ORA Mandarin Dragonets!!!!!

Jordani

New member
ORA is going to release captive bred spotted and mandarin dragonets this summer.

ORA Announces Captive Bred Mandarins

"For many years marine aquarium hobbyists have been captivated by the exquisite beauty of Mandarin Gobies (actually Dragonettes). Their popularity, however, is tempered by the fact that they are difficult to feed in captivity and are subject to questionable collection practices in the wild. Unfortunately, most Mandarins succumb to starvation in home aquariums, even with the best intentions and attempts at feeding. Thankfully, all of that is about to change.
ORA biologists have succeeded in developing the methods needed to breed and raise commercial numbers of the two species of Mandarins, the Blue Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) and the Spotted Mandarin (Synchiropus picturatus). Building on the early success of breeders such as Julian Sprung, Wolfgang Mai, and more recently Matt Wittenrich, ORA is now poised to have commercially bred Mandarins available to everyone. The significance of this cannot be understated as it is a major advance in marine aquaculture and solves many of the problems associated with keeping these species.

Just as the first captive bred Seahorses were trained to eat frozen foods, ORA has already trained our baby Mandarins to eat commercially available frozen diets. This fact alone makes them easy to feed and care for, and the average aquarist will delight in not having to worry about sources of live food for their finicky eaters. Our goal is to have them soon weaned onto a pellet diet. We expect to have these fish eating pelletized foods before being released for sale.

ORA is the leader in bringing the marine aquarium industry new and exciting aquacultured species. With the addition of Mandarins to our ever-growing list, a major milestone in aquaculture has been achieved. We are sure that our retail customers and hobbyists alike will be elated that captive raised Mandarins are finally available and that a page has been turned in the tragic history of this beloved aquarium fish.

We expect to have significant numbers of Spotted Mandarins available this summer. Blue and Red Mandarins will be available in more limited quantities around the same time. "
 

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Here some more awesome pics:inlove:
 

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i'll be putting in for pre-order with my LFS. wonder if they would be able to special request male/female. definitely going for a blue dragon
 
Beat me to it! :lol:

I will definitely have an eye out for these little critters. God bless breeders like ORA and SA. Who'da thunk we'd ever have access to tank-raised blue tangs and captive-bred, pellet-eating mandarins? :fish1:
 
When I saw this, I already sent an e-mail to my LFS. He is one of ORAs' oldest dealers. He sent a reply saying he will see about getting some on his next order! I'm stoked!!

The only concern some folks have is, what will ORA price these at? I'm thinking the price should be reasonable when you consider what their tank bred yellow assessors go for. They are priced at half of what the wild ones cost.
 
Those baby mandarins are CUTE! I have a green spotted mandarin who fortunately took to prepared food readily. It will help to have captive raised ones in the hobby so more people can successfully keep these little lovelies.
 
At MACNA in Atlanta, I was lucky enough to get one of the MOFIB mandarins taht Wittenrich bred and raised (I believe). Kudos to ORA for following through. I remember seeing video somewhere of a diver destroying a 2 foot acro on a wild reef to catch a single mandarin. The hobby progresses.
 
I remember seeing video somewhere of a diver destroying a 2 foot acro on a wild reef to catch a single mandarin. The hobby progresses.

Every time I've been lucky enough to see mandarin fish while diving, they are found on slopes of rubble, typically acropora branches, and are seldom seen out and about. The exception is in the evening when they emerge to breed in the water column above the rubble. Sadness to see destruction of the reef in any form.

Glad to see that ORA is providing these lovely critters. I'd be willing to pay extra for a captive bred fish over a wild fish anyday....

-Rob
 
When I saw this, I already sent an e-mail to my LFS. He is one of ORAs' oldest dealers. He sent a reply saying he will see about getting some on his next order! I'm stoked!!

The only concern some folks have is, what will ORA price these at? I'm thinking the price should be reasonable when you consider what their tank bred yellow assessors go for. They are priced at half of what the wild ones cost.

Hard to say, but I'm thinking they're definitely going to cost more than wild-caughts--especially considering how cheaply a lot of WC mandarins are priced. But that's only fair. It takes a lot of work (not to mention the costs of overhead, paying staff, and so on) to breed and successfully raise such a tricky species, and aquaculture can only remain viable if the breeders make a profit. Cheaper wild-caught animals (which represent who knows how many other animals that didn't survive capture and transport) cost the hobby, and hobbyists, more in the long run.

I'm more than willing to pay more for a captive-bred animal, knowing that it will already be acclimated to aquarium life, feeding well, and most likely free of disease and parasites--and that my purchase of it didn't contribute to the depletion of wild populations.
 
It will be interesting to see what morphs ORA can come up with. I've seen some pretty odd looking patterns on these fish. With selective captive breeding I expect to see some changes in body and colors. It's all for the best.
 
I'd expect to see these fish for sale at about $50-60 retail at the start; but expect them long term at about $35-40. That's purely a guess based on current WC prices and what other CB fish are selling for. In the articles published on breeding I didn't get the idea that it was really that hard.
 
I'm more than willing to pay more for a captive-bred animal, knowing that it will already be acclimated to aquarium life, feeding well, and most likely free of disease and parasites--and that my purchase of it didn't contribute to the depletion of wild populations.

mandarins are ich resistant by nature, so it's not like ora is developing an ich resistant mandarin. hopefully, it does not lose that characteristic in the ora breeding process.
 
It doesn't have anything to do with breeding. A captive-bred fish that's been in a controlled environment hasn't been exposed to the same potential parasites and diseases that a wild-caught fish has. Since the slime coat that helps fend off ich is part of the mandarins' physiology, I doubt it would--or could--be bred out of them.
 
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