Biota Mandarin Dragonet Success

[Mreef24]

Biota Mandarin dragonet owners!! What’s been your success for acclimation, feeding, and care?

 

[dwest]

I grew mine out in a 20 gallon tank for several months with bits of liverock. There were a few pods in there but mostly ate the c2 pellets biota recommended. After that, I put them (one male and one female) in my 180 gallon reef. I never saw the female again, but the male is now almost 2 years old and I see him pecking at the rocks most days. He is eating pods only (amphipods and mysid shrimp). He hasn’t went for any other foods as far as I can tell. Beautiful fish!

 

[edsbeaker]

Following along. I’m interested in an update on these Mandarins.

Last I heard is that they could just stop eating prepared food. The other thing I have heard is that they have very fast metabolisms and need to eat all day long. Fingers crossed that these things have changed because I’d love to have one too.

 

[Fish Fan]

Following along. I’m interested in an update on these Mandarins.

Last I heard is that they could just stop eating prepared food. The other thing I have heard is that they have very fast metabolisms and need to eat all day long. Fingers crossed that these things have changed because I’d love to have one too.

I’m interested in this too. I had great luck with a captive raised Court Jester Goby from Biota; eats everything, but the mandarins I just somehow think will “revert” back to only wanting live pods. This could be entirely in my head, so tagging along to hear other reefers have to say.

 

[ccole]

I’ve had a biota mandarin goby for about 3 years now. He’s gone from a 30 gallon to a 75 gallon to a 250ish system with a big attached refugium. He definitely is still eating frozen but also gets lots of pods. I see him picking at LRS pretty often and he comes out with the rest of the fish during feeding.

 

[danielbrito0311]

Biota Mandarin dragonet owners!! What’s been your success for acclimation, feeding, and care?

Wanted to make a post about caring for a mandarin dragonet from biota in a nano tank since I saw a lot of contradicting information when I was first researching it. This is all in my experience and my personal advice:

(1) Have a breeder box
-When it first arrived mine was very in tiny and I was not sure if it would eat prepared foods. By introducing it to a breeder box it gave it a chance to get accustomed to my tank/lighting/etc without worrying about other fish. I was also able to feed it very very often since it was easily accessible.

(2) No aggressive fish
-They are easy targets when they first arrive and in the first couple of months while they grow. If you have aggressive fish they'll be an easy meal.

(3) No copepods needed
-I've only added copepods to my tank once when I first set it up and only dosed phyto for about a week after that. My tank doesn't have a huge visible pod population. With that being said I'd recommend a mature tank with a healthy microbiome to help the dragonet find food on the rocks. To combat a lack of pods I overfeed fine pellet food and find that this is enough since my mandarin looks very healthy, not skinny and is active.

(4) Overflows/Wavemakers
-Make sure that overflows have mesh or some sort of cover on them as a baby mandarin dragonet can easily get swept into the filtration. When I first released mine I found it in the filter sock a couple minutes later, thankfully it was underwater and perfectly fine. Similar danger with wave makers sucking them in

Feel free to ask any questions about this, I know its a topic of a lot of debate, but I think it is possible and not as hard as people made it seem at first. See my tank thread for pictures of my dragonet/tank!