Green Mandarin Help!

[TropicalDude23]

Just wanted to know the real deal on the Green Mandarin or Dragonette! How long should you wait to put them in your tank.... what do they eat.... does anyone have one? please let me know I really want to get one!

 

[obscurereef]

You should wait until you have an established copepod population. The length of time it would take for that to happen depends. I started off with base rock and at about 9 months I got a mandarin. They can eat 2000+ pods a day so the population can dwindle down fast. Try to find a mandarin that is trained to eat frozen foods or cyclops freeze-dried food (freeze-dried copepods) or nutramar.

 

[bettaowner]

Wait until you have a good refugium. They eat copepods and other crustaceans. Get a specemin that isn't too skinny.

 

[TropicalDude23]

You should wait until you have an established copepod population. The length of time it would take for that to happen depends. I started off with base rock and at about 9 months I got a mandarin. They can eat 2000+ pods a day so the population can dwindle down fast. Try to find a mandarin that is trained to eat frozen foods or cyclops freeze-dried food (freeze-dried copepods) or nutramar.

Ok will do , does it help that I have all live And and live rock?! Also my LFS's don't have manderinS I only see them on like live aquaria and what not :/

 

[obscurereef]

I'd think it would speed up the time b/c you started with LR. Like bettaowner said, a good refugium is going to be essential. If you're willing to pay 30 something dollars for shipping, guess online is your only option. On liveaquaria looks like they're feeding theirs live brine shrimp and live black worms. Check to see if you have a local reef forum. Mandarins for sale might show up every so often.

 

[bettaowner]

You could ask your lfs to order a mandarin. This is better because you can make sure it eats before you buy it versus ordering off the Internet and hoping for a healthy fish.