Do you have a Mandarin?
 

Wondering...

Do you have a Madarin Dragonette? How long, and what tank size? Eating pellet/frozen foods?

Please make select all choices that apply.

Thanks!


I have a Green Mandarin in a 20 G with fuge. Eating pods for sure, possibly NLS pellets as well.

Considering adding a Spotted to my 70G.


Forgot to ask.... how long have you had them in your current tank?

i have a blue and red dragonette, in a 90g with a 40g fuge loaded with 50lbs of liverock, cheato,caupelara,halimeda and dsb.

my mandarin doesnt eat prepared foods no interest whatsoever.

his competition for food is a six line wrasse.

together they dont even put a tiny dent into my pod pop, in the morning just as i flick the lights on i can scrape a row of pods off my glass with my mag float.in my fuge life has taken over and its completely full.

i added the mandarin because my sixline is gonna burst hes so fat and i want my pod pop brought down.my mandarin is also very very fat right now.

i dont see them keeping up with the growth its just to much for them my fuge is a large breeding ground which is doing amazingly well.


thinking about adding a second mandarin in the future.

Just bought a pair of mandarins.

180 gallon tank. 40 gallon sump and 30 gallon fuge.

Eating pods for sure

Poll results are looking pretty even so far

I have a 150 gallon, with a refugium. I'm pretty sure my mandrin eats pods only, never seen him eat prepared foods. He's nice and chubby, very happy camper in my tank.

I have a mated pair and love them

I have a pair in my 160 display with 90 gallons of sump/frag tank/water change tank water. My pods breed mostly in my frag/water change tanks and there are lots all over... when I saw them is when I decided to get one.... he was doing great, so I got a female that I was told is eating frozen foods. She was pretty skinny when I got her home... I've yet to have noticed her eating frozen or pellet, but she is getting plumper by the day. Same for the male... I think he only eats pods, but he's nice and plump and happy. I also have a Melanarus Wrasse... and a mystery, mckoskers and solarensis... not sure if the last 3 are pod eaters or not.

Survival of the fittest. Pods are low on the food chain. I bet most fish would eat them when found.

I have a breeding pair for over 2 years. They eat live pods and frozen brine/mysid/plankton. They live in a 210 gallon reef. Almost every night they spiral up to the top of the tank spinning real close together releasing sperm/eggs its pretty cool!

Thats great! I hope to someday set up a breeding tank for a pair.

I wanted to earlier this year... but time does not allow me to. I also don't have time to set up a third tank for the fry.

Any videos of the dancing duo?

I have 2 breeding pairs. One in my 90g the other in a 7g. Both pairs eat frozen foods and pellets

Yes, I have one in my 60g cube and another in my RSM130. Both were bought from Fantasy Aquatics on Kingsway and Slocan and had been in the store for over 2 months. They eat frzn foods and probably some NLS pellets if they find them. They live mostly with clowns and fairy/flasher wrasses.

I have a spotted female in a 14 gallon biocube, a regular green female in anothe BC 14 and a red scooter dragonet in a BC29. Besides the pods that live in the chaeto (I see them scooting around at night so obviously the mandarins have not eaten all the pods), I've always had great sucess feeding them frozen bloodworms. I think it has to do with the shape of the long bloodworms resembling one of their natural staple foods. When the spaghetti worms living in the sand get hold of the frozen bloodworms, they give them a life-like action that the mandarins cannot resist:biggrin: (its like fishing with bait!). Even without the spaghetti worms, as the mandarins approach with their large pectoral fins, they inadvertently fan the worms and give them a life-like action. I've never had much luck with frozen mysis or any pelleted foods although maybe as they pick at the sand and live rock, they may consume small particles. Hope this helps others who have had problems keeping mandarins and have not tried bloodworms to supplement the naturally occurring pods. :smile:

we have a psychedelic in a 90gal with a 80g sump and a 20g fuge
about 2 years now, eats brine shrimp and pods

I do have a video just have to find it :)

I also mix my mysis (PE for the big fish; Hikari for the small fish) with frzn bloodworms. Most of my fish love them.

I have a red scooter in a 16 gallon with an aquaclear 70 fuge. He eats any pods he can find but also has a daily meal of mysis/plankton have had him since the beginning of December and he is still fat and active. Which is nice cause it means I finally am doing somethi g right in the hobby.

Here's a vid with my pair dancing at the end. Unfortunately I lost the male in a tank crash but the female is still fat and happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82rPEl0_mzo

I've had a couple in the past. But I've never had one live much more than 3 years. How long have anyone else's lasted?

I have a female mandarin that has been in my tank for 5 yrs now and the male has been there for 4.5 yrs

The male I had that is one of the pair in Mikes tank, must at least 6 or 7 yrs. old now. The female, that I bought from another member when he moved, is less.

As posted on another thread, besides mysis or bloodworms, they loved to eat the small Ocean Nutrition Formula One Marine Pellets. She would actually watch me put them in the water and head to the spot in the tank where they collected on the bottom in the current.

Thanks for all the input.

Seems like a lot of good success out there... regardless of tank size.

+1. The tiny tanks surprise me... a lot. 7gallon!? Wow.

ME TOO!!!!

7 gallons. I never even added a category for under 20G!!

I wonder how many people are beating him up for admitting it!

My 70 does not seem so bad now.

im in the same boat as you pat my 90g is teeming with life both in the display and def in the fuge , my sixline does nothing to it that i notice in facet hes very fat and now the same with the mandarin both are bursting at the stomach and still every day i notice an abundance of pods.


makes me wonder because they are so fat is it possible for them to over feed on pods to the pint where they get sick or cant function right??

my mandarin never leaves the one side of the tank very often so that tells me that he gets enough food just from that area alone, the sixline is more open water and since hes so quick he travels the whole tank:)

I would assume that when full, they stop eating. Can you imagine a bunch of mandys fat footing around the reef? LOL.

I think I will obtain one.... maybe. In a while. Still worry about the wrasse.

And theres a scooter blenny, and a pair of dwarf seahorses in there to... THEY ALL EAT PELLETS!!! Took some time and skill to get them into it but how many people can make those claims?

Not very many at all

In fact I should have added the choice...

"Had, but perished."

I bet that would have got some interesting numbers.

Any pics of the nano?

mandrin
 

I decided to add one to my 90g tank when my pod population went through the roof. My tank was only 6 months old at the time (bought a mature setup, so really 2 years old) they covered everthing. My other fish, regal tang, foxface, 3 chromis started acting weired. Shaking and swimming in bursts. I think all the pods in there were actualy driving them nuts (like fleas on a dog). Added my psychedelic mandrin and within weeks he had pod population under control and the other fish stopped acting weird. Oh and I named the mandrin Budda as his belly is huge. Still the coolest fish out there.

Red mandarin
 

I added a red psychedlic to my 30G about 3 months ago. (he was added after my 6-line jumped, who used to eat lots of pods). The mandarin was relatively skinny at the time, but not starving. He went nuts on my pods initially. (my set-up has been running for almost 4 yrs now, in various tanks). About 3 weeks ago he started eating the frozen brine that would settle in the corners and low flow areas. But now he openly comes to the front of the tank, up there with my clowns, to feed. Needless to say he is fat and healthy... And my favorite to watch!

I have a 45 gallon corner tank with a pretty simple setup. I have had my mandarin for 2 and a half years. I was very lucky to have my mandarin eat frozen foods.

I have a 72g with a mated pair, I even found a few babies with the flashlight tonight, they were swimming around inside the barnicles I got for my blennies. Dont expect them to last long but its kewl to see none the less. Female eats frozen but the male is still learning I think, I have a fuge full of macro algae and even stuffed some chaeto in the overflow to help with copepod growth.

I just tried a method mentioned by s.tan with the frozen bloodworms. My male green mandarin dragonet gobbled them up eagerly. I used a turkey baster to target feed him. Turning off the power heads helps too.

I have a 200g tank with about 250lbs of live rock. My setup is only 3 months old so I kinda jumped the gun a bit. He was eating frozen brine at the lfs so I was more comfortable with it. Still I would recommend being more patient then me and waiting for your tank to mature, like 6 months at least. I may get him a mate but not for a while yet.

How can you tell when your pod population is high enough? I think the whole reason I went reef was for a mandarin, but I don't want to jump the gun and have a small Greek tragedy in my tank.

Window Maker, I think if you shine a flashlight at your tank and see lots swimming around you have enough. How big is your tank and how much liver ock do you have?

Got a red living with my Darwins in a 10 gal, fat as hell and the darwins allow him near the spawing pot.

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...c/40c692d1.jpg

Loves pellets too :mrgreen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfPLPShwB9A

Found my green femal after 3 months in my 90, thought she was gone.

The love white worms right from our shipper.

I'm pretty sure mine eats red flatworms :)