Mandarin dragonet in a 17 gallon

[1epauletteshark]

Now hear me out, I am now culturing copepods and phytoplankton and have a hang on refugium and am getting tigriopus pods soon. I am hoping to get a baby mandarin dragonet that would be around 1.5cm long ≈ 0.5 inch and I will only have my tank for 10 months so I don’t think it will get too big. I have found one that allegedly eats frozen and pellets. Would this be at all possible and if so what would I have to do other than what I am already doing to take care of it. Stocking: 1x small yellow banded possum wrasse, 2x baby clownfish, 2 electric blue hermits, BTA, blue tuxedo urchin, 6x nassarius snails, 5x turbo snails, 1x skunk cleaner shrimp, 5x sexy shrimp and 2x pom pom crabs

 

[52728299]

Culturing pods is pretty easy. I'll show you my setup. It's pretty low maintenance. I would not want 2 pairs of dragonete in a 75gallon personally, if it were me I'd be constantly worrying about their food supply, too stressful and you don't want any of them starving..

My mandarin is from biota and he will eat prepared foods but not much from what I can tell. I supplement with pods, I got tired of phyto crashing tho and just use phytofeast, put some in every day and pods grow like crazy. I use a turkey baster and pull out 1800ml of pod culture a week, this is after seeding my 100g dt with like 5 gallons of pod culture. But when using the turkey baster I can pull out the sludge from the bottom and it acts as a water change as well and I just pour all of it in the dt. No issues and my mandarin is fat.

Good call on not putting one in too small a tank. They are great fish and worth waiting for. Also, biota will communicate with you if you want to ask them questions. They are very helpful.

 

[1epauletteshark]

Just one of the dragonet pair should be fine, 2 pairs is pushing it by a BIG margin, especially if its only on pods

I personally plan on keeping just a pair in my 6ft and im still reconsidering

Noted, thanks

 

[1epauletteshark]

Culturing pods is pretty easy. I'll show you my setup. It's pretty low maintenance. I would not want 2 pairs of dragonete in a 75gallon personally, if it were me I'd be constantly worrying about their food supply, too stressful and you don't want any of them starving..

My mandarin is from biota and he will eat prepared foods but not much from what I can tell. I supplement with pods, I got tired of phyto crashing tho and just use phytofeast, put some in every day and pods grow like crazy. I use a turkey baster and pull out 1800ml of pod culture a week, this is after seeding my 100g dt with like 5 gallons of pod culture. But when using the turkey baster I can pull out the sludge from the bottom and it acts as a water change as well and I just pour all of it in the dt. No issues and my mandarin is fat.

Good call on not putting one in too small a tank. They are great fish and worth waiting for. Also, biota will communicate with you if you want to ask them questions. They are very helpful.

I think the only captive bred mandarins available in Australia are ORA, nice setup! I am currently culturing copepods and phyto for my tank but mainly for fun and the experience. I am starting up a tigriopus culture soon too.

 

[L0L_Z]

I think the only captive bred mandarins available in Australia are ORA, nice setup! I am currently culturing copepods and phyto for my tank but mainly for fun and the experience. I am starting up a tigriopus culture soon too.

Ive seen alot of biota mandarins too down here, albeit rare. ORA is more common tho

 

[1epauletteshark]

Ive seen alot of biota mandarins too down here, albeit rare. ORA is more common tho

Ah ok, would you recommend one over the other?

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

I have mine in a 20 but I need to invest in an hob refuge but if you can see him actually eating frozen and pellets and he’s fat then you have a chance. But he’ll eat the pods no matter what. I would seriously invest in a baby brine shrimp hatchery. I spent close to $200 in pods only for him to take them out in a matter of days and many didn’t even make it a few days after seeding the tank. But, I also culture copepods and feed phyto-feast. It can be done but even algaebarn says you have to dose roughly 16oz of pods a month at minimum. I’m not trying to be negative but this has been my experience. I honestly love this fish but I know he’s high maintenance in my tank. Several have made it happen that the pods have just bloomed and never had to seed their tank again. If you do get him, go by his weight and watch the pod population.

 

[OrionN]

Having a Possum Wrasse not interested in fauna I’d like having a fox in a hen house that is not eating chicken. He is too shy and having you i. Front of the tank cause him to stop feeding and hunting. 17 gal is too small for having a self propagates pod to be able to feed the mandarin and the Possum wrasse.
you just have to feed them yourself and be a slave to that mandarin. The possum wrasse will eat prepare food but the Mandarin is highly unlikely to eat prepare food.
There will be people will pay that their Mandarin is fat and eating whatever they feed him. Look for proof before you accept that as true.

 

[Mschmidt]

I had a small dragonette in a 40 and started to worry about the long-term success of it. I was using a canister filter though. a pair in a 75 with a sump dedicated to growing pods you might be ok with one pair. I have no experience with scooters though.

 

[1epauletteshark]

Having a Possum Wrasse not interested in fauna I’d like having a fox in a hen house that is not eating chicken. He is too shy and having you i. Front of the tank cause him to stop feeding and hunting. 17 gal is too small for having a self propagates pod to be able to feed the mandarin and the Possum wrasse.
you just have to feed them yourself and be a slave to that mandarin. The possum wrasse will eat prepare food but the Mandarin is highly unlikely to eat prepare food.
There will be people will pay that their Mandarin is fat and eating whatever they feed him. Look for proof before you accept that as true.

Yeah, I have actually seen her pecking at the sand so I think she is eating some of the pods in the aquarium.

 

[52728299]

For reference this picture is from a couple weeks ago.

 

[Crustaceon]

You can have them in a small tank but it's really dependent on them reliably eating frozen foods or pellets. IME, you can train most dragonets to accept prepared foods, but it takes a lot of patience/experience and becomes exponentially harder to do so if you have other fish in the tank competing for that food/intimidating the dragonet. Then there's the proper presentation of the food to entice the dragonet and to get it to associate a feeding pipet with food... FWIW, I've also seen people with starving dragonets in 200+ gallon tanks with lots of rockwork and a refugium.

 

[L0L_Z]

Ah ok, would you recommend one over the other?

It doesnt matter. Both eat well, just seems biota is more popular. I do not keep any of these fish yet, but this is what research and internet showed me

 

[nothing_fancy]

I believe a mandarin is one of those fish where If you have to ask if it'll do alright in your system you probably should wait...This is in regards to long term success. I personally don't think "training" that fish to eat frozen food is 100% guarantee. IMO pods, lots of them, should be established in the tank for months prior to introducing a fish well known for being a finicky eater. I also think a bigger tank is necessary rather than transferring it from a small tank to a larger tank later. They like to swim, I have one and it really gets around the tank, loves to swim all over, never hides. Whatever you decide good luck with it!

 

[Tchung23]

Spend extra money and buy a captive bred mandarins. I have one. It was super tiny when I got him. About 1”. He eats frozen and pellets. You’ll feel much better knowing he’s eating.

 

[1epauletteshark]

I am aware I ruled the idea of this out however I have stumbled across a 1.5cm long (this is important because I will only have this tank another maximum 10 months and it won’t get fully grown) scooter blenny that 100% confirmed eats frozen bbs and I am willing to spend the 40$ a -month?- for 1.5L of pods to seed the tank to ensure a large enough pod population.
Opinions?

 

[1epauletteshark]

Spend extra money and buy a captive bred mandarins. I have one. It was super tiny when I got him. About 1”. He eats frozen and pellets. You’ll feel much better knowing he’s eating.

Unfortunately there are no captive bred mandarins or any fish really other than clown in Indonesia or at least Jakarta

 

[nothing_fancy]

I am aware I ruled the idea of this out however I have stumbled across a 1.5cm long (this is important because I will only have this tank another maximum 10 months and it won’t get fully grown) scooter blenny that 100% confirmed eats frozen bbs and I am willing to spend the 40$ a -month?- for 1.5L of pods to seed the tank to ensure a large enough pod population.
Opinions?

I don't think you need to spend that much on pods. If you can find a jar of pods locally and be sure its one species, for instance tisbe is great for mandarin, just get a glass jar or a 2L bottle, cheap led light, air tube and pump, phyto for feeding and culture them every two weeks. If the culture crashes then buy some more pods but 40 a month is so expensive for something you can make yourself. Some people use plastic storage bins as well. Its a fun project. You're probably aware that you can culture phytoplankton similarly and with that you can keep restarting pod cultures every 2 weeks and have confidence that you can feed the mandarin long term.

 

[1epauletteshark]

I don't think you need to spend that much on pods. If you can find a jar of pods locally and be sure its one species, for instance tisbe is great for mandarin, just get a glass jar or a 2L bottle, cheap led light, air tube and pump, phyto for feeding and culture them every two weeks. If the culture crashes then buy some more pods but 40 a month is so expensive for something you can make yourself. Some people use plastic storage bins as well. Its a fun project. You're probably aware that you can culture phytoplankton similarly and with that you can keep restarting pod cultures every 2 weeks and have confidence that you can feed the mandarin long term.

Yes I am aware, I had a pod culture and a phyto culture until the phyto crashed and I didn’t have any backup so the pod culture crashed too but I am looking to get it back up and running again soon

 

[1epauletteshark]

I forgot to update this thread but I ended up with a little female mandarin because my possum wrasse passed away and my LFS had one available that was pretty chonky and will all the pods and me feeding BBS that I am hatching three times a day she has become even more chunky and is doing well

 

[Rugops]

I am just getting into saltwater but I do have experience with finicky eaters from the FW hobby.

I actually would consider getting a white worm culture if you are up to it. It is a very cheap alternative and the movement of the worms is very stimulating to fish in my experience. I know one person who does this and the mandarin does take them. You could hope it does but then again it might not BUT then again it does take pellets. I would rather give something stimulating to my fish.

Try it. Even if it doesn't work, you can feed your other fish with it.