Mandarin Dragonet

Sam071 · Sep 17, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

That size tank won’t be sustainable for producing food for a mandarin long term. I think others have mentioned this, get a Biota captive raised mandarin where you can be assured it will feed well on prepared foods.

Jay

I plan to supplement frozen, dose pods monthly and provide live baby brine shrimp. What minimum size tank would be needed to produce enough pods long term?

Rick's Reviews · Sep 17, 2022

I cycled my aquriam (45g) for 8months empty to build pod population for mandarin, they all got eaten quicker than I expected. sounds like you have a great plan to offer variety of foods, i think this is best way to see what they eat. I offered everything from live to frozen and over the months (I tried live bloodworms,mysis etc) but after watching i found my mandarin enjoys frozen bloodworms.
I also have artemia hatchery and copepods stations, plus regular delivery of copepods.
I did have a flame scooter blenny for nearly six months which also used to like the bloodworms but unfortunately died (definitely not lack of food) these are extremely hard to care for and apparently do not survive long in majority of aquariums.
I think your off to a great and wish you the best success

Jay Hemdal · Sep 17, 2022

Sam071 said:
I plan to supplement frozen, dose pods monthly and provide live baby brine shrimp. What minimum size tank would be needed to produce enough pods long term?

I had a 900 gallon reef and a large male mandarin ate all/most of the pods in about 6 months. If you have a sump/Refugia that can produce pods that then go back to the tank it is more sustainable, since the breeders don’t get eaten and you ca feed them extra to get the population up.
Jay

3429810 · Sep 18, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
I had a 900 gallon reef and a large male mandarin ate all/most of the pods in about 6 months. If you have a sump/Refugia that can produce pods that then go back to the tank it is more sustainable, since the breeders don’t get eaten and you ca feed them extra to get the population up.
Jay

I have a 65 gallon reef that had no sump until recently and I had zero issues maintaining pod populations for my Mandarin. It has been in there since last November/December. I think lots of rock for them to hide and dosing phyto daily was key to maintaining the population. I also don’t have other species who actively hunt pods in there. I know it’s anecdotal but I also don’t think you need a 900+ gallon tank to sustain one Mandarin.

homegrowncichlid · Sep 18, 2022

My 75 gallon with 40 gallon sump, has an algae scrubber, which supplies enough pods (and amphipods) to support 2 pairs of dragonettes in the main display and 2 more in the sump. (that's 8 individuals) Another key to help support food production is to use #5 gravel, (or mixed with #2 coarse sand), which is a refuge for the amphipods/pod colony, as opposed to bare bottom or sand, which, they can not build their breeding nests in. (a half inch depth is all it takes for the amphipods to colonize). Currently I have colonies of amphipods breeding in the gravel bed, and also building "mud-like structure" colonies in fishless zones, (ie the overflow box, pipe out flows, etc).
I feed heavily, broadcasting daily (no target feeding) with ground and powdered foods, which supports the food chain from the bottom up.

enricocoron · Sep 20, 2022

I know it's been mentioned but I would only get a biota or similar tank raised for my 60 cube with 20 g sump. biota states (hopefully true) that they don't have pods in their Florida facility, so they are ONLY eating the prepared foods. But they do feed them a lot and they don't have to compete with voracious fish above them so pods will help, but if you have a fuge or fishless area with enough rocks/chaeto in it and feed them they should keep a flow going into the DT. Unbelievably beautiful fish, notriously hard to keep in captivity without a real sound game plan.

Jeffcb · Sep 20, 2022

Mine is wild caught but not a picky eater. Even pics at flake food.

SlugSnorter · Sep 20, 2022

Sam071 said:
Hello,

I was hoping to get some opinions on when to add a mandarin. It looks like most people say after 6-12months. Our tank is about 2 months old and we already have pods covering the glass, refugium and live rocks. Is there a way to know that the population of pod is sustainable or the mandarin will wipe it out in a couple days? I plan to redose pods monthly and we dose phyto at night. I also have live baby brine shrimp hatcheries and plan to supplement frozen food.

Also, any opinions on keeping a scooter blenny and a mandarin together?

55G tank with refugium, live rock and chaeto

Thank you!

I would wait, nothing could go wrong by waiting and making sure the tank is mature.