I recently bought one, maybe 1" long. I did an abbreviated QT procedure since it is small & I feared there was little to eat with only a few small pieces of LR. Now in the DT, he looks good, no sign of disease in QT or display so I think I'm in the clear on that issue.
Like the other poster, I've been ready for & stalking a Mandy for years. But this guy hit all my buttons so I pulled the trigger. I have a 3+ year old 65 g with lots of pods, 2" sand bed, plenty of porous rock so I am fairly confident I have enough live food.
But I haven't seen the fish leave the sand bed. I haven't seen him hunting on the rocks where I THINK most of the pods are, at least the ones I can see. I do get many pods on the glass sometimes at night, but this often varies with how often I clean the glass with a mag float.
So have you guys seen them hunting on the live rock? Do they hunt at night when the pods come out to play? I haven't seen him at night but he could possibly BR behind or in my LR structure at night. Are they strictly day time feeders? Like any new dragonette owner, I'm quite nervous that it has enough to eat. Can anybody comment on this?
Since the fish maxes out at 2" and as an adult will have less body mass than an adult green or red Mandy, so that's a plus. I have the ability to hatch baby brine shrimp & think I can come up with a feeder like PaulB has shown on this site. I am going to try to feed Ocean Nutrition R.O.E. (Small fish eggs) with the pumps off, as they will sink to the sand bed as a supplement. I may also consider culturing or adding pod cultures if necessary. It would be great to hear how others are making out with the feeding issue.
