Advice on mixing dragonets?
 

Has anybody got any experience in mixing dragonets? A friend has a male and female psychedelic green mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) in a 34 gallon tank with lots of rockwork and soft corals. They are the only two fish in there and don't spend any time 'together'. I would like to give him my male spotted mandarin dragonet (Synchiropus picturatus) but are unsure if they will fight. Any advice?

No, they will fight to the death. They will also starve to death as there is not enough production of pods in a 34 gallon for one mandarin let alone 3.

+1 on that. 2 males mandarins, no matter what kind, will fight to the death.

Unless they are eating frozen food, and good rich frozen food, the 2 mandarins will starve to death in a short while in a 34 gallons.

+1 to that +1 males arnt good together , fist they will rip the top fin off of the other and then it gets worse from there . But ill gladly take him if your planning on coming to the fraiser valley anytime soon .

I tried one each psychedelic and spotted in my 300 and the spotted won the battle, he chased the other one relentlessly until it finally jumped.

I have a resident madarin in mine, bought another one thinking it was a female (it was hiding it's pointed dorsal fin when i was watching it in store). The resident chased him till it jumped into the overflow where I left it until I was able to return it to the store the next day.

Thanks for the educated responses! Looks like I'll have to find a different home for him.

And yes all three eat frozen.

/Paul

I kept a pair of mandys in a 12 gallon forover a year and never fed that tank once...

pod production is very easy to maintain, especially in a tank with a sump area attached to it like RSM, BC or aquapod.