Green Mandarin/dragonet

[Deep Freeze]

Well, I plan to try my hand at keeping a green mandarin soon after seeing how amazing they are. If I plan to keep one, then I know I have to do my homework. So to any of you green mandarin owners out there, I need any help/advice that you can offer. Thanks in advance...

 

[andywg]

Do a search of the forum and you will find loads of topics about mandarin dragonets (often mislabelled gobies or blennies).

Essentially they tend to only eat live pods which grow in live rock. To enable a sustainable population of pods requires around 40-50 kg of LR, meaning an 80-100 imp gallon tank is in order.

If you get one eating frozen (and which stays eating frozen) then they can, in theory, be kept in a 10 gallon.

 

[Deep Freeze]

If you get one eating frozen (and which stays eating frozen) then they can, in theory, be kept in a 10 gallon.

Bigger is always better though right? Also, is it true that a refrigerium is a must for these fish? Thanks for the response...

 

[kkyyllee]

its not a must if you have a big enough tank, but is usally needed to sustain enough pods

 

[Deep Freeze]

what size tank do you reccommend as being "big enough"?

 

[gourami5]

I really want to get those green mandarin too. From what I have researched so far, they need at least 100 gallon completely established reef tank. Too bad I can't get tank that big. If anyone has successful keep those guys in 55 gallon for at least a year, I would really like to hear their stories.

 

[shibby]

as andywg said its possible to keep them in smaller tanks if they eat and continue to eat frozen food, not many do though sadly
if your lfs tells you they eat frozen, make them show you it eating frozen before you get it, they sometimes will lie to get a sale. but its still best to be patient wait a while even if it does eat frozen at leasdt if youve waited a while your gonna have copepods to supplement them just incase they turn out not wanting frozen anymore!

 

[AK77]

You can also purchase live copepods and feed these to the fish a few times a week. However copepods aren't cheap, with prices starting at about £10 for 100ml which will contain about 20 pods.

You could culture them yourself in a small seperate tank. Another option is to construct a rock pile or two in a fashion that makes it impossible for the mandarin to get into. This will create a safe breeding ground for the copepods and hopefully result in the birth of more than the dragonet can eat.

Eitherway, the copepods would ideally need to be fully established and multiplying well before a dragonet was introduced, otherwise you are pretty much endangering the fish, inviting a headache, or going to be spending £20-£40 a month on pods lol.

I'd love a dragonet. I've got just under 30kg of LR in a 180L tank. I want to get another 5kg and introduce a bottle of pods to the tank and let them establish themselves well before purchasing one.

 

[gourami5]

You can also purchase live copepods and feed these to the fish a few times a week. However copepods aren't cheap, with prices starting at about £10 for 100ml which will contain about 20 pods.

You could culture them yourself in a small seperate tank. Another option is to construct a rock pile or two in a fashion that makes it impossible for the mandarin to get into. This will create a safe breeding ground for the copepods and hopefully result in the birth of more than the dragonet can eat.

Eitherway, the copepods would ideally need to be fully established and multiplying well before a dragonet was introduced, otherwise you are pretty much endangering the fish, inviting a headache, or going to be spending £20-£40 a month on pods lol.

I'd love a dragonet. I've got just under 30kg of LR in a 180L tank. I want to get another 5kg and introduce a bottle of pods to the tank and let them establish themselves well before purchasing one.

Actually you can get 200 pods for $10 from saltwaterfish.com. How about about pods in the refug? do you think they can establish in the refugium and avoid get suck into the return pump ( of course some of them will suck out, but wondering whether majority of them can stay in the refug and form a colony?

 

[Deep Freeze]

How about about pods in the refug? do you think they can establish in the refugium and avoid get suck into the return pump ( of course some of them will suck out, but wondering whether majority of them can stay in the refug and form a colony?

Thats exactly what I was thinking. You could probably just put a small piece of live rock or two in there for them to live in and multiply...

 

[gourami5]

How about about pods in the refug? do you think they can establish in the refugium and avoid get suck into the return pump ( of course some of them will suck out, but wondering whether majority of them can stay in the refug and form a colony?

Thats exactly what I was thinking. You could probably just put a small piece of live rock or two in there for them to live in and multiply...

yeah, but since my return pump flow is pretty strong, my only worry is that they will all suck into the pump (even with the LR in the refug) and into the DT and fishes eating it. I don't want to keep buying pods every week.

 

[AK77]

Actually you can get 200 pods for $10 from saltwaterfish.com. How about about pods in the refug? do you think they can establish in the refugium and avoid get suck into the return pump ( of course some of them will suck out, but wondering whether majority of them can stay in the refug and form a colony?

Yes but shipping from the US to the UK would be a tad expensive ... and you're forgetting this is rip-off Britain. We pay more for everything over here.

 

[littleme1969]

I had an interesting conversation with my fish supplier about this fish. Yes he does agree that they need pods as its their main diet , but he also went on to say that all the mandarin fish that go through his shop take a variety of frozen food otherwise they dont sell them. Trick is not to have fast moving greedy fish in with them that will out compete for food and cause the little guy to starve. Also have a rock pile or built in refugium that the pods can breed in. My nano is set up this way with 1/4 of it being the filter sytem built into the back of the tank. Ive added 1kg of live rock to the chambers some in bags and some not, and am placing a light back there so I can grow algae too. I'm hoping to get a mandarin but only in a few months time when the pods have had time to grow and multiply and I will stick to maybe a couple of clownfish or maybe one clown fish and a blemy of some kind, need more research on that
I think the trick is to buy one that is seen to be eating frozen food and just be carefull what other fish you have in there. Ive seen a few people on here manage to keep them in small tanks but all were frozen food feeders and had suitable tank mates. Good planning is what is need for what has to be one of the more stunning fishes in the hobby

 

[boshank23]

some good advice on mandarins there, here is my top tip. get a turkey baster as this is really handy for putting frozen food right in front of them. they are slow eaters so give em time between mouthfulls

 

[AK77]

Well I've gone and done it. I've got a Mandarin coming next week too. Apparently he's eating a variety of frozen foods and he looks very fat and healthy. I've also ordered some frozen lobster eggs and mysis shrimp to go along with the bloodworm I already have, so should have a good selection for him to munch on.

I just flipped the light on in the tank and there are about 30 copepods still crawling over the front glass alone. I've got 2 large handfuls of chaetomorpha in the tank and another 3 or 4 in the sump refugium. I'm planning on doing a weekly rotation with the chaeto and should hopefully provide a plentiful supply for the fish and also allow for a sustained population of the copepods.

As I'm typing this, I'm watching my clownfish nipping the pods off the glass. Bad fishy.... Bad. Not for you!!

Although my tank's only been up and running a couple of months here, it was established for a few years prior to me taking possession of it, so the pods should theortically be well established anyway, but providing more homes for them wont hurt. I've aquascaped the tank to provide more hiding places and inaccessible areas for the dragonet and am planning on getting another 5kg of rock, which should take me to about 33KG for 180L tank. I'll post some pictures when he arrives next week