Mandarin Dragonets

[Heather]

I ran into Timfish the other day and he encouraged me to post about my mandarin dragonet, so here goes:

Anyone would have told me NOT to get one, I've only got at 54 gallon DT, at the time, I had only had it 4-5 months (although it had been up & running about 3 months before that)...but a mandarin was the only fish my husband really wanted. So I researched mandarin training and prepared myself to buy bottles of copepods forever in case it didn't work. I brought Maggie home a the beginning of July. I added copepods to my tank and I started hatching brine shrimp. Every day I spot fed Maggie some live BBS, I froze the leftover BBS every few days and started giving Maggie the frozen BBS, once she was reliably eating those, I tried some frozen mysis, at first she would spit them out, but after a few days of trying, she started eating them. This process took about 6 weeks total and I bought bottles of 'pods a few times to make sure she had enough food. Now she goes to her feeding spot when I turn off the powerheads and eats mysis shrimp like a pig  She certainly still eats copepods throughout the day too, but I haven't bought a bottle of them since probably September.

I would certainly still caution anyone thinking about a mandarin, this takes a time commitment and there's no guarantee it will work for every fish, but I really had a lot of fun "training" Maggie. Another issue- I feed Maggie every day, so I get a higher nutrient load than is ideal, I get some hair algae and red slime at times. I try to do 10% water changes twice a week to combat that. So even after training, Maggie makes a little extra work for me, but I think she's worth it  

So in my opinion, if you really want a mandarin and are willing to take the time, effort and money, it can be done in a smaller tank...but you have to be willing to buy copepods forever in case you get one that isn't trainable.

Sorry for the terrible pictures. I suck at iphone aquarium photography  

[+BobcatReefer]

Agreed!  Love me some dragonets!  I have successfully kept Mandarins for years in a 46g bowfront, but I've also had multiple die w/i months.  Currently have a Ruby Red that now eats everything (plenty of pods from the fuge and cyclo-peeze/mysis/bloodworms frozen) and is getting to be a little fatty fat fat!

[Sascha D.]

I did a lot of research before buying my fish and saw numerous success stories of people keeping dragonets in smaller tanks. I guess Mandarin Dragonets naturally feed on fish roe and people are using Rod's Food Fish Eggs. They use a glass bottle, big enough for the mandarin to go inside, and put the eggs in the bottle. The dragonet gets conditioned to go into the bottle and the other tank inhabitants can't fit inside to get the roe.  

Here is a video I found on showing the technique. 

 

[Bluemoon]

I did a lot of research before buying my fish and saw numerous success stories of people keeping dragonets in smaller tanks. I guess Mandarin Dragonets naturally feed on fish roe and people are using Rod's Food Fish Eggs. They use a glass bottle, big enough for the mandarin to go inside, and put the eggs in the bottle. The dragonet gets conditioned to go into the bottle and the other tank inhabitants can't fit inside to get the roe.  

Here is a video I found on showing the technique. 

 

 

 

 

I've trained 3 mandarins to live off of pellets using this method. it works.

 

I fist heard about it from Matt Pederson a few years ago when he was breeding them.

 

I'll note though, in nano tanks : if you want to try this. Be prepared to dump a relatively significant amount of nutrients into your system. I've also noticed that having a wrasse in the same environment may lead to the mandarin being bullied when leaving the feeding jar.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

[Sascha D.]

Have you noticed that wrasses enter the jar? A lot of wrasses are about as thin as the dragonet and they should fit just fine. I know damselfish have no qualms about entering the jar if there's food! I have a male Mandarin Dragonet in my current tank, but haven't tried to condition him to the jar. I might introduce a female later and the jar feeding would be beneficial if the wrasses weren't a bother. 

[Heather]

Great to see I'm not the only one having success with mandarins in smaller tanks!

[Heather]

5 hours ago, Sascha D. said:

I did a lot of research before buying my fish and saw numerous success stories of people keeping dragonets in smaller tanks. I guess Mandarin Dragonets naturally feed on fish roe and people are using Rod's Food Fish Eggs. They use a glass bottle, big enough for the mandarin to go inside, and put the eggs in the bottle. The dragonet gets conditioned to go into the bottle and the other tank inhabitants can't fit inside to get the roe. 

 

I had Maggie eating in a shot glass for awhile, mostly to keep the clownfish from stealing her food, it worked well, but over time it was easier to just feed her on a back rock that the clown fish have a tough time getting to. I do notice that when the clownfish lay eggs, Maggie is very interested in them (I assume she wants to eat them) and the clownfish beat up on her a little when she gets to close

[Sascha D.]

I think part of the reason people are using glass bottles is to auto feed. Drop in the bottle and let the fish eat without you having to monitor them. The other part is so the other fish in the tank can't get the food. Hand feeding a jawfish or eel doesn't take much time, but dragonets probably require a lot of commitment. It's near impossible with a tang or other aggressive eater in the tank. 

[AlexMorsePremium]

Great success story!

[Bluemoon]

Have you noticed that wrasses enter the jar? A lot of wrasses are about as thin as the dragonet and they should fit just fine. I know damselfish have no qualms about entering the jar if there's food! I have a male Mandarin Dragonet in my current tank, but haven't tried to condition him to the jar. I might introduce a female later and the jar feeding would be beneficial if the wrasses weren't a bother. 

I've never seen a wrasse enter the jar, but I watched a jealous six-line immediately pester the mandarin as soon as it would exit the jar. I believe this aggression led to the death of the mandarin I had trained and successfully kept for almost 3yrs. For this reason, In smaller tanks, I recommend one or the other if wanting to attempt the jar training.

I've also seen where people will set up a brine feeding station for their mandarins that accomplishes the same task. Paul B on RC has documented it pretty well over the life of his tank.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2170186

I've never tried this method because I think pellets contain a lot more nutrition than a brine shrimp, but it's a really cool way to feed a tank.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PeeperKeeper]

I have had several mandarins learn to eat frozen food on their own in my 75G over the years. I had one for about 3 years but when he finally died (disappeared for unknown reasons, not starvation) I hesitated to get another because I assumed I was just really lucky to have had one who would eat frozen. But recently I decided to get another because A) my tank has been set up for 20+ years. B ) I don't have any heavy copepod feeders in residence now. and C) I am willing to supplement live pods to make sure there's enough for it to eat.

BTW, the tank is located in my office lobby at Parmer Eye Care, not that it matters, except that there's more people around it all time than in a home environment and I have other people who work in the office feeding the fish most of the time so I don't always get to watch them eat. I pretty much always have someone who takes a special interest in the reef and likes to help take care of it though. Other fishy residents of the tank include a Royal Gramma, Flame Angel (hunts pods too but mostly lives on frozen food) purple firefish, pink spot watchman goby and Scopas Tang as well as a Sally Lightfoot crab and probably an emerald crab although I never see him.

Anyway, I released a female Mandarin dragonette into the tank June 9, 2017 (after a few days acclimating in the sump next door to the refugium). When I released her, I also released a bottle of Tigger Pods. I told Lindsay (my tank helper) that Mandarins don't normally eat frozen food but occasionally you luck out and get one who will, so she was watching for it to happen when she would feed. On July 12 she excitedly texted me that she had seen her eat 3 pieces of frozen food! I believe it was the spirulina/brine cubes, but we mix it up between that, frozen mysis, baby brine, coral food, etc.

So she continued to thrive and we would see her eat each time we fed. After a while, I decided since she was eating frozen food, maybe I could get a male Mandarin. I figured if I was lucky, she would teach him to eat it too, and if not I would just support him like I'd planned when I got her. As it turned out, I was lucky and she did teach him to eat frozen food. So now I have two Mandarins in my 75G, both eating frozen food. He is much bigger than the female so it's easy to tell them apart (besides the fin difference). Unfortunately, after being in the tank together about a month, they don't seem inclined to pair. They are rarely on the same side of the tank, and today I actually saw the male chase the female off but that was the only time I've seen them interact. I was told that Mandarins are actually known to be monogamous to such an extent that if they had been paired in the past they won't pair up again even if the original partner is gone. Does anyone have experience with having Mandarins pair up in a tank who weren't paired to begin with? If so how long did it take and what were their interactions like when you first introduced them? Obviously there's no way to know if they were "previously paired" in the wild. Whether or not they pair up, I feel lucky to have two of my favorite fish who both eat well. [emoji4]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Bluemoon]

Amazing! Mandarins are by far my favorite reef fish. I used to train them in the DT with a acclimation box and brine shrimp then frozen mysis, then pellets before releasing them into the tank. I stole the idea from Matt Pederson and it's worked great for me several times. My last mandarin was atleast 3 years old and sadly I think the addition of a six line wrasse to the tank led to his demise.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk