Mandarin Dragonets, would one do a lot of damage?

[schroder_reef]

My husband has a 46 gallon all glass tank with 2 percula clowns, a bicolor dottyback, a yellow watchman goby, and a blue damsel. For corals I have some Xenia, a bubble, star polyps, mushrooms, fox, and frogspawn. I have 45lbs of LR. I need to know if I could get a mandarin or if it would eat the corals...(most everything I like is NOT reef safe I've found out)
Thanks,
Schroder_reef's wife

 

[risc]

schroder_reef:
Mandrin Dragonets are almost exclusively reef fish. You can keep them in non-reef tanks but they won't survive a long time. Mandrins eat off live rock and types of copepods and the like. You will find it very difficult to feed them things like flake foods but they sometimes will accept things like marine supreme.
Jim

 

[alianated]

So to make the above answer more simplified, yes. You can add him, no he wont eat your xenias, hehe
BUT (HUGE BUT) they are hard to keep in a newer tank. They eat copepods which need time to really establish themselves in your tank. They dont 'rush' to food like your other fish. They will kinda sit back lazily and wait til food comes to them on the floor of the tank (Assuming you find one that will eat something other than copepods. )
To make a long story short... the reef would be safe, if anyone would be in danger of dying it would be the mandarin of starvation.

 

[schroder_reef]

wow, finally something I want that I can have, Thank you guys!!!!!!!

 

[fat_ed]

45 lbs. of live rock and a watchman goby as a potential competitor/harrasser -- most likely your mandarin won't make it for long. Especially if the tank is less than six months old. Find one w/ a nice round belly and encourage it to take food from you -- mysis, brine, red shrimp might work. Consider purchasing some live pods/mysis shrimp for breeding, esp. if yr husband's tank has a refugium.

 

[fat_ed]

45 lbs. of live rock and a watchman goby as a potential competitor/harrasser -- most likely your mandarin won't make it for long. Especially if the tank is less than six months old. Find one w/ a nice round belly and encourage it to take food from you -- mysis, brine, red shrimp might work. Consider purchasing some live pods/mysis shrimp for breeding, esp. if yr husband's tank has a refugium. Good luck on yr purchase, but I suggest you do some substantive research on the net/books before you make the plunge. I can think of few things worse than watching such a beautiful little fish wither away.

 

[schroder_reef]

I have done some research on the mandarin, but almost everything I read is conflicting.. some say they aren't reef safe at all, that they eat all corals, some say they are perfect. One thing they all agree on is that they don't like to live, that they are hard to feed, etc. I'm sure if I do talk the hubby into one, it won't be for awhile. I really do thank you all for your responds.
Schroder_reef's wife

 

[b_ball12_99]

The smartest thing to do is make the lfs show you that it will eat flakes and/or brine before you puchase. I put newly hatched brine in my main tank (they were still alive several hours later so I'm assuming they lived and are now in my lr) so that when I do get a mandarin they might provide a 2nd food supply for him.

 

[burnnspy]

Your tank is too aggressive for a Mandarin Dragonette, It will most likely perish.
BurnNSpy

 

[nm reef]

Getting one is easy.......lots of folk do it....then wonder why it fades away.........they are a peaceful selective feeder that demands a stable established system that is able to provide constant food(copepods/amphipods).....I knew before I set my 1st sw tank up that I wanted one...........6 months later(and I rushed!!!!).......I had what I consider to be minimum requirements for a healthy manderian dragonette.....100+lbs lr........DSB that is established and active....relatively peaceful reef system (my red coris wrasse tries to keep the manderian back behind the rocks)....and a plentiful pod population(at night I see them thicker than gnats).........so far Jimi(my manderian) seems fit and sassy....even hides in a cornor to get his share of brine/mysis...............mine is fine.............yours would be depending on your system and if its able to provide needed requirements............

 

[new2saltwater]

Ive had a Mandarin for a few months now in same size tank and it seems to be doing just fine. Although my LFS seems to make getting there fish to accept frozen foods a priority
not all do. Mine eats mysis shrimp better at night feeding with acintic on only along with Antennata they are the 2 slowpokes of the tank.If it eats frozens at the store go for it, if not its not a gamble Id take.

 

[avacyn]

A formula taught to me by someone who has a lot of luck with her mandarins. Don't put one in a tank that is less than a year old. Also you should have 4 square feet of live rock for every dragonet in your tank. Remember a lot every fish, especially damsels, will also be eating your copes, so you need to consider the 4 square foot rule a minimum.
If you have less, the guy WILL starve to death as although some of them will take other foods, they won't be nourished by them. (Which is why some folks see their mandarin eating, but it still dies of starvation.) You do have the alternative of going to a site that sells copepods and buying them to feed the little guys, but this gets expensive fast.
Personally, in your set-up, I wouldn't do it.
Avacyn

 

[kelly]

avacyn,
Where can I purchase live saltwater copepods online. My e-mail address is kelly@pathway.net
Thanks

 

[ironreef]

the dotty and damselswill eat all the pods or whatever they can find. A manderine doesn't eat corals only live pods worms ect..stuff you can't see. If your luck it will take processed foods but usually won't.I wouldn't put on inthere with your current fish. They will compete for the same foods. If the tank was bigger maybe.