Ruby red dragonette help

[juniorrocketdad]

First off, I know what care is needed for a fish like this to survive and under any other circumstances I would not have purchased it, that being said I bought it from petco for 10$ today because it is really small and skinny and they had it labeled as a different fish. I knew it would die there so I felt it was my duty to try to save this fish so I did what I feel is the responsible thing and I took him home and put him in a 10 gallon qt tank. I put a few small pieces of rubble from the dt so there would at least be some pods in there for him to eat. My question is how do I keep him alive, when he gets plump I WILL give him to a reputable lfs but I want to fatten him up first, I gave him a little mysis and a few hilarious marine s pellets to see if he would eat anything but so far he is sitting in the back right corner of the tank. I am looking for advice here, returning it to petco is not an option but I am not keeping it for more than two months so remember that

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

Buy a bottle of copepods. Seed the QT tank and let the little guy fatten up. If you can find live brine shrimp, they seem to respond well to that. Also heard they are easily trained to bloodworms from Hikari

 

[bat21]

I'm far from an expert on these fish, but I think he's gotta be in your DT to have a shot. They supposedly have very thick slime coats and are very resistant to diseases like ich and because of that and their dietary needs, most people do not quarantine them. But don't take my word for it. Get someone more qualified to verify what I said.

 

[juniorrocketdad]

I have him 2 weeks in qt and he is eating well thus far and appears to be fattening up. I had cyclops Copepods that he loves that I target feed to him but he's so tiny it's hard to watch him eat since he eats so little

 

[juniorrocketdad]

He also eats mysis paste which I make myself

 

[pmcarbrey]

First off, good job. You did the right thing saving the little guy from petco. Now that he is eating and seems to be doing better you could start looking for places to regime him to. I'm honestly surprised he survived, it's always hard to get them to eat prepared foods, and petco fish aren't always exactly the healthiest.

Good job :thumbsup:

 

[MondoBongo]

you might want to consider making one of the Paul B. style feeders for newly hatched baby brine shrimp, and trying him out on some live white worms and black worms.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2166449

additionally, while Nutramar Ova is pretty much impossible to find, there are other kinds of roe (fish eggs) that you can get frozen for aquarium food that may be worth a shot.

good luck.

 

[juniorrocketdad]

First off, good job. You did the right thing saving the little guy from petco. Now that he is eating and seems to be doing better you could start looking for places to regime him to. I'm honestly surprised he survived, it's always hard to get them to eat prepared foods, and petco fish aren't always exactly the healthiest.

Good job :thumbsup:

Thanks, the plan is to fatten him up than give him to a very knowledgeable lfs that has kept various dragonets for years and they are always fat and healthy but I want to give the little guys th best chances of making the trip,

 

[juniorrocketdad]

you might want to consider making one of the Paul B. style feeders for newly hatched baby brine shrimp, and trying him out on some live white worms and black worms.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2166449

additionally, while Nutramar Ova is pretty much impossible to find, there are other kinds of roe (fish eggs) that you can get frozen for aquarium food that may be worth a shot.

good luck.

I have been looking into his feeders and they would be outstanding but even baby brine as he states does not give much nutrition but the yolk gives some, it's mainly to keep them busy so if the plan changes and I decide to keep him I will prolly make one, and the live worms would be very expensive since no store near me sells live food so shipping would prolly cost more than the food

 

[MondoBongo]

The benefit of the baby brine is that they can help put weight on fairly quickly. So they can be a useful short term tool.

I also recommend trying food soaked in selcon. My Mandy tends to be more interested in things that have been marinated in it before feeding.

 

[BigJohnny]

You can also gut load the brine with rotifers to make them more nutritional

 

[juniorrocketdad]

Ok will look into this thanks for replys

 

[FlyfisherDan]

Both ruby red dragonets that are in my tank have eaten frozen from day 1. (I use a frozen product called Limpets Reef Buffet. There is a fish blend and a coral blend which has some added ingredients and is chopped finer) I have seen them eat pellets from time to time, but I soak them to soften them up a little first. I lost the smaller female a few months ago to I believe, our coral banded shrimp because she was very active and healthy looking prior to her disappearance. The large male is looking very healthy and eating well, but lonely. Trying to get another female, but it seems that most we are finding are males.

 

[juniorrocketdad]

Thanks for the advice but I already returned it to an Lfs I know keeps a lot of dragonets, once I got it healthy again I still couldn't put it in my dt since I have a sixline that would kill it