Mandrin dragonet in a 40breeder

jake.harry.3 · Nov 16, 2015

I have a 40 gallon breeder tank that has been setup since may. I have been interested in a mandrin dragonet since I originally setup the tank. I started adding the zoo2 live zooplankton at the beginning of this month as per the advice of the local saltwater store. Tonight I started to do some in depth research on them and now I am worrying I may have wasted the $20 on the zooplankton.

How long should I be dosing the tank at a 1/4 of the container a week for the mandrin to be able to survive. I feel like I am going to be doing it for the entire life of the mandrin itself.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.

NanaReefer · Nov 16, 2015

Be prepared!! You're going to get a lot of opinions on keeping a Mandarin. With that said IMO a 40B in to small for this fish. Let alone one that's under a year old. IMO you wasted $20 on zooplankton because the pods it's feeding will be eaten within a weeks time by the ever foraging Mandarin. Plus any other fish you may have that eat pods, which most do.
Everybody loves the Mandarin!! Not everybody knows when to say no. Do you?

Nnavarro1982 · Nov 16, 2015

Welcome to life of any type of dragonette!! I spend $27 every week to feed my little itty bitty ruby red scooter dragonette. They are foraging machines. If you want one u have to be willing to do what it takes to sustain one. I buy tiger pods once a week, I buy baby brine shrimp every 2 weeks and I buy algeagen pods every 4 weeks. All for 1 little fish. That's just to keep a 20 gallon nano stocked. So be prepared to buy more for a bigger tank with a bigger type of dragonette.

Dtackett · Nov 16, 2015

ive seen people keep them successfully in a 10 gallon so your tank size is fine. yes you wasted the money. because unless you continue to dose and dose more and more as needed the population wont sustain. your best bet would be to find one that eats frozen foods such as LRS. they're not as rare as you might think, not to say every shop will have one that eats prepared foods.

if you want to be prepared theres a few things you can do. the biggest thing you can do is setup breeding areas in your display tank as safe zones for them to hide and breed. you can do this with a few piles of rock rubble in the corners of the tank and behind your main rocks. ive seen a lot of versions of this and pretty much you want to create and area the pods can get around in but the fish and other inverts cant get in or see in. Are you running a sump? if so toss in some cheato. pods love the stuff and will breed like crazy. if you don't have a sump, find a large well oversized HOB filter and put some cheato in it in a clean panty hose net. toss a light over it and you have a hob refugium where pods will readily breed. you can also feed the pods directly by spraying the rubble piles with either small meaty foods like frozen brine, or with phyto but this is not a necessary step.

your pod population will only be as big as their food source can support. depending on your goal you can over feed a little bit, or even feed lightly at night. in the end these fish can be easy to keep, or an utter failure. the difference is how much work youre willing to put in.

NanaReefer · Nov 16, 2015

Dtackett said:
ive seen people keep them successfully in a 10 gallon so your tank size is fine. yes you wasted the money. because unless you continue to dose and dose more and more as needed the population wont sustain. your best bet would be to find one that eats frozen foods such as LRS. they're not as rare as you might think, not to say every shop will have one that eats prepared foods.

if you want to be prepared theres a few things you can do. the biggest thing you can do is setup breeding areas in your display tank as safe zones for them to hide and breed. you can do this with a few piles of rock rubble in the corners of the tank and behind your main rocks. ive seen a lot of versions of this and pretty much you want to create and area the pods can get around in but the fish and other inverts cant get in or see in. Are you running a sump? if so toss in some cheato. pods love the stuff and will breed like crazy. if you don't have a sump, find a large well oversized HOB filter and put some cheato in it in a clean panty hose net. toss a light over it and you have a hob refugium where pods will readily breed. you can also feed the pods directly by spraying the rubble piles with either small meaty foods like frozen brine, or with phyto but this is not a necessary step.

your pod population will only be as big as their food source can support. depending on your goal you can over feed a little bit, or even feed lightly at night. in the end these fish can be easy to keep, or an utter failure. the difference is how much work youre willing to put in.

Please post a link to those keeping a thriving Mandarin in a 10g tank. I would love to see it!

Dtackett · Nov 16, 2015

its on facebook bud, theres 1 of them in addictive reef keeping. you understand many mandarins eat prepared foods right?

Dtackett · Nov 16, 2015

BOOM. heres an example for ya. http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/nano-mandarin-full-article.htm

at this point josh day had kept the fish for about 2 years. I have no current info about if he still has it or not but this shows it can be done and gives some good info.

eatbreakfast · Nov 16, 2015

If there are no other pod hunting fish, such as sixline, leopard, or small Halichoeres wrasses, or dragon faced pipefish, a 40b will be fine, especially since it has been setup since May.

Adding live foods shouldn't be necessary as after 6 months or so their population should be stable and able to replenish itself.

Even if you find a mandarin that is eating prepared foods, that is not a huge help. The digestive tract of mandarins is so short, it means they need to eat almost constantly.

In tank refugia can include rubble piles and macro algaes, so that pods can more easily reproduce.

jake.harry.3 · Nov 16, 2015

I have been adding the zooplankton to my 29gallon sump and leaving the return pump off for 2 hours every time I add them. The only fish i have is a snowflake clown, a scissor tail goby, a flame goby, and a yellow watchman goby with a pistol shrimp. Otherwise its just cleaners and a boxing shrimp.

Im thinking if I dose the sump until the end of December/middle of january and do a 1/4 of a 500ml bottle a week, plus attempt to find one that is already eating prepared food I should be okay, but I dont know. I obviously don't want to starve the fish.

smh254 · Nov 16, 2015

I have a mandarin In my 40b for 6 months fat as ever. I do have a 20g sump with tons of pods in it. The pods in my sump breed like crazy. Once a month I pull a large rock from my sump and put it in the DT to get more pods in there.