success with mandarian dragonet

[starfish79]

Hi everyone I am wanting to get a mandarian and I was hoping to get some feedback on them. has anyone had luck with this fish? I know they eat the pods and I have a lot of pods in my tank, once I get this guy how do I keep the pods multipling, also I heard you can buy the pods, were can you find them, my lfs doesnt sell them.
Please help

 

[nereef]

many people have had success with this fish. the only requirement is a stable tank with lots of rock and/or a fuge.
how big is your tank? fuge? how much rock? how long have you been set up?

 

[starfish79]

I have a 46 gal. tank w/apox 50lbs LR. Its been going for about 1.5 months. We have pods crawling all over the glass. my LFS said that if they are all over my glass then they should be all in my LR. He said I should have enough for him. What do you meen by fuge?

 

[nctarheels]

just thought id let everyone who wants to get a manderin know... if you know what you are doing it is not difficult to keep one. i have had my newer tank set up since may, so 4 months, and i have had a manderin in it for 2, sterile water whatever. its just a matter of staying on top of him and making sure he eats. mine eats daphnia and mysis, i even have him hand trained. so its not impossible to keep one in a tank less than a certain age, just makes it easier to do so with age.

 

[starfish79]

how did you hand train him, that sounds reallt cool

 

[nctarheels]

well i work at the lfs i got him from so that took me a little while there. and then he acclimated pretty nice and i got to the point where he eats daphina out of my hand because ive been with him since he was really small. like maybe 1/2 inch long. it just takes persistance

 

[starfish79]

what is daphina? Were do I get some? Thanks

 

[nctarheels]

well its pretty much frozen copes and i just found them at a lfs but i wouldnt know where else i could find them. just look at your lfs or ask around. honestly i cant be much of a help with that stuff.

 

[starfish79]

ok thanks, I went and got him tonight. her color looks good but a little skinny, I hope I made the right choice. Will keep you posted on how shes doing.

 

[mavis1032]

Originally Posted by starfish79
Hi everyone I am wanting to get a mandarian and I was hoping to get some feedback on them. has anyone had luck with this fish? I know they eat the pods and I have a lot of pods in my tank, once I get this guy how do I keep the pods multipling, also I heard you can buy the pods, were can you find them, my lfs doesnt sell them.
Please help
If you google copepods or essential live feeds, you will find live pods for sale. My local lfs sells the "Tigger Pods" and I have had sucess with my Mandarin.
I just purchased a bottle and placed in a small 7gal tank(my daughters old toy) with some Cheato and live rock rubble out of the main tank and am trying to breed them so I can keep the dt stocked. I hope this helps and god luck.

 

[rykna]

My madrine, now named Moby, was one of the first fish I got. I started with a 55 gallon tank with, if I rember correctly, 55 lbs of live rock, and 3 inches of live sand. I think the live sand really helped the daphnia and other little critters that madrines like to eat flourish. I have so many now they forming small villages around rockfrags. I have read that mandrines can be fussy eaters. But each fish is different. Moby isn't fussy, when I first got him he would nibble frozenbrine shrimp and other frozen tid bits. These days with the pickins being so plentiful he's gotten quite picky, and will spend hours on one rock searching for the most delectable choices. I'm hoping to find him a female soon. Keep us posted!

 

[starfish79]

well, dont think hes gonna make it, He was swimming in the bag on the way home from lfs and when we went to place bag in tank to start acclimation he curled up like he was dead. thought he was just stressed aclimated for approx. 3.5 hrs durring acclimation he moved alittle but not much, and when we placed him in the tank floated to bottem behind a rock and back fin curled....looks dead.
I wish i could do something, obviously lfs sold me a bad fish. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

 

[rykna]

Give him the night to recover. If he's floating in the morning i wold head straight back to the fish store and get a refund.

 

[starfish79]

Iwent andchecked on him and he id inside one of my big rocks, I cant tell if hes moving or not. The problem w/my lfs is there is no guarantee. Hopefully he will recover. If not the lfs will hear about and I will take buisness elsewhere. Ill keep ya posted.

 

[rykna]

I think he'll be okay My mandrine spends A LOT of time just hanging out in a protected area in the back of my tank. Moby doesn't do a lot of swimming, if you asked him I think he would tell you that it was to much work, and a classy fish like me doesn't swim unless i wants ta swim, got that! Moby has quite the little God Father attitude going. He'll posture for with his pectroral fin straight up, it looks like he's saying...You lookin at me? YOU Looking AT ME?? Keep me posted, I like to know how he is doing this morning.
It couldn't hurt to add some stress coat in the tank either.

 

[starfish79]

ok thanks I will get some in the morning, I guess at any lfs? I will let you know in the morning how hes doing. my fear is that he wont make it and will be stuck in the rock. Im not sure how to tell if hes ok if hes still in the same rock in the am. Just have to wait and see. Ill let you know. Thanks a bunch.

 

[starfish79]

Well I looked at him this morning and he still looks bad. my husband hlped he out of the rock and he is just lying on the sand 1/2 way on side taking deep breath. every 5th time his gills /mouth moves breath heavy, so hard it makes the sand blow. I dont think this is to good, even tried mysis shrimp one landed on his nose...no interest, just layed there. I guess I will call the lfs when they open and see what they will do, even though no gaurantee, but obviously lfs gave me a bad fish. Will keep you posted.

 

[dbgator1]

That stinks if he was healthy he should be fine after hurricane francis wiped out my 55 after i recovered a manderin was the first fish i put in and have had him ever since. I figured if he survived i was good. I now have upgraded to a 150 and have so many pods im my sump it is unbelieveable. My manderin is doing great i hope yours makes a recovery, if not he was definitely not healthy when you got him. Good luck.

 

[rykna]

WOW! Poor little guy.............I wish I cold say he was "faking" like nemo. When you were at the fish store...what did their tanks look like? Were there dead fish floating? A lot of fish hiding, breathing hard? :notsure:

 

[rykna]

Was the little guy swimming around okay in the tank or was he easy to catch?
I'm sure you probably have already considered this as you were buying him, but I just curious how he was acting. It's unusual for a healthy fish, even when stressed, to just keel over and die. Even the most touchy fish do okay. The other thought I had is why did you acclimate him so long? Given we all have our own ways of operating our tanks, but that seems awfully long 'imo' Did you drip acclimate him? If you bag aclimated him did you add new water every 20 minutes or so? :thinking: