Mandarin Dragonet feeding ideas

lank

lank

Member
So here is where i am at right now. 72 bow front with a 100lbs of rock, 40 gal sump with refug, and a 15 gallon frag tank all plumbed into one system and its 7 months old. So a little over a month ago i picked up a mandarin and put the little guy in my frag tank so i could keep a eye on him and get him to eat frozen. He ate like a pig and was fat and happy. 2 weeks ago i had to leave for a weekend and decided that he was good enough to be put in the big tank while i was gone so he could eat pods and stuff while i was away. Well i have noticed that he is starting to get skinny but still very active. Everyday i shoot mysis and brine towards him and around the tank in cracks of rocks so he can eat. My #1 problem are 2 skunk cleaner shrimp that zoom around and collect all the food like chipmunks before my mandarin can get to it. I have even tried setting up a little mandarin hut(clear tube with a cap that i cut a quarter size hole into) and putting food in there but the cleaners after about a hour figured how to get in and eat all the food and then 2 hours later figured how to get back out of the clear tube that they had been trapped in. It was great fun watching them freak out in the hut trying to get out haha serves them right.
So removing the shrimp is not a option do to the fact the wife loves watching them clean the fish.
I could try and catch the mandarin and put him back in the frag tank but its small.
So i come to you guys to see if you have any other ideas on what i could possibly do to make this work out.
Thanks,
Mike
 
S

saxman

Guest
You might try and see if your mandy will train to a small net...put some mysis into the net and let your mandy come to it. We use this technique with leaf scorpionfishes, and they take pretty readily to it. This helps a lot if a fish is in with aggressive feeders.
 
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