Red Dragonet

[Jollyg97]

Hey guys I just got a red dragonete (blenny ect) who according to the lfs who is pretty reputable is eating frozen brine. I fed the tank and a small piece of brine came over to him and he did indeed eat it. He seemed a bit skeptical about it though. He picks at the rocks a little bit (I think more leftover brine less pods) but does not move very much and when he does its pretty slow and pretty short which worries me. Recently he's kind of just been hanging in one corner. I understand that copepods are best but I've also seen frozen foods can work for this fish as well if accepting. Also if I were to get pods for this how many does it go through a day would you guys say? 20 gallon high with 35 pounds of 6 month old live rock, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, 0 nitrite, salinity 1.025.

 

[reefbroao]

The thing you need to remember is that even if they eat frozen they will not thrive. they have no stomach which is why they eat so much. Food just passes through absorbing what nutrients it can before it is expelled. so feeding in meals is ineffective.

 

[Raintree]

recently hatched live brine shrimp will work. Make some type of dispenser, like a pill bottle filled with brine shrimp and saltwater with a small hole drilled in the top so that they can slowly swim out into the tank throughout the day

 

[aznflyfisherman]

I have one for a year now in a 110g, they move slow. Mine is doing good mine ests frozen food too but mainly food source is whats within my live rocks n sand. He hunts for food throughout the tank n eats none stop like my green mandarin dragonet. Keep an eye on his stomach if it getting skinny it mean he will eventually die of starvation slowly if you dont provide him with copepods..

 

[Jollyg97]

So what if I were to throw in about 5000? Would that be enough and for how long roughly?

 

[sde1500]

As an estimate, because I don't think anyone can honestly know for sure how much they eat, these guys eat about 8k pods per day. Having one in a 20 gallon tank will be a very big challenge. Best thing you can probably do is look into setting up a small tank to raise pods yourself, and maybe add some sort of refugium. If you have a sump, add one in there, or if not add a hang on back one.

Frozen is good to supplement with, but not a viable replacement for live.

 

[MondoBongo]

So what if I were to throw in about 5000? Would that be enough and for how long roughly?

couple days... ish.

20 high that's only been around for 6 months isn't a very good candidate to house one of these guys. i'd be looking for both an older, and larger tank.

as far as the brine shrimp go, they're pretty much junk as far as nutritional content unless they're coming gut loaded.

all my dragons (and they are dragonets - family callionymidae, not blennies or gobies) thrive on the native pod populations in my tanks, and any other foods i give them are just supplemental.

if you're determined to try to keep this guy in your 20 high a few thoughts:

as raintree said, a feeding dispenser for newly hatched baby brine shrimp can be helpful. the baby brine are more nutritious than the adults due to the egg sac that they carry for about the first 24 - 48 hours.

here is the type of feeding station i like:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2113800&highlight=feeding+station

next, i would think about maintaining some live food cultures. pods certainly, but also white worms. white worms are excellent food for your fish in general, good nutritional profile (high HUFAs, low protein), and they're enthusiastically accepted by a large range of fish.

i order my cultures from AngelsPlus. in fact, i should have on arriving today.

http://www.angelsplus.com/FoodLiveCultures.htm

finally, you're going to want to get some better frozen foods. PE myses are good but tend to be pretty large for smaller dragonets, so hikari myses can be a good option. rod's food also makes a type of roe (eggs) that mine seem to like. experiment around, but variety is key.

remember that these guys tend to graze throughout the day, rather than gorging all at once, so multiple small feedings are required.

 

[reefbroao]

Agreed putting one in a 20 will be a death sentence or spending tons of money on pods.

I have 120g total water volume and I am still not planning to get one.

 

[TimFountain]

I had a variety of tanks over the years and the only one I successfully kept a single dragonet was a lightly stocked (in terms of fish) 210 with a 40 sump and a seperate 30G fuge that was the main supply of pods. A 20 will not work IMHO. I now have a 92 and don't consider that large enough to support the # of pods a dragonet requires.

 

[mystikal]

You need a lot of pods.
My dragonet eats frozen blood worms, but my 40 gal tank has a back fuge that is heavily populated. I usually add one pod packet every couple months, to continually seed the population. Not to discourage you, but the 20 gal may be too small for him...if you want to keep him keep seeding more pod packets in the fuge so they can multiple (it will be very expensive). Make sure you have lots of LR in the main display and no other fishes that eat pods. This may help you succeed in keeping him happy.

I've had my dragonet for about a year so far and he is doing well so far. You could check out my youtube video with him eating the blood worms.

 

[Argo747]

I've had a scooter blenny in my 28 gallon for over a year and he does pretty well in my opinion. I do have to make sure he eats, though. I target feed mine with mysis shrimp soaked in selcon, and he seems to love it.

I agree with the other posters that they actively forage around the clock picking off too small to see critters in the sand, but in my case I'm not convinced that keeps him alive in a tank as small as mine. Just my experience though. I'm no expert.

 

[aznflyfisherman]

I sometimes target feed as well but that gets old fast. Plus trying to keep the other more aggresive feeders away is tough. I have a diamond goby sand silfter n my red ruby followers him around n get small critters from the sand.

 

[Jscwerve]

I don't know if yours will, but I found that mine sometimes, for lack of a better term, sleeps.

First week I saw it on the bottom of the tank behind a rock and not moving at all. I thought it was dead. I left it for about an hour to be certain. It didn't move at all. Went in with a turkey baster to get it. sucked it up to the baster and all of a sudden it darted back to its spot!

I felt really bad. It sat there another 2-3 hours or so, not moving at all. I thought if it wasn't dead when i tried to get it, it certainly must be now after being sucked against a turkey baster tube. Then he just took off like nothing happened. Started scooting around the tank like nothing had ever happened. Still moving around every day. I couldn't believe it.

 

[aznflyfisherman]

They buried themselves half way in the sand with either their head or eyes expose at night time, my sleeps near my rbta..i actually had a pair of the ruby red scooter until a carpet ate one, got rid of the carpet after that, i lost like three fish due to the green carpet...mandarin goby sleeps at night as well n both are pale looking while they are asleep..