Mandarin Dragonet Eating

[gabepowell101]

I am so greatful right now. I bought a mandarin dragonet as a spur of the moment buy without doing research on the fish other than tank requirements and if it would coexist with my other fish. That was a big mistake and will not happen again.
I realized it had a very specialized diet of copepods and that generally you should introduce these to your tank 2 weeks or so ahead of time.
I don’t live near a fish store, everything has to be ordered in. I immediately ordered copepods along side phytoplankton but it took about 4 days to arrive. Once it arrived my mandarin chowed them down to a point where after 3-4 days there were hardly any left.
I was struggling to maintain a population and he started getting skinny. Today is the first time he has finally started to eat brine shrimp! I will still try to keep a copepod population in my tank for him but I am so pumped that he is able to sustain himself with the shrimp as well

 

[dakoop]

Mine only eats pods, but he a big boy

 

[afboundguy]

Are you culturing your own phyto and pods outside of the tank? I would also suggest doing a Paul B style baby brine shrimp feeder and hatching live BBS.

You tank looks waaaaay to new for a mandarin. Also how big is it? I've kept one in a 25 gallon but did pod, phyto, BBS and white worm cultures and it was a ton of work but very rewarding.

I did a little write up on the subject https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/why-not-keep-a-mandarinfish-in-a-nano-tank.1095408/

 

[gabepowell101]

Are you culturing your own phyto and pods outside of the tank? I would also suggest doing a Paul B style baby brine shrimp feeder and hatching live BBS.

You tank looks waaaaay to new for a mandarin. Also how big is it? I've kept one in a 25 gallon but did pod, phyto, BBS and white worm cultures and it was a ton of work but very rewarding.

I did a little write up on the subject https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/why-not-keep-a-mandarinfish-in-a-nano-tank.1095408/

I am not at the moment but have definitely taken interest in making a phyto reactor and a copepod tank.
My tank is about 3 months old or so but made with live sand and ocean water. My numbers have been great for over 2 months. My tank is 45 gallon and the mandarin is 2” in case that’s what you were asking. I’ll check out your write up

 

[gabepowell101]

Are you culturing your own phyto and pods outside of the tank? I would also suggest doing a Paul B style baby brine shrimp feeder and hatching live BBS.

You tank looks waaaaay to new for a mandarin. Also how big is it? I've kept one in a 25 gallon but did pod, phyto, BBS and white worm cultures and it was a ton of work but very rewarding.

I did a little write up on the subject https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/why-not-keep-a-mandarinfish-in-a-nano-tank.1095408/

I also want to reiterate what I said in my first post that I take full responsibility and feel guilty for putting this fish in this position. I know I didn’t bring him into an ideal environment and I sort of look at it as a life saving mission at this point due to me not researching this fish better before getting it. Hence why I am excited to see him eating even if it may not be what is most natural and maybe what is best for him in the long run

 

[afboundguy]

I am not at the moment but have definitely taken interest in making a phyto reactor and a copepod tank.
My tank is about 3 months old or so but made with live sand and ocean water. My numbers have been great for over 2 months. My tank is 45 gallon and the mandarin is 2” in case that’s what you were asking. I’ll check out your write up

I would highly suggest giving it a shot! Not only increases chances for your mandarin but there's tons of other benefits to rest of the living things in a reef tank!

I also want to reiterate what I said in my first post that I take full responsibility and feel guilty for putting this fish in this position. I know I didn’t bring him into an ideal environment and I sort of look at it as a life saving mission at this point due to me not researching this fish better before getting it. Hence why I am excited to see him eating even if it may not be what is most natural and maybe what is best for him in the long run

I did see that and I've done similar stuff and it's great you're saying this. It's always hard with mandarins especially if they're wild caught. I would say fastest way to fatten the little guy up would be to grab a brine shrimp round hatchery disk and some BBS eggs ($40-$50 total maybe) and either buy a mandarin feeding setup from here @Printed Reef or make your own and start feeding freshly hatched BBS a few times a day.

BBS under 24 hours are full of fat and decently "nutritional" and are a cheap and easy way to keep a mandarin eating!

 

[gabepowell101]

I would highly suggest giving it a shot! Not only increases chances for your mandarin but there's tons of other benefits to rest of the living things in a reef tank!

I did see that and I've done similar stuff and it's great you're saying this. It's always hard with mandarins especially if they're wild caught. I would say fastest way to fatten the little guy up would be to grab a brine shrimp round hatchery disk and some BBS eggs ($40-$50 total maybe) and either buy a mandarin feeding setup from here @Printed Reef or make your own and start feeding freshly hatched BBS a few times a day.

BBS under 24 hours are full of fat and decently "nutritional" and are a cheap and easy way to keep a mandarin eating!

So I haven’t made a feeder yet but I hatched a bunch of BBS last night and did my first feeding this morning. Everybody is loving it

 

[DanConnor]

In addition to the bbs, white worms are easy to culture and makes a ton of food that mandarins and other finicky eaters will enjoy

 

[afboundguy]

So I haven’t made a feeder yet but I hatched a bunch of BBS last night and did my first feeding this morning. Everybody is loving it

If you don't want to make one this is a great setup that I am now using. Was worth it to me instead of building a new setup - https://printedreef.com/products/mandarin-dragonet-fish-feeder-kit?_pos=1&_sid=d65027268&_ss=r

In addition to the bbs, white worms are easy to culture and makes a ton of food that mandarins and other finicky eaters will enjoy

White worms are great as well! I culture those as well and just picked up a wild caught female to eventually add her to the main tank but she'll be in my remote fuge and I plan to feed her some white worms!

My mandarins love WWs and I love it when some are sticking out of their mouths after trying to eat too many of them!