I was at a fish store a few weeks ago and saw some beautiful green mandarin dragonets. I have heard mandarins are super picky eaters and should only be kept in large tanks with lots of pods. I've also heard captive bred are better because they've been raised on frozen food. I have a 20 gallon cube, well below what most people recommend for keeping a mandarin. I do have 23lbs of KP live rock which I felt had plenty of things the mandarin could eat while I tried to train it on frozen food. Despite my better judgment I bought a "medium" wild green mandarin. Medium wild caught is pretty big (nearly 2").
I dropped him in the tank and he immediately went to the back behind the rocks. He got more bold over the course of a few days but still likes hanging in the back. I saw him picking at the rocks a bunch which I took to be a good sign. I started shooting Hikari frozen bloodworms down the back of the wall hoping he would eat them, and he did!
Anyway it's only been a few weeks so I can't say how he'll fare long term but I'm happy he's eating frozen food. Thought I'd share a success story.
I dropped him in the tank and he immediately went to the back behind the rocks. He got more bold over the course of a few days but still likes hanging in the back. I saw him picking at the rocks a bunch which I took to be a good sign. I started shooting Hikari frozen bloodworms down the back of the wall hoping he would eat them, and he did!
Anyway it's only been a few weeks so I can't say how he'll fare long term but I'm happy he's eating frozen food. Thought I'd share a success story.
