gr3
Member
After four years of keeping reef tanks, I decided to try keeping the Mandarin Dragonet S. splendidus. Of course, I did lots of research prior to purchasing my Mandarin. Based on the research, I placed the Mandarin into an established 55 gallon reef tank with lots of live rock and coral. There were lots of Amphipods and mysid shrimp etc. living in the tank. There were scavengers like brittle stars and hermit crabs, but no fish.
As you have probably heard many times, the Mandarin ate most of the micro fauna pretty quickly and hardly ate any of the frozen enriched brine shrimp or frozen mysid shrimp that I added. It would eat live copepods etc. but was starting to starve.
I watched the Mandarin fish on many occasions trying to catch a frozen brine shrimp but it rarely could catch more than one or two.
I then decided to turn off the power to the powerheads, skimmer, and pumps after adding the frozen shrimp. The food settled on the live rock and substrate. The Mandarin fish then did what comes naturally, it slowly swam around sneaking up on the frozen food and picking it off. It took about 15 minutes before it would get enough to eat. The scavengers also would eat their fill. The Mandarin would begin attacking it's image in the glass. That is when I knew it was done and I would start the water circulation systems.
This method worked but I found that I needed to add additional scavengers, so I purchased a couple more brittle stars and serpent star, and I also added some Nassarius snails.
After about 3 months, I decided to try adding some docile fish to the mix. I added an ocellaris clownfish, a yellow tail blue damsel, and a yellow watchman goby. Much to my surprise, I found that as soon as the water flow was turned off the other fish ate very little leaving plenty of food for the Mandarin. It wasn't until I turned back on the flow that they would finish off the food floating in the water column.
Now a year later, my Mandarin is very big and fat and all of the corals, fish, and scavengers are doing well. The Mandarin still refuses dry food like pellets which I feed the other fish occasionally, but it relishes the enriched frozen brineshrimp and mysid shrimp.
I use a Dual Overload Guard 8 outlet power center that has two switches that control four outlets each to keep the circulation equipment separate from the lighting and heater (which is in the tank to maintain temp). I feed my tank twice a day.
I firmly believe that the food lying still where the Mandarin usually hunts is the key to my success. I hope that this method may help keep Dragonets and Scooter Blennies alive in the future.
As you have probably heard many times, the Mandarin ate most of the micro fauna pretty quickly and hardly ate any of the frozen enriched brine shrimp or frozen mysid shrimp that I added. It would eat live copepods etc. but was starting to starve.
I watched the Mandarin fish on many occasions trying to catch a frozen brine shrimp but it rarely could catch more than one or two.
I then decided to turn off the power to the powerheads, skimmer, and pumps after adding the frozen shrimp. The food settled on the live rock and substrate. The Mandarin fish then did what comes naturally, it slowly swam around sneaking up on the frozen food and picking it off. It took about 15 minutes before it would get enough to eat. The scavengers also would eat their fill. The Mandarin would begin attacking it's image in the glass. That is when I knew it was done and I would start the water circulation systems.
This method worked but I found that I needed to add additional scavengers, so I purchased a couple more brittle stars and serpent star, and I also added some Nassarius snails.
After about 3 months, I decided to try adding some docile fish to the mix. I added an ocellaris clownfish, a yellow tail blue damsel, and a yellow watchman goby. Much to my surprise, I found that as soon as the water flow was turned off the other fish ate very little leaving plenty of food for the Mandarin. It wasn't until I turned back on the flow that they would finish off the food floating in the water column.
Now a year later, my Mandarin is very big and fat and all of the corals, fish, and scavengers are doing well. The Mandarin still refuses dry food like pellets which I feed the other fish occasionally, but it relishes the enriched frozen brineshrimp and mysid shrimp.
I use a Dual Overload Guard 8 outlet power center that has two switches that control four outlets each to keep the circulation equipment separate from the lighting and heater (which is in the tank to maintain temp). I feed my tank twice a day.
I firmly believe that the food lying still where the Mandarin usually hunts is the key to my success. I hope that this method may help keep Dragonets and Scooter Blennies alive in the future.
