarin and or are good hunters of pods. Six line wrasse come to mind immediately as a fish that will decimate a pod population. IMO for tanks with mandarin's low bio load/competition in general is a good idea. They seem to do best in tanks where corals are the emphasis and vary few other fish are present.
AS was said you probably have pods in your tank right now and don't even see them. A strong magnifying glass and inspection of the sides of you glass during the day and you will probably find some juvi pods crawling around on it. They are tiny, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
I have never seen a Mandarin take an adult pod and suspect none but the largest are able to capture and actually eat them. The juvi pods that are almost impossible to see on your rock are the likely main food source.
For night time inspection for pod population a narrow beam of light is best. The pods have a tendency to freeze up when light hits them and unless they move they can easily go unnoticed on the rock.
Most Mandarin will also take live brine. Find out when your LFS gets his brine in and buy them that day. They are usually enriched when arriving and will serve as a good supplement to your mandarins diet a few days a week. Whats left over you can attempt to enrich yourself and supplement on a daily basis. My mandarin as actually learned to compete fairly well with the other fish when live brine is offered.
If you can get your mandarin to take frozen brine better yet. A good quality frozen brine is enriched just prior to freezeing such as ocean nutritions brine shrimp+. May take months for the mandarin to catch on to the idea but a decent percentage will come around to it.
All of these factors combined makes the keeping of a mandarine quite viable in tanks as small as 30 gallons. May get some grief around here for suggesting it but personal experience and observation tells me it is quite possible.
 
oceana

oceana

Active Member
it boils down to tons of live rock and a place for pods to breed without fear of being eaten.
the older the tank the better and a fuge is the best bet..
for my i lucked out and have a manderine that will eat just about anything. he loves blood worms and also eats flake food. now i have more then enough rock and for him without feeding but since he eats it i feed him as well
 
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