Help with new Dragonette

[method0075]

I recently added one to my 50 gal. tank and really like it`s personality and color. I`ve heard that a lot of these will die because of malnutrition. I would hate for that to happen to such a cool fish. Experts here can you give me some advice as to proper nuritment?

 

[ALTI]

90% ofthe time these guys will only eat live foods. normally it takes about 100 lbs of live rock ora decent refuge to be able to produce enough food for thewm to eat. sometimes you can get lucky andfind one that will eat frozen foods, but it is pretty rare. if you dont have a large ammount of pods in the tank for them to eat they will surely starve.

 

[Fred_J]

They usually like live brine shrimp, mine now will eat some frozen brine. It can also depend on what other fish you have that eat pods.

Fred

 

[sivad]

Has anyone used Tigger Pods to feed madarins? $20 for 500 live + shipping. No idea how long 500 of their pods last and dont no anyone personally using tiggerpod to fee the madarins, so cannot attest to it being practical or economical, but just in case, here is the website: http://www.tigger-pods.com/
http://www.reed-mariculture.com/reefnutrition/home.asp

 

[kidphc]

Get a huge refuge with load of live rock and seed some pods.

I have one that feeds on frozen brine, I currently use brine that has been gut loaded. But I will tell you it get tedious making sure all the other fish and my one lone fire shrimp are fed first. He eats so slow that even the clean up crew get on the action. Which of course if you are not careful about is going to add alot of nutrients to your tank.

If you want to try to get him started on frozen. Take it to a smaller tank, feed some live brine, then slowly add some frozen brine over multiple feedings. Mine won't eat Mysis or pellets, but I haven't had the chance to try him on either yet. Seems that it takes time for them to realize it is food. Take a turkey baster and gently blowing the frozen brine seems to help stimulate the feeding response.

I have read people whom try to feed with store bought pods, and it quickly gets expensive. They are constantly feeding. If you buy the pods and start a culture that is going to be more feasible, but still time consuming.

Good luck.....

 

[method0075]

these responses are great Thanks for all the advice

 

[DesertBandits]

Exactly like Kidphc said. I have a manderin in my 29. It comes down to how good you are at getting food to your mandarin. I've sucessfully kept a fat and happy manderin for 8months so I feel I can talk on the subject.

A tank as small as mine obviously ran out of naturaly occuring pods and little tube worms (her favorite) awhile ago so I've developed a technique. In addition to normal feedings, once a day I saturation feed my tank. Then right afterwards dump in the frozen brineshrimp so the mandarin can eat while the others are too stuffed to eat very fast. This works great and gets plenty of food to the fish. My mandarin really only needs this one feeding per day as they are fairly inactive swimmers.

If your fish will eat frozen thats great, the hardest part of having a mandarin is making sure it gets enough calories. Pods have lots of marine fats and other good stuff not found in live brine. If you can, I would experiment with feeding your mandarin different varietys of live/frozen worms. Worms are very rich in fats and other calories, great for a healthy mandarin. Mine doesn't eat them, but if yours did you can be sure you will have a healthy long lived pet.

Hope this helps. From a fellow small tank mandarin keeper, good luck. Just put the time into this figuring out your fish thats necessary and you'll be just fine.

 

[method0075]

I attempted to build a fuge but in the process broke a 20 gallon aquarium and successfully spilled over 10gallons of saltwater onto my new carpet. This was friday night and now the carpet really stinks!

I an effort to build a fuge I was digging through all my old aquarium stuff and found a plastic critter keeper (you know the kind that people ussually keep hermitcrabs and bettas in.)

I drilled random small holes in the sides and took the lid off filled the bottom with LS and LR rubble. Add some Calerpera(sp) and the hinged it in a corner next to powerhead under direct light. I am now seeing little creatures in this in tank fuge and have even seen the dragonette go up to the little holes and eat the little creatures as they come and go.

Bottom Line. I spent 30 dollars at Home Depot buying plumbing tools and sealant to build a fuge. Broke a 20 gallon tank. Damaged my carpet and wasted 4 hours trying to get it all to work! WHEN all I need to do was take a 5 dollar plastic cage drill some holes and place in tank! You live and learn

Thanks for all the responses.

 

[DrBDC]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6496758#post6496758 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DesertBandits
I've sucessfully kept a fat and happy manderin for 8months so I feel I can talk on the subject.

Most will starve to death over a period of about 1-2 years. In saltwater, anything under 5 years is unsuccessful for anything in the tank. With good husbandry I don't know of any fish that won't easily go over 10 years with many being 25 year fish.

Dragonettes will eat thousands of pods per day and should have at least 75 lbs of live rock each and a good fuge for allowing the pods to reproduce w/o preditors. That means no hermits or fish or anything but macro and rock in the fuge. In the tank you can pile very small rock rubble to give the pods more protection to reproduce. My dragonettes like frozen cyclopeeze and brine shrimp but the brine shrimp are a waste if you don't enrich them.

 

[newb]

try making a pod box also. some sort of plastic container that has some sand and full to the top with live rock rubble. then burry it behind and under your display rock so u dont see it. mine is fat and happy. has been for a while. the reason for the container is so they can breed without being picked off by your fish. good luck

 

[rustybucket145]

Below is a link to a cool video of Marc using a unique feeding method to isolate the mandarins. You could easily feed with this method using brine shrimp. My mandarin goby is fat and happy but I have a very healthy pod population. One method I have had success with is leaving a portion of the glass on the back of the aquarium as kind-of 'in aquarium' refuge for the pods. The algae in this area will grow long enough (even with snails feeding on it) to hold a breeding population of pods. If you can get a magnifying glass 8x-10x you can see the pods and even determine if you have a breeding population b/c you can see the eggs on the female's 'tail'.

Good Luck, they are a great looking fish and very fun to watch.

here is the link to the video:
http://www.melevsreef.com/video/diner4.wmv