dragonet question

[Anomal0caris]

just got my first mandarin after about 8 years and seems to be doing great. it is very active and has been eating pods off the glass since i put it in (~5hr ago). I just got my first good look at it's stomache and it looks pretty hollow. is this normal for dragonets, or was it starving?

 

[EllieSuz]

Probably starved. So many of them lose weight in transport and in a LFS tank. If yours is eating already, it should be all right. Sometimes they get so starved they lose the desire to hunt and once that happens, they seldom make it. Sounds promising for yours. Good luck

 

[Anomal0caris]

Thanks! she seems pretty happy right now. I fed the tank some mysis and oyster eggs for the fish/ corals. i shot some oyster eggs near the mandarin, but she ate neither. I have tons of pods on the glass so hopefully she will get fat quickly

 

[small alien]

Stomachs come and go. You want to look at overall body weight, especially behind the head.

 

[Anomal0caris]

How does this look?

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[EllieSuz]

Oh, that's absolutely terrible! I'll be astonished if this fish recovers. How big is your tank? Do you have a refugium with rock rubble and Chaeto in it? These fish can go through thousands of pods in no time. I saddens me that fish stores keep selling fish in this condition. They should be ashamed of themselves. I'd love to see you pull this fish through, but it will all depend on whether she keeps feeding and whether there's enough pods in your system to reproduce faster than she can eat them.

 

[small alien]

Yes, what she said. You will really have to work at this. I would get some nutramar ova prawn roe pronto and feed about 10 times a day to supplement the pod diet. You'll have to do a ton of water changes. That fish is on the brink of death.

 

[Anomal0caris]

im running a 55g tank with a 7.5g diy refugium inline with my sump. the refugium has some bigger peices of red grape kelp, dragons breath, and caulerpa. i have tons of pods, but got a bottle of tigger pods as a precaution and added them to the refugium this afternoon.

 

[Anomal0caris]

thats sad to hear. do you think it will respond to prawn roe? it doesnt touch oyster eggs even when its right in front of her

 

[Anomal0caris]

I will definately not be going back to this store. it was my first time, and got a few green chromis and this guy. one chromis isnt doing too hot and they didnt ask us which fish we wanted. the dragonet was in a tank with 4-5 others.

 

[small alien]

Maybe put the fish in your refugium. Sorry. This is not a very fun way for this to turn out. You were so excited. You could still try roe. I've never had a fish that wouldn't eat it.

 

[that guy]

Many dragonets will respond to ova. Try some, you never know. I agree that you should put the dragonet in the refugium where pods will be very easy hunting until the fish gets back to a healthy weight. If it doesn't make it, try getting one next time from ORA. Theirs are supposedly already weaned onto captive food an their captive bred which means stronger immune system, better transition to your tank, and not taking fish out of the wild. If your fish pulls through, you are going to become very attached to it. Don't know what I would do if I lost my spotted who has been in the tank, pretty much from the beginning. Good luck.

 

[Anomal0caris]

Thanks guys. I'm excited, but know how demanding they are to keep which is why I waited so long. If she survives today I will put her in the fuge after work and grab some ova on my way home. Thanks for the advice

 

[Airickj]

I just recently got a dragonette and he eats bloodworms heartily. The thing I have noticed with this fish is that they don't eat anything out of the water column. Mine stares at its food in deep thought for a few seconds before gulping it down.

When I first got him I used a breeder net to train him to eat prepared foods. Inside the breeder net I placed a recycled olive jar (washed out thoroughly so it doesn't smell like olives or soap) and put all of the food I tried inside the olive jar.

At first he ate live brine shrimp soaked in selcon and vita-chem along with blood worms. Now he eats a little bit of mysis and new life spectrum thera +A pellets along with his favorite blood worms. I have heard good things about nutramar ova but none of my LFS have it and it costs a lot to have it shipped from an online retailer.

Since you already have a lot of copepods you are giving the fish a good chance. I would try putting a clear glass jar near where the fish hangs out and then put different foods inside there to see if the dragonette will eat it.
Like I already said, try bloodworms.

There are also some good links that outline how to train a dragonette onto prepared foods:

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/256327-the-many-methods-of-training-dragonets/

http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html

 

[Anomal0caris]

just put a jar in w blood worms, mysis, and pellets.... my cherry spotted dotty back keeps trying to get in but is extremely shy. i can just wave my hand in front of the tank and off she goes lol

 

[small alien]

As an aside, I've read that blood worms can cause impaction. And they're not a marine food. I wouldn't feed them long term to any marine fish. This, however, is a special case for sure.