Psychedelic Dragonet

[Crabs]

There isn't a whole lot of info on this topic, so I thought I'd ask the AA community. Are these fish nocturnal feeders?

 

[AquaRick]

They're opportunistic substrate feeders that feed off of pods on sand/rock in the wild regardless of the daytime. With proper care and materials\food they can be trained to eat prepared food.

 

[Crabs]

Yes. Thank u Rick. I'm having no trouble in the feeding Dept. Mostly interested in when they feed. Mine hangs out during the day. Not in the open but in a particular spot where I can catch an occasional glimpse of him. At night he is nowhere to b found. I'm assuming he is on the prowl within my copepod infested LR. I don't intend to train him to take prepared food. My intention is to keep a healthy population of copepods. They seem to thrive on an occasional dose of Phyto Feast

 

[acolotto]

I don't have a psychedelic one but my green mandarin turns white at night and is pretty much impossible to fun unless it decides to sleep on the sand need right next to the glass

 

[Crabs]

That's real interesting. Maybe mine is changing color as well. That could b the reason I can't c him at night. I'm looking for his dark coloring when I should b looking for A lighter color. As I stated before, there is little info. on these fish, unless I'm looking in the wrong places. Thanks

 

[MacDracor]

I think we're talking about the same fish under two different "common" names. Psychedelic and Green Mandarins are the same, I believe.
Anywho, regardless, everything I have read indicates they are diurnal fish that go into camo mode at night and stay very still, which acolotto described. This is probably why you don't see yours at night, crabs.
Side note, I'm picking one up in a couple days and am super excited about it!

 

[Trena]

I have a spotted mandarin (I call him a psychedelic mandarin). The green mandarin is predominantly green, the spotted mandarin gas green spots. Mine eats all the time but hides in the live rock at night also. He eats live trigger pods that I propagated in my tank. He also eats the algae or whatever is on my live rock (before I propagated the pods).

 

[MacDracor]

He's not eating algae, he's picking pods out from the rock crevices and off the algae itself. They're totally carnivores.
Remember, there are many species of copepods, and some are too small to see without a magnifying glass.