mandarin dragnet in nano
- Thread starter saltspirt
- Start date
itom37
Member
Originally Posted by nYgel
prepared foods alone does not fully maintain any dragonets health. you will still need pods, if you are willing to seed the tank with pods you've got a chance, but it takes a bit of money, and some time to care for a dragonet in a nano.
Right, with that in mind he's said he has pods.
prepared foods alone does not fully maintain any dragonets health. you will still need pods, if you are willing to seed the tank with pods you've got a chance, but it takes a bit of money, and some time to care for a dragonet in a nano.
Right, with that in mind he's said he has pods.
mfp1016
Member
Yes, he may have a lot of pods for whatever size tank; but the issue is population rates. Mandarins are fat little fish and can easily wipe out a very well stocked population in any small tank. As such, you need the extra live rock and preferably a great refugium to keep the mandarin in business. Like it was said though, if it is eating frozen very well (like every time at feeding time) then you can probably find a decent equilibrium of frozen/pod consumption. But I highly encourage you to find one that is eating frozen at your LFS; I wouldn't try to train it... just my .02
saltwaternewb
Member
What would one do to support and increase a pod population in the tank? I am more curious than anything. As beautiful fish as they are, too much up keep for me.
saltwaternewb
Member
I assume that even if your not needing them as a food source for a Mandarin they are still beneficial to the tank? Do other fish eat them as well on a lesser scale?
nygel
Active Member
i kept a mandarin in a 29g for about 7 months, but sold it due to it was appearing to lose a little color, and i figured I'd cash in on a mysis-eating mandarin as well as save my scooter. My scooter on the other hand died about a month ago after i had it for just under 2 years. I simply have A LOT of areas it can't get to in the back, its like a refuge for the pods, as well as i made little PVC pipes running through the back under the sand with pieces popping up into the rockwork for more breeding areas. I've thrown a few dragonets in the mix in my tank for one reason, when one dragonet eats frozen, the others follow, therefore i was trying to sell them after they accepted frozen and got a little bigger, unfortunately 2 scooters died when i tried this within a 4 day period (bad acclimation i assume, cant starve that fast) But you'll need to buy bottles of pods about... eh, its debatable, once every week or maybe 2 weeks, i did it about every month cuz i bought a ton at one time and they bred quite fast i assume. but thats what i did. im going to go for another dragonet soon, its just a matter of finding the perfect one. speaking of which, what is a northern dragonet? one was for sale at my LFS but it was gone... Im going to search for that now.
joebob7
Member
I researched this on another site before and found an article where the writer said it was a good idea to have a few LR rubble piles in the tank for the pods to safely reproduce. He also had a 2 litre bottle with a lot of pods in it to reproduce and would empty a few into the tank every week.
i hope this helps
i hope this helps
saltwaternewb
Member
In a small tank the pods would last a very short time and with a small amount of LR the pods could not reproduce fast enough to keep up. It is highly recommended to have 100 pounds or so of LR to have enough pods to support a mandarin. If you had a fuge with lots of rock or even set up a pod breeding tank that you could use to feed from then it could probably be done. Too much work for me though
petjunkie
Active Member
To give an example of how fast and much mandarins can eat, I had one in my larger tank and moved recently so I put him in my 12 gallon Aquapod that was fishless, walls covered in pods and flatworms. He was in there for three days and it took a month before I even saw another flatworm and my pod population started reproducing strongly. Not only that but he seem quite uncomfortable in a smaller tank, they do grow to around 4 inches so it's sizewise not a appropiate fish also. Mine ate frozen but very slowly and in a nano this could easily lead to water quality and algea issues, mine ate small amounts of mysis three times a day. I would highly recommend you find a more suitable fish.
reef_dart21
Member
why keep the tank fishless? you could always try another buetiful small fish. Such as a VERY VERY VERY delicate Spike Fin Goby. They are buetiful not very big and are great for any nano. i dont nko if mods will allow me to send a link but their is a spike fin goby for sale on this site you should check it out.
i had kept one but got rid of it because of fear my nemo would injure it during mealtime
i had kept one but got rid of it because of fear my nemo would injure it during mealtime
hypertek99
Member
Well i was at the lfs today and i couldn't pass up on the Red Mandarin Goby i saw. I already have a mandarin but you don't see many red mandarins around. So i'm going to catch my green one out and put the red one in. The green one has been in my tank for 8 months now.
Target Mandarin (passed away) for those of you who think you can keep 2 mandarins in one tank don't do it. My green has gotten fat since i added my refugium then i saw this target mandarin at my lfs and it was starving so i bought it and put it in my tank with the green mandarin well they pretty much competed over the pods and finally the target mandarin died.
Green Mandarin when i first got it.
Red Mandarin
Target Mandarin (passed away) for those of you who think you can keep 2 mandarins in one tank don't do it. My green has gotten fat since i added my refugium then i saw this target mandarin at my lfs and it was starving so i bought it and put it in my tank with the green mandarin well they pretty much competed over the pods and finally the target mandarin died.
Green Mandarin when i first got it.
Red Mandarin