Madarin Dragonet

[Musho3210]

Ok, heres my tank (because whenever someone reads a topic about these, they always wonder the tank size)

65 gallon (3ft)

75-90 pounds live rock (i got some of it dry some of it live so im not too sure about weight measurements, but its somewhere up there)

20 gallon sump/refugium, about 5-7 gallons of that is devoted to a refugium.

Tank is a month old, wont get dragonet until about 5 months from now.

Reef safe fish (clowns, blennys, gobies, etc. no wrasses or other large pod competitors).


Now that thats done, let me get to my question:

How do i do this? I am a quarantine person, but im not sure how easy that will be... I could use a 10 or 20 gallon tank to quarantine, transfer a large clump of chaeto from my fuge to my quarantine, maybe exchange chaeto clumps once a week to keep supply's up in the quarantine? How long should i quarantine? 2 weeks? 4 weeks? Im going to try to get the madarin to start eating prepared foods in that time. Im guessing a HOB filter of some sort will be fine? Or are these fish really messy? What size is the best size to buy a mandarin (i know fat, but im talking about actual size) are the smaller younger ones easier to acclimate, or are the larger ones? Are males easier than females or vise versa? What type of mandarin is easier? I like madarins because of the way they swim, so the color and stuff doesnt matter to me. When it goes in my main tank should i keep it in the fuge for a few days to get accustom to my water, or should it go in the display, im scared that if i keep it in the small 5 gallon fuge that it will decimate the pod population down there.

 

[zmovegolf]

Does your tank have a bunch of copepods? If not, you won't be able to keep a mandarin alive. I have 250 lbs of live rock producing a ton of copepods, and I have not had luck keeping a mandarin. Make sure you have plenty of copepods, and no other copetition for food. I was never able to get a mandarin to eat brine or other prepared foods, hopefully you will be luckier. Good luck and keep us posted!!!

 

[Musho3210]

Well the tank is a month old and i'm seeing a decently large number of pods both in the display and the fuge, not enough to keep something that only eats these alive (for now hopefully) but there is a good amount.

 

[ioreefer45]

I never had to quarantine my mandarins. I have had 2 in my tanks. It never infected other fish with ICH nor did it ever caught any type of disease. They have a thick slim coat which makes them immune to those parasites.

Quarantine would be very difficult since you would want to go hyposalinity, but in that environment you can't have pods necessary to sustain this type of fish.

 

[Musho3210]

I wouldnt hypo saline them. I hear its not good for their mucus membrane that helps them avoid those parasites. I plan on quarantining so i can try to get them to eat prepared foods and make them used to captive life, plus if it dies (touch wood) it wont do any damage to anything else (besides me) in a quarantine tank.