Mandarin Dragonet

[Rob Martin]

Hi all,
Have had my 280l tank running for 6 months now.Only fish at the moment are a Marroon Clown & a Regal Tang.Would love to add a Mandarin.I understand they feed almost exclusively on Copepods & my question is this : Is my tank mature enough to have a copepod population to satisfy the Mandarin or would i have to supplement? I dont have space for a refugium at the moment so i'm not able to propogate my own.

 

[crzy4reefs]

i would say with out a refugium he will diminish the supply very quicktly......usually i would love to see the tank up for longer then six months.......you could buy copepods and keep adding them to the tank........if you found one that accepted frozen mysis and cyclopleeze i would say go ahead and buy one.

 

[Rob Martin]

Is Cyclopeeze the same as Marine Snow?

 

[tryffin]

<a href="http://www.cyclop-eeze.com/">cyclop-eeze</a>'s website. Frozen is the best, your corals will like it too.

 

[Rob Martin]

Thanks for the link Tryffin,it's not what i was thinking of.Have not seen it in my LFS's,will have to investigate.Thanks again.

 

[jason71832]

I feed mine brine shrimp...the frozen kind, thawed out in water, twice a day.

 

[Rob Martin]

Jason,do you spot feed or does the Mandarin compete for his/her own food?

 

[funloven]

I had a Mandarin shortly after I started this new hobby. My tank was only 4 months old. The fish lasted a few months but slowly wasted away. At one point I discovered I could spot feed it but they can be elusive as they seem to like to come out more at night when the lights are out. And by the this time it was too late for this little fishy.

I then decided I would not get another one until my tank had aged for 1 whole year. I am at that point now, but I will have to wait another year since I am currently in the process of moving up in tank size.

I didn't know you could buy Copepods. Do you get them at the LFS? :rollface:

 

[Serioussnaps]

If you need to ask these questions--------------------------------------then you should probably do some research and gain some more experience before keeping this fish.

 

[Sk8r]

If you see lots of copepods on your tank glass, the tank can probably support one...otherwise, I'd work to get enough of a flourishing copepod population to sustain them before getting one.