Any tips on where to obtain captive bred mandarinfish/dragonet?

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by halwake

Hey, we just went through this with a mandarin about 4 months ago. I had all intentions to (farm) pods and so on but I was able to get my male green mandarin eating frozen food quite quickly. He is not a ORA Mandarin, got him from Big Als. I put him in a breeder net floating in the main tank for about a week. Here I introduced frozen brine shrimp. To my surprise after a day or two he started sampling it. Then I started to add a bit of frozen Mysis. He was not overly interested but picked at it. About a week in he escaped into the main tank. I was hoping he would keep eating frozen but only went after pods. He showed very little interest in frozen food. After a week and him getting skinnier I decided to re-capture him. Once I got him back into the net we started over again. To my delight he started to accept very small Mysis, (Hikari brand). We tried blood worms now, mysis, brine shrimp, and he even tried some flake. After I was sure he was eating good, I released him back into the tank. Here we spot fed him with the pumps off using a feeding tube or turkey baster. He came to associate the tube with food and came to it as soon as it was in the water. Unfortunatly so did the other faster fish, so we started using the mandarin diner approach. Small glass jar in the corner that just the mandarin can go in and take his time to eat. Works great, he is always going in there looking for food. He won't touch pellets or flake really but will gobble up and frozen preparations. I think the key is to get a plump healthy one to begin with that will last the initial training phase and do not release them until they are taking frozen very well. Wish I could take credit for these ideas but the articles and links were posted by members on the site. Search Mandarin diners and training mandarin to eat frozen food. My guy is healty, happy, active, and in a 36 gallon tank. I gave up on pod farming, much easier just to train him to begin with. All together took approx. 4 weeks but remember after the 1st week he escaped and we had to start over again. I would guess 2-3 weeks total in the breeder net you would be fine.

Thank you Naesco, Pan, and Halwake!
You have provided me with a lot of insight. We have only 2 stores in town that can order the mandarinfish. I am going to try my best to order one in, and whether I receive captive bred or not, I am still going to go through all the procedures to be sure they are eating prepared foods I'd just feel better if I had a plan B (pod population in my tank, buying lobster eggs, etc) just in case I have troubles getting him to eat prepared foods at first... this is usually how my luck works out.

My only worry is that I've had such a hard time with this ICH problem, and I've finally eradicated it... Only a few more days and my tank will be done its 8 week fallow, and I can be (hopefully) assured that its ICH free. My fish have completed their 4 week treatment in quarantine, so once my display is ready I will finally have fish to admire again.
But anyways my worry is that I know both of the local stores in town have been having ICH problems aswell... So part of me is saying "make sure you quarantine your new mandarin" and the other part is saying "don't quarantine theres no pods in that tank, he will starve, he will be too stressed to eat in there, he will die if you try to quarantine..."

Do you think if I use the breeding trap method in quarantine, he should be okay? I'm really worried about re introducing ICH to my display If it were any other easier to keep fish I would BE SURE to QT and treat it! But I'm starting to think he should be alright in QT if I have tigger pods, lobster eggs, and frozen/prepared foods ready for him right?

[SoloSK71]

I am thinking this might be the next step for me as well, SPS looks to be a lot moredemanding in terms of water quality and more costly as well. Sadly the ORA mandarins are all sold and no more are expected for a year or so.

Charles