Dragonet food/copepod care

[Frost_Hydra]

I've been planning on getting a Red Ruby Dragonet for a while now, and I know they primarily eat copepods so I dumped a bottle of Tibse in my tank at night over a month ago. I was curious how you can tell if the Tibse population is healthy, or even exists at all.

I also heard of people teaching their dragonets to eat prepared foods. How would one go about doing this? I thought of quarantining it and just dropping in some food and hoping they would like it.

 

[SAT]

Here's a thread you may find useful:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1492650

If have a healthy pod population you should see them on the glass, particularly around any algae patches.

 

[MondoBongo]

getting them to eat prepared foods can be hit or miss, and even if they are interested they are quickly out-competed by all but the most docile tank mates.

my opinion is that the best way to keep them is in a large enough tank that supplemental feedings are just a nice-to-have.

if you've seeded pods, and your tank is old enough (6 - 12 months is a great guideline) then you should start seeing little white specs on the glass in the corners, or in the sump. those are your pods.

i'll take this opportunity to plug the functionality of a refugium as well. as giving the pods a place free of predation where they can breed will go a long way to helping keep a healthy population of them in your system.

and as with any dragonet thread, i would be remiss if i didn't mention Paul B's feeding stations. they're a great tool for feeding slow eaters.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2166449

 

[MurphyLong]

getting them to eat prepared foods can be hit or miss, and even if they are interested they are quickly out-competed by all but the most docile tank mates.

my opinion is that the best way to keep them is in a large enough tank that supplemental feedings are just a nice-to-have.

if you've seeded pods, and your tank is old enough (6 - 12 months is a great guideline) then you should start seeing little white specs on the glass in the corners, or in the sump. those are your pods.

i'll take this opportunity to plug the functionality of a refugium as well. as giving the pods a place free of predation where they can breed will go a long way to helping keep a healthy population of them in your system.

and as with any dragonet thread, i would be remiss if i didn't mention Paul B's feeding stations. they're a great tool for feeding slow eaters.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2166449

I wish I could see the pictures in that thread...

 

[NS Mike D]

1. Buy from a reputable LFS and make sure the dragonet is already eating prepared food.
2. Be ready to throw the entire water chemistry out of balance during the acclimation process.
3. Be ready to spend money on re-seeding the tank with pods in case you cannot support a sufficient population of pods.
4. Frozen prawn eggs are dragonet candy
5. Paul's feeder works.


My dragonet wipes out the pod population (I have a small tank) so I seed the fuge monthly (this can be expensive for me $40/month) I also put corrugated plastic in both the fuge and behind the rocks in the display tank to be pod hotels and dose live algae. rocks i the fuge as well.

I bought mine from a reputable LFS, so the dragonet was already feeding on prepared food. They recommended Nutri Mar frozen pawn eggs. This stuff is amazing. The mandarin eats them up and because they are so small, the chromis and clowns can't eat them all although they do get most. The clown watches the dragonet and if it sees it feeding off the sand, she will kick up a storm to suspend the food and the chromis are ferocious feeders of tiny food specs.

I now hatch brine and feed with my version of Paul's feeder. The madarin will park itself on top and pick. I use a food injector needle to pump the brine into a tube that is inserted in the feeder so I can dose a few times a day. I remove the entire set up after three days to wash it out and start over.

I tried putting the frozen prawn eggs in an olive jar, but the chromis and clowns figured out how to squeeze in there. I've seen videos of this working in other tanks though.

One note, since I chose to over feed to ensure the mandarin has sufficient food, my acros browned but my softies and lps exploded. Small price to play, but this endeavor has me doing triple the tank maintenance to keep the water clean, which might be good thing, the acros are finally showing signs of re-colorization, the cyano is nearly gone and those softies and lps have really enhanced the tanks look.