So I want a mandarin dragonet.

[mpyers]

Ok. I belive I'm almost ready for a mandarin. Ive kept my parameters stable for months now. Tank has been up since January. Ive got what I think is a large cope population. I can see them all over the place. Even in the daytime. I have a fuge with rocks and chaeto for cope sanctuary.

I plan to craft a cope breeding station. Ive read a gallon jug with an air bubbler and phytoplankton will be enough.

I know this is a hard to keep fish.
What do i need to do to be sure i succeed?

 

[jd371]

How big is the tank? How much rock is in there? You say you can see a lot of Copepods, but a Mandarin will knock down the population in no time. Don't keep too many fish that also eat Copepods and out compete the Mandarin. You can also make a baby brine shrimp feeder to supplement it's feeding (look up Paul B's Manadrin feeder). If you plan on qt'ing the Mandarin you can try and teach it to eat frozen food.
It looks like you're in the right direction though, good luck

 

[ThRoewer]

Actually, tank size is almost irrelevant. What's really important is the available hard surface area pods can populate. Another thing that is important are areas inaccessible to the fish where pods can find refuge inside the tank. A decent layer of very coarse coral sand/rubble is also very helpful to give pods the refuge they need to maintain a stable population. A refugium, while helpful to maintain a reservoir for pod diversity, is not enough to feed mandarins - the numbers of pods washed out there are just not enough.

65 gallons should be enough for a pair if the rockwork creates enough surface area. But I would also see that the mandarins pick up eating frozen Mysis as supplemental food. It's what my pair does and they are doing fine.

 

[mpyers]

I dont have qt. I wish. Should i get a pair? Or just one?

I have a 65g dt with 30g sump. 40lbs rock supplemented with marine pure. I know he'll eat most of my copes in like two days but do you think the vids of the milk jug cope breeders will be enough plus the refugium?

I'll check out the brine thing and get some mysis.

I plan on getting lots more rock. But my ammonia has been solid zero for 6 months. I only have one clownfish. The other got eaten by a crab. I got rid of the crab.

 

[mpyers]

How hard is it to breed live mysis?

 

[Gahngoo]

How hard is it to breed live mysis?

I'm pretty sure Mysis shrimp are fresh water shrimp in cool water lakes. May be hard to even find them alive.

 

[mpyers]

Well shoot. Im a diy lunatic. So if i can. I will.

 

[Maritimer]

I've seen mysid shrimp in reef aquaria on more than one occasion - but it's usually been a boom-and-bust cycle.

~Bruce

 

[Kremis]

If you want to get the mandarin to eat, get live brine to try. I got a mandarin, had him for months till he tried to eat a bristle worm. He went downhill after that, only lasted another month. Mine was already eating bloodworms (probably why he thought the bristleworm was food)
If you want to just avoid getting him to eat altogether, you could start a pod culture. I have never done this, but plenty of other folks on here have. This would eliminate the need for getting it to eat completely

 

[mpyers]

That's what I'm hoping to do. I'll do pods and brine and mysis

 

[mpyers]

(look up Paul B's Manadrin feeder).

Do you have a link to that?

 

[OrionN]

They are not hard fish to keep as long as you have enough food for them. Very hardy and disease free. Unless your tank is huge you cannot keep any fish that compete with them for food. Smaller angels and wrasse. Other pod eaters (they do net need to be exclusively pod eater. For example: flame angel in a 75 gal tank will not leave enough T pods for the Mandarin. On the other ha d I keep a Mandarin that is fat in a 26 gal cube with out problem with a clown pair

 

[ThRoewer]

How hard is it to breed live mysis?

The ones you normally feed as frozen food are quite hard to breed, especially in the density you would need.

Though tropical reef Mysis reproduce easily on their own in a reef tank or refugium. I have loads of them. Though they will not get to the densities you would need either.

What you want to culture are Tigger Pods - they are easy and low maintenance. All you need is enough space to set up the culture containers.

I would hold of on getting the mandarins until you get enough Tigger Pod cultures going.

 

[mpyers]

How many gallons do i need to adequately cultivate trigger pods?

 

[ThRoewer]

One gallon per culture is enough, though I would set up a few.
Container Store Shoe Boxes are ideal:

Here 3 threads where I explained how it's done.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2593258

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2589328

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2592312

The algae are just for laziness - it works in clear water as well, you just need to feed them more diligently (I use flakes).

 

[aznflyfisherman]

If you really want a mandrin, get a small one first one first. Keep it atleast 6months and see if it is thriving and not getting skinny. If it is still chubby than you might be ok with the second one. I myself have a pair for over a year now and my mandarin both are healthy so far and not getting skinny. I do not seed my tank with pods, they at what ever pods are producing in my 110g.

 

[mpyers]

Will they eat amphipods? I've got amphipods the size of rats. Not really but they're huge. They look like little rats.

 

[ThRoewer]

Will they eat amphipods? I've got amphipods the size of rats. Not really but they're huge. They look like little rats.

If they can catch them they will eat them. Though your amphipod population will go down quickly. Mine are pretty much restricted to the fuge these days.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[juniorrocketdad]

I have been planning a mandarin and a ruby red dragonet for my next tank too, would 70lbs of pukani and a fuge be enough most likely? They would be the only pod eaters in the tank, sorry to hijack the thread

 

[mpyers]

It's fine anything you can learn i can learn from as well.