Will mandarin dragonets eat isopods?

[stanleo]

I have looked everywhere to find this information with little success. I have a refugium going with chaeto and live rock, bare bottom. I seeded it with copepods and its been up and running for over a month. I still have a good population of copepods in the fuge, sump and DT. I did all this because I want a mandarin and I think I am almost there but going to give it at least another month to be sure I have enough food for one. My question is, I have a lot of munnid isopods everywhere as well. Will a mandarin like eating those as well as the copepods? I know they will also eat amphipods but I haven't seen too many of those. Is there a member expert on mandarins? There seems to be for every other fish out there. Thanks

 

[EMeyer]

I am so happy to see someone correctly calling these things isopods! I constantly have reefers tell me "hey look at this copepod"... thats not a copepod, its an isopod. (probably 10x bigger and with a completely different morphology)

I have these in all my tanks... except the two display tanks with Mandarins. Those are picked clean. The refugia in those tanks are full of isopods. I take this as good evidence that yes, Mandarins happily eat these isopods.

 

[EMeyer]

Since it sounds like you are taking it slow and careful prior to adding your Mandarin, I want to add one thing.

If the first one you buy dies, don't give up. IMO a lot of Mandarins come in already doomed from lack of food during shipping and holding at the wholesalers. I've had a couple Mandarins that lived 3-5 years and several more Mandarins that lived 1 day.

I dont find these fish to be very difficult to keep, but it can take a couple tries to find a viable one.

 

[stanleo]

I am so happy to see someone correctly calling these things isopods! I constantly have reefers tell me "hey look at this copepod"... thats not a copepod, its an isopod. (probably 10x bigger and with a completely different morphology)

I have these in all my tanks... except the two display tanks with Mandarins. Those are picked clean. The refugia in those tanks are full of isopods. I take this as good evidence that yes, Mandarins happily eat these isopods.

Thank you that was the experienced answer I was looking for.

Since it sounds like you are taking it slow and careful prior to adding your Mandarin, I want to add one thing.

If the first one you buy dies, don't give up. IMO a lot of Mandarins come in already doomed from lack of food during shipping and holding at the wholesalers. I've had a couple Mandarins that lived 3-5 years and several more Mandarins that lived 1 day.

I dont find these fish to be very difficult to keep, but it can take a couple tries to find a viable one.

That's kind of sad actually.