Advice on Dragonettes and similar...

[method0075]

I recently added one to my 50 gal. tank and really like it`s personality and color. I`ve heard that a lot of these will die because of malnutrition. I would hate for that to happen to such a cool fish. Experts here can you give me some advice as to proper nuritment?

 

[JPloman]

Here is the deal. Dragonettes usually only eat live pods. If you have a healthy supply of pods in your tank, you will be fine. I have heard a few people speak of having Dragonettes that will eat prepared food, but that is a stroke of luck.

Mine just died of old age, it was heart breaking. She was fat and happy the day before, then the next day she was just dead. I had her for about 2 years, which I have been told is about the life span.

Good luck with yours!

 

[method0075]

I recently added one to my 50 gal. tank and really like it`s personality and color. I`ve heard that a lot of these will die because of malnutrition. I would hate for that to happen to such a cool fish. Experts here can you give me some advice as to proper nuritment?

 

[Brenden]

They normally die from starvation. If your tank is not mature and have a large pod population I would consider taking it back or purchasing pods to stock your tank. Your tank is about the minimum size they can survive in. You need lots of LR in the tank so the pods can reproduce.

 

[i have crabs]

some will eat cyclopse or mysis but not all of them do.

 

[method0075]

LR is abundant! I had 50lbs to start a year ago and added over 100lbs of LR that I brought back from Hawiaii in Sept. I preynty confident that I have pods and similar creatures in their I just can`t see them.

I`m going to pick up some live cultures this evening and start a fuge under the tank.

I have a Fluval filter system, the ones that are sealed with a supply and return lines. If I take out the filter medium and just put LR in it do you think that could make for a fuge?

 

[AquaReefer]

Yes I have 2 Green Spotted Mandarins in my 55. I have about 110# LR. Mine also eat frozen food though(very rare). Also I have a Sm tank filled with live adult brine shrimp that I order from work so they are both happy and fat. But thats not to say they are an easy fish. They eat all the time and if there is not a lot of food they will starve.

 

[Snoopybdb]

I have one that i've had for about 8 months now, which is the longest i've ever had one. The very first one I had(3 years ago when i first set up the tank) starved to death because i didn't know about the pod thing, the last one died from ick. But this one is doing great, he's fat and happy!

 

[sdellin]

http://www.reef-revolution.com/?gad...&OVRAW=copepods&OVKEY=copepods&OVMTC=standard

I bought and added these to my tank and I plan to do it every couple of months, maybe every three-four months, depending on the fish. I keep an eye on my mandarin and as long as it stays fat, I don't worry, but I'll spend the money every few months to replenish the copepods just to make sure. I have a spotted dragonet that will take little pieces of shrimp off a feeding stick. The mandarin won't touch that!

 

[flamingonhot]

Like said have a good supply of copepods, maybe have a fuge to further help out.


Also if yours happens to eat frozen later on enrich it with Selcon or something, sometimes they die of malnutrition even if fed the highest quality frozen foods.
Try mysis once if you can, just whatver you do, don't get it hooked on frozen brine shrimp! lol. Happened to my scooter dragonette..made me mas because it ate a lot of it and as most know, brine doesn't have much nutrition.
I thought it was going to die of malnutrition, well I was wrong, before it had the chance it was eaten by my cbs lol.

 

[reefbound]

listen to what advice is given because it will help that Mandarin to survive. I rescued one from a lfs and it was doing well for 4 months and out of the blue I woke one morning and the Coral banded shrimp was having a Mandarin dinner... I dont know how or why it died with all the pods in my tank but just be careful...

 

[cmor1701d]

You might also want to check the Copepod web page. I bought them on eBay but they don't seem to be in stock right now.

 

[SkinnyPete]

The spotted mandarins are much easier to get feeding on frozen foods. I just took a green mandarin back to the store because he was getting thinner and thinner. And I have 160lbs of live rock. The refugium is a must, in my opinion. These guys eat pods ALL day.

I think my fish was pretty skinny when I got him, so I'm planning to try again. I'm in the process of adding a 12 gallon fuge.

I hate to suggest this but, if you can stand overfeeding the tank just for a couple days with frozen mysis. Let some of it land on the sand near where he is sitting, he may pick at it. I had luck getting him to accept frozen mysis using that method (but it's not great for your parameters in the short term).

- Skins

 

[ellisz]

I merged the 2 posts that were done by Method0075.