Dragonet experts needed!

[Blazingreef123]

So I am considering purchasing another Mandarin dragonet. I say another because the last one I owned unfortunately jumped out of my tank at night and dried out on my floor... I literally lost sleep over this. I had trained that dragonet over weeks to just start eating prepared foods such as mysis and the occasional pellet, then one morning boom, dead on my floor. So my questions is this: if I don't go all out this time (spending countless hours a day with a turkey baster putting food in front of her (which honestly I'll probably end up doing again anyway)) would my tank be enough to sustain her diet of copepods alone? I have a 75g tank that has been running for over a year now with successful growing of acropora and other corals. So I believe water quality has hit its peak. There is a 29g sump with half being a refugium a quarter of the way full with cheato algae and live rock and fiji mud. I have a lot of brine shrimp eggs on hand and selcon just in case. Do you guys feel as if this would be an adequate home for a dragonet? Also, are they usually jumpers??? Will I need to start using my glass tops again? Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and reply!

 

[shiftline]

If your worried re stock your sump with pods every few month and try and find one that already eats frozen I have a 100g Ish tank Mine does well and is nice and fat. I add pods every once in a while and see him grab the odd chunk of mysis


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[Centurio]

My tank keeps two Mandarins happy and fat. When I decided to get the first Mandarin I did a lot of research and I spoke to a few experts in the field. The advice I got was simple -- stock your tank with multiple species of pods. Pod populations bloom and contract naturally and by having multiple populations you don't run into an issue with not enough food at any one time. Also, different species frequent different "environments" in your tank. With multiple species you have pods in more places. Most people stock their tanks with Tigger or Tisbe's. Do both and then oreder one or two other species as well.

 

[shiftline]

Dosing phyto also helps feed the pods and keep them alive and reproducing


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[steallife904]

I have 2 in my 150 and I do not run a refugium. I know the female eats froazen Mysis (have never seen the male eat it but have not had him long. the female is 2 years old). I typically add pods once a month as a just in case, so if you add some pods every now and then you will be fine.
As for jumping, I was never able to keep them or wrasses until I added a canopy. Might look into a screen top!

 

[Silly clownfish]

First, I do not consider myself an expert. I have had my only dragonette, a smallish female for about a year and a half. I never got her to do more than occassionally peck at frozen in QT and was concerned that keeping her the too long was going to defeat the whole point of QT. since she has been in the DT I don't think she has touched frozen, except maybe an occassional cyclops by accident.

I have a 75g display with a 20g sump, about 6g of which is fuge. So a little smaller than what you have, but comparable. my tank had been running about a year in the current configuration when I introduced my mandarin. I stocked pods as soon as the tank was running to give them a good start (it was an upgrade from a smaller system and did not really cycle). I don't have any other livestock that compete for pods.

I half-heartedly culture pods in a couple of plastic jars from pretzels and add those to the tank periodically. The culture doesn't do as well in the winter due to less light and the room they are in gets cold at night.

I also made a Paul B type feeder and give my mandarin freshly hatched brine on occassion - say once/week to every other week, to supplement the pods.

My girl seems happy and well fed. Would she be ok without the brine shrimp and supplemental pods? I don't know and do not plan to find out. I suspect thst one or the other would suffice, but that long term she would need at least one of these.

 

[MondoBongo]

they tend to jump in the evenings, tops are recommended.

in a 75 gallon with a reasonable amount of rock, a sand bed (i wouldn't do it with a bare bottom), fuge, and low to no competition for food, i would feel very confident about supporting a dragonet.

i started in my 75 with my mandy, i did not have a fuge as the sump wouldn't accommodate it, but i didn't have a good quantity of rock, a productive sand bed, and no competition. she thrived for several years and then was moved in to my new tank when we moved houses.

so i would say make yourself a nice screen top and go for it.