What to feed a green mandarin dragonet?

Andre

you need to have a minumum of 1 year established tank to handle them. Fish is very sensitive. I waited and he eats all the time. dry pellets, frozen food, algae on rocks, and constantly grazes. Bring him back before he dies they are extremely sensitive new aquariums.

usmc121581

No one can make a comparision between a scooter blenny and mandarin goby. Yes they are part of the same family but they are different. Thats like a Yellow Tang and a Powder Blue Tang they are tangs but are very different. A scooter blenny is very hardy compared to a mandarin goby. That article you found on the internet stated that you have to have a very good supply of copods on hand to keep it fed.I had a scooter blenny for a long time you ate what ever I put in my tank. Now when I went with a mandarin goby very different. He looked like he was interested in brine shrimp but would spit it back out. After my copods were gone in my main tank he parish a week later. I am not basing anything of anyone that I know, I base my opions off the experts. And what is said 9 out of 10 times. Read this.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/mandarins.htm

Lauri

Close minded people are the ones who go by 9 times outta 10. Exactly what the article I placed up on why hobbiest are afraid of stateing their success with mandarins because of close minded people who go by "experts" what makes them an expert? who says they are experts? because they have a degree? I could argure for days on this but I wont.. You and the experts are not always right..

Best of luck admin any true hobbiest who is willing to put forth the time and effort to any animal can make even the experts wrong. That is what makes a true hobbiest.

Andre

no it is not an expert required fish keeper, it is not like a white tip reef sharks or something. but you need to have established tank for this fish to strive succesfully. just a warning.

Administrator

Thank you again to Mel, squiggles1, Lauri, usmc, and Andre for your input. It seems the majority have not had too much success with this fish and I am not 100% sure what I am going to do yet, but now I have the benefit of your experience and opinions.

Thanks again,
Mike

Andre

Really though, you will not need to change any feeding techniques if your tank is ready for them. mine really just goes on the sand bed and just picks up the food pellets that all the others missed and otherwise he is just always grazzing. I just would hate to see something happen to such an amazing fish. You might make it work and you might not, it is just a risk. At least it is not a 100 dollar fish.

youtubefind

in case your lfs didnt have any copepods, http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...fm?pCatId=2593

caferacermike

I'm behind you 100% USMC Mike. You are not closed minded, just properly informed.

Mandarins just should not be sold. They are the fish that get so many saltwater keepers started. I'm one of them. The first time I saw a mandarin I did as much research as I could. I went ahead and bought a 75g tank, giant refugium, 140lbs live sand and 240lbs of liverock. I waited 4 months to allow the pods to take over. I bought my single mandarin for that tank. It was to be the only inhabitant of the entire tank. It quickly expired. I bought another. It lasted about 6 months. I don't count that long enough to be considered a success. I replaced it with a scooter blenny. That thing is still alive 2 years later. After 4 months of the scooter doing well I decided to try another mandarin hoping it would see the scooter eating so well. Nope didn't work.

The evironmentally conscience reefers know the impact of collecting a specimen that 9 times out of 10 ends up dying should not be part of the normal collecting. These fish are being wiped out of their enviroments. Yet even though 9 out of every 10 closed minded person has tried to keep one only to watch it die we continue to support this poor habit in the fish trade.

9 out of 10 closed minded people will feel really bad when 9 out of 10 closed minded people have bought one and killed it. 9 out of 10 closed minded people will feel really bad when we finally make this species extinct because 1 out of 10 people support such irresponsible behavior and to convince 9 out of 10 closed minded people that would have normally stayed away from such a finicky creature due to that one person spoiling the ground work that so many people have laid out before.

Remember folks, it only takes 1 bad apple to ruin a bushel.