Need Fishy Advice

[Coraljunkie]

I'd like to get a mandarin. I've learned the hard way before so I always treat any new fish for everything before I put it into my display. I'm wondering if how hardy a mandarin is and what to medicate with and what not to use. Also what about the pods. Will they survive when I'm using Seachem paraguard? What about cupramine?

 

[DianaKay]

I'm glad you are asking 1st. Mandarins are different. How much different and in what ways, I am not sure.
I tried a mandarin....for the reason of it needing pods for food immediately, I did not QT it.
I think mandarins are resistant to Marine ICH. Also, I think they are a species that should NOT be treated with cupramine.
The mandrain that I got did not live very long
I think you need to look it over very good and don't buy one unless it has a full looking body. If the sides of it's tummy look at all sunken in...it might already be suffering from malnutrition.
I have plenty of pods & my tank is stable. The mandrain is the only fish I lost to death in my tanks 2+ years running.
I won't try another dragonet because they are a special needs fish & I worry too much.
Such a beautiful fish, I hope you find one that is healthy if you get one. I just think they might need to be an exception to the QT rule because of pod starvation. See what the others say.

 

[Coraljunkie]

Thank you, i'm worried about marine velvet, ich, and or brook coming in the display. I'm not sure if mandarins can carry those. Does anyone know?

 

[Pat24601]

I'm going to second Diana on this. I think the dragonet is awesome, but mine died on me and I really don't know why. At least, I assume it's dead. It actually just disappeared and I never saw it again after one point.

I thought I had plenty of pods. My other fish are basically very peaceful and I'm fairly sure they didn't kill it.

I like to think I'm a pretty good steward of my tank and I've kept other difficult stuff alive. So, it bothers me when something doesn't make it.

I'm not saying don't do it. Just research and make an informed choice on that one.

 

[Coraljunkie]

One of the stores in my state train them to eat everything but I do have an abundance of pods, I have no other fish that mostly eat pods so I'm curious about getting a mandarin

 

[sirrealism]

Coraljunkie First how big is your tank and how old? I had one that would eat anything and he lived in a 29g bio cube for 6 years. But these are not cheap and to be honest they might not be the best way to keep one. Mandarins do not carry Ich or any other issues that I know of. Feeding is always the big issue. A tank under 100g and less then 1 year old will need extra feeding. And really extra feeding is a good idea anyway. Take a look at Pauls posts and his tank. He has Mandarins breeding which is unheard of. For him the best thing is new hatched brine. I posted a "How to" on hatching brine and they need to be feed to the fish with in hours of hatching other wise they are not a good feed as the egg sack will be gone which is the nutritiun for the mandarin.
I have one in my 90 and I do not have to feed because the tank is 4 years old and I grow large amounts of cheato which is a breading grounds for pods. My mandarin is not fat but not thin and I should be feeding but I just have not had time lately.

 

[DianaKay]

This is just something that I have wondered about & woud like opinions on.
When corals are covering about 75% of your Rockscape surface, and you have this little mandarin needing surface area to hunt for pods How does that work out Wondering if that would need to be considered .

 

[sirrealism]

Great question Diana. I would say no its not an issue as I have the same thing in my tank. Very little rock that you can see. But I could be wrong. Mine picks pods off of the corals and I have crushed coral so he pics off of that a lot 2

 

[ziggy]

If you do end up getting one, and it's one the lfs says has been trained to eat anything, I'd ask to come by and watch it eat before I'd believe them. Having them be trained to eat anything is a big big plus. I also remember Paul saying that their digestive system is such that food passes very quickly through it and is not really stored to last them the remainder of the day. Therefore they must be feed much more often then any typical fish. A big supply of Pods helps.

It's a gorgeous fish and I keep reverting to the pics Paul posted of them sitting/eating off of his home made feeder.

 

[Coraljunkie]

I have a 54 gallon corner. I'll look into them more before I decide to get one. I wouldn't mind farming pods but I'd rather not. Thanks for all your help

 

[DaveK]

I generally agree with what has been posted about a mandarin. Yes, like other fish they can carry disease, so it's your choice. Quarantine it to make sure it doesn't have anything, or put it in the display tank right away so it can hunt pods.

You typically need about a 50 gal tank to produce enough pods for a mandarin. By the way, you must not have other fish that like to dine on pods such as wrasses in the tank. Yes, some of them will eat other foods. I've had them eat frozen bloodworms and live blackworms. In my opinion, any LFS that tells you they train all of them to eat anything is an [many expletives deleted] liar. They might get a few fish to eat many foods, but there are quite a few that will only eat pods. It's the luck of the draw.

One additional point. All those fantastic colors on a mandarin are there to camouflage the fish. Against the light background of a tank in a typical LFS, the fish will stand out. In a well developed reef system, with lots of coaraline algae and other things on the rocks, it will blend right in. You may have a tough time seeing it, unless you look for it. Sometimes your better off with a fish that will stay out in the open more.

 

[Oxylebius]

If you can find a lfs that orders directly from ORA, ORA produces captive bred Mandarin Dragonets. ORA stats that these captive breed mandarins will eat all kinds of foods. So there is also this option. Note that they will be more expensive and that the stock amounts are fairly low, so you might be waiting for some time until the next batch becomes available. Just another option to look into and think about.....

 

[blazend]

I trained mine to eat frozen brine shrimp. I still have to hand feed it using a turkey bastor. Still feeding the tank copepods every 3 weeks-4weeks. I have 2 pipe fish as well that need them.

Mandarins can get ich. But you can not treat them with cupermine this will kill them.