Mandarin Dragonet Care

[small alien]

thanks so much for the info guys/gals the mandarin are my all time fav. fish. I am building a 75 with a 40br display fuge...the fuge is going to focus/house a mandarin or pair.

so are you guys saying that using the above method you are having success even with wild mandarins? or just the ORA ones?

Not to be nit-picky, but I'll be nit-picky. It's not a refugium if it has fish in it. Refugium means "refuge". Ultimately, live food for the mandarins may be MORE limited in the fuge than the DT.

 

[SandyB]

I'm so excited to read this thread. I want a mandarin very much. I know I'm not ready yet, as I'm just starting out. This gives me hope. I didn't want to starve the guy to death when I do get one. Thanks for the info.

 

[montecarlo97]

I've only had him about 3 weeks, but I had one about 15 years ago in my 1st salt tank. It was just a ten gallon and he and a domino damsel were the only fish in it. Trained that one the same way.
Got back into saltwater a couple years ago and bought another one but he got picked on and killed by a coral beauty.
I set up a Nano Cube 12 about a year ago in the bedroom with a pair of clown fish, one died about a week later. About 3 months ago I put a green banded goby in that unfortunately had ich, so the other clown and goby didn't make it.
I let the tank set for 6 weeks and decided to get another mandarin. The first week or so he would just pick at the brine but not eat very much, now he eats like a pig :]
I'm gonna try and train him to eat Spectrum Thera+A pellets next. That's gonna be a challenge.

 

[lcs]

That's gonna be a challenge.

Yes. Yes, it is! Hopefully this one is adventurous and willing to try new things. I would suggest transitioning to the pellets with other frozen foods first - most mandarins can resist bloodworms and Nutramar Ova. That way you'll know he's getting a variety of foods as well.

 

[gr3]

Montecarlo97, I like your electrical outlet setup. Let me know if you are successful with the pellets. I have seen my Mandarin pick at pellets, but I am not sure if he is actually eating them.

 

[noobofthereef]

Where do you get the acrylic tubes and the squirting things

 

[neilalex]

I've successfully trained both my dragonets to eat frozen using a mix of cyclopeez, nutramar ova, brine shrimp and mini pellets

/Users/apple/Desktop/untitled folder 2/IMG_1819.MOV

 

[Jamey1010]

Good info here thanks!! Like most I've had and lost a couple of the years I recently reacquired one and put him in the seahorse tank which gets mysis and/or brine shrimp twice a day so I will be turning of the little amount of the flow the tank has anyways and observe, contrary to popular belief seahorse's get pretty excited when it's time to eat and snicker every easy piece fairly quickly

 

[neilalex]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mNHY1sprss&feature=youtu.be

 

[t4zalews]

I purchased a larger male green mandarin and he went after 1mm sinking NLS pellets right away. I think because of his larger size, the 1mm was small enough for him to be interested in. I could just be extremely lucky, but may be something to think about when purchasing a mandarin. For the future, I will stay away from small specimens

 

[gr3]

My mandarin went to fish heaven, I had a good run with him and he ate very well up until the end. Now that the mandarin is gone, I still feed my fish in the same manner so that the scavengers can get enough to eat.

 

[kleach]

Oh jeeze sorry to hear that. Glad he made it as long as he did. Good tips about feeding them...

 

[MondoBongo]

were you able to determine a cause for his demise?

 

[gr3]

No, wasn't able to determine what killed him exactly, but it happened quickly. He was fine, eating and chubby as usual and then his fins all started to look like they were dissolving or something, in about 24 hours he was gone. None of the other fish were effected or anything. I still have a lot of copepods, amphipods, mysid shrimp, and worms living in my tank so I know he had a varied diet up until the end.