Mandarin dragonet types

[W31Olds]

All, I received an adult wild caught Spotted Mandarin 2 days ago and am well aware this is a difficult fish to quarantine and keep so I was prepared to target feed live food. My quarantine setup is a 20G that has been running uninhabited for months so is full of algae and maybe has some small number of pods. I tried frozen bloodworms and adult brine shrimp first and he ate them both. Question, did I just get lucky or are the spotted easier to keep that the green? This is the first Mandarin I've ever kept.

 

[fandaga]

All, I received an adult wild caught Spotted Mandarin 2 days ago and am well aware this is a difficult fish to quarantine and keep so I was prepared to target feed live food. My quarantine setup is a 20G that has been running uninhabited for months so is full of algae and maybe has some small number of pods. I tried frozen bloodworms and adult brine shrimp first and he ate them both. Question, did I just get lucky or are the spotted easier to keep that the green? This is the first Mandarin I've ever kept.

That’s pretty awesome he already ate bloodworms and brine shrimp! I’ve never seen my captive bred blue mandarins eat those. I’ve been adding cultured pods twice a week and the mandarins have been alive and fat since May / June of 2024. But I have no idea if WC spotted are easier or not. Good luck!