netmaster Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 has anyone here kept a dragonet other than one of the mandarins, my question is are the others as suseptable to being eaten by anemones, the book I have says about all of the mandarins, not to keep them with anemones for this reason, but doesnt say it about the other dragonets, I want a green mandarin, but I have two condies, so I was thinking about a scooter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonzobob Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Not to say specific to anemones but LKS had a scooter blenny (dragonet) in her tank and it loved perching on her hairy mushrooms. (I suspect this may have led to it's disappearance) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 If a 20g is your largest tank as your profile suggests I would strongly advise against anything that relies on pods for food. A Mandarin needs a ton of rock to be able to hunt and find enough food to survive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 I agree with Gabriel but to answer your question, any fish is susceptible to being eaten by any anemone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmaster Posted March 2, 2010 Author Share Posted March 2, 2010 I know that all fish are able to be eaten by an anemone but the mandarins were the only fish that actually said in the book not to keep them with anemones, I was just wondering if the were more prone to being eaten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmaster Posted March 2, 2010 Author Share Posted March 2, 2010 do u think that my tank can support one after I finish my 10gallon refugium for the 20gal, I have 25-30lbs of live rock in the main tank and I am going to put atleast 10 more in the fuge along with some chaeto to help grow pods because thats the only reason I am setting up the fuge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 I think you would notice if a mushroom had swallowed something, I don't think they can digest food that fast I guess it is possible, but most fish are smart (or crazy) that they know the limits. I had a clown goby that would sit on all kinds of corals. One day I saw him happily swimming around inside a long tentacled plate I had. And not getting stung at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KeeperOfTheZoo Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Gonzo, will hairy mushrooms eat a mandarin? I have a rock of hairy mushrooms, the largest is about 5" across when fully opened. I had a beautiful, fat healthy juvenile manderin that disapeared without a trace one night. I suppose it's a mystery that will go unsolved. I'd read a post on another forum about hairy mushrooms eating a clown. I was a bit worried because my clown hosts in the mushrooms. Seems it is only a specific type of very large mushroom that can catch faster fish though. I worried about my mandy getting enough to eat in a 125g tank with a fuge for pod production. It was fat and growing till it disapeared. Some folks have managed to get mandarins to eat prepared/dead food (VWMike has one that does in a 29g biocube) then you can keep them in a smaller tank. That's the exception though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KeeperOfTheZoo Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 OK.... lets see if I can post without weird half finished double posts. Might help if I stopped posting from my phone... I've been a little skeptical about the 'mushroom ate my fish' stories, but I've been hesitant to rule out possibilities. I even gave my banded serpent star a very good looking over the morning after. It's central disk didn't seem full enough to have consumed a fish. My working theory is that it jumped... possibly startled out of the tank by the dwarf angel I'd just added. After seeing the angel beat up on a couple chromis I wouldn't put it past her to have harassed the mandarin. She only looks cute and inoccent!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonzobob Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 After carefully checking the tank, overflow and surrounding area we were unable to find the blenny. At the time LSK had one of the larger hairy mushrooms I'd seen and we'd read online about these being a potential danger. No proof, just suspicions. Plate coral's a new one to me but in my experience there's little a determined clown won't host in (bubble, hammer, frogspawn, elegance, palys, mushrooms, hellsfire nems and BTA have all been hosts at one point or another in my tanks.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rgwiz11 Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 do u think that my tank can support one after I finish my 10gallon refugium for the 20gal, I have 25-30lbs of live rock in the main tank and I am going to put atleast 10 more in the fuge along with some chaeto to help grow pods because thats the only reason I am setting up the fuge I don't think it's necessarily fair to say "you can't have a mandarin unless you have X lbs of rock" because we don't know how you are going to care for said mandarin. In order for your rock to grow and sustain the necessary pods for feeding, no 40lbs wouldn't be enough. From what I've read and heard, it takes about 100-125 lbs minimum of rock in order to grow and sustain a population of pods for your mandarin to eat. If you plan to keep a mandarin in a 20gal, and it won't eat flake/frozen food, you may have to supplement your tank with live pods you can buy from a LFS. This method would get expensive, but have read many articles of people who find the mandarin worth the $20-40 a month they spend supplementing their pod population. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimReefer Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 also you you may get lucky like i did a while back and the mandarin will start eating brine, i got a new wrasse and he started eating all the pods and the mandarin started to eat brine, took a while, and then he got old and died Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 Are you sure he was old? Most people in the hobby don't realize that many of these fish can live 30 years or more. Gallery of Pets had a pair of clowns at least 25 years old. The thing so many people overlook is the number of fish that die to get one to survive, especially when trying to push the boundaries of what it takes. I have even questioned getting out of the hobby after talking to LFS owners about how much loss there is even in the initial shipping. Then think about how many of us take home a fish and it dies in the first couple weeks. All I am trying to say in this post is please think about it before buying fish that have poor survival rates like, Copper banded butterflies, or putting fish like Tangs and Mandarins in tanks too small to house them healthily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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