# What to feed a green mandarin dragonet?



## Mike

Hi everyone,

When I bought my coral last weekend for my new reef tank I also picked up one of the most interesting looking fish I've seen, a green mandarin dragonet.

I thought I recalled reading that these guys were very finicky eaters and should only go into an established tank where there would be a lot to graze on.

I asked the salesman about this and he was very confident that, though my reef tank has only been setup for two weeks (live sand and nutra-sea water allowed us to skip a prolonged cycling period), the live rock would provide the fish more than enough to graze on. I suppose I let my desire to have this unique fish and have it now get the better of me, because I gladly accepted his answer.

He may be doing it when I am not looking, but I have yet to see my manadrin picking at things on the live rock.

I read that they sometimes eat frozen mysis if it is moving around in the current, but I tried adding some and he did not appear to go for it.

Does anyone have any other ideas for frozen or dry food this fish may eat?

Thank you!


----------



## Melissa

well admin, we had one....and they do not do good, in fact most dragonets do not do good in home aquariums. they do only eat live food, barely eating frozen. And whatever live food is in your rock will quickly be eaten because the food hasnt had enought time to populate in your tank. look for a live food. i think i read somewhere about blackworms. but because they are finicky eaters you need to find something he will eat or he will slowly starve to death.


----------



## squiggles1

i also had one of these fish. The problems are they are all live caught, they are then more often then not starved in the transition and most fish stores dont provide the food the eat so they suffer more. Some never eat again after captivity, they just don't adjust. They eat pods, you can and it's suggested that if you have one of these fish to set up a pod breeding tank. I don't know how they survive on such tiny food but they rarely will accept anything else. I belive you can buy pods in places, not around here but on the internet and stuff. Or if you live by the ocean you can get some water and it'll prob have some in it. I tried mine on everything, drove to the ocean got more pods but he was to far gone all ready. They are supposed to be plump looking. If their belly is sunk it's not a good sign. Or if you can see a horizontal line on their side it's bad to. You should see him eating at the store before you buy them, mine wasn't and he lasted about a month. If you have a large tank he may find enough food for awhile but you will likley have to add more pods. They are like humminbirds, they eat nonstop. http://joshday.com/mandaringoby.htm that site has a set up for growing pods and supplies you'll need. He's trying to keep the fish in a small tank and supply all it's food, after some trial and error he gets a pod growing set up. I hope your fish survives. In my opinion they are one of the most beautiful fish out there.


----------



## Guest

Okay everyone has their own opinion on this here is mine.. Although I do not have a mandarin I do have a scooter dagonet pritty much same family everyone and their brother has told us he will not survive due to our tank being so young. I purchased this little guy skin and bones for 5 dollars at a fish store feeling sorry for the little fella figureing well atleast I could give it a try. We have had him for about 3weeks maybe a little more.
we knew we had copepods in our tank we could see them tons of them so we knew he would have plenty to eat. Someone whom I trust said try feed him Arcti-Pods.. well due to the price I decided to wait..he has been feeding well and gaining weight...he has just started eating the frozen brine shrimp two days ago... :lol: 
I was givin a free bottle of *Arcti-pods made by (Reef Nutrition)* yesterday from a friend and the little guy loves it so does everyone one else in the tank everything would benifit from it It even states on the bottle *"finiky fish like mandarins". *It is full of concentrated Arctic Copepods (3000 microns). 
People will tell you he will slowly starve to death I am sure but you know what.. Its your choice to continue to try and have this wonderful fish.. If I did not have the Scooter I would purchase a madarin in a heartbeat..
See if your lfs sells the *Arctic copepods or live copepods *would be your best bet.
Just remember every fish is different and so is everyone experience. Best of luck.


----------



## Mike

Thank you so much for the advice, Lauri! I am going to find out if my LFS has copepods. I will keep you posted on the fish's progress. I am glad to hear that you have had success so far with your scooter dragonet.

Mike


----------



## usmc121581

Lauri said:


> Okay everyone has their own opinion on this here is mine.. Although I do not have a mandarin I do have a scooter dagonet pritty much same family everyone and their brother has told us he will not survive due to our tank being so young. I purchased this little guy skin and bones for 5 dollars at a fish store feeling sorry for the little fella figureing well atleast I could give it a try. We have had him for about 3weeks maybe a little more.
> we knew we had copepods in our tank we could see them tons of them so we knew he would have plenty to eat. Someone whom I trust said try feed him Arcti-Pods.. well due to the price I decided to wait..he has been feeding well and gaining weight...he has just started eating the frozen brine shrimp two days ago... :lol:
> I was givin a free bottle of *Arcti-pods made by (Reef Nutrition)* yesterday from a friend and the little guy loves it so does everyone one else in the tank everything would benifit from it It even states on the bottle *"finiky fish like mandarins". *It is full of concentrated Arctic copepods (3000 microns).
> People will tell you he will slowly starve to death I am sure but you know what.. Its your choice to continue to try and have this wonderful fish.. If I did not have the Scooter I would purchase a madarin in a heartbeat..
> See if your lfs sells the *Arctic copepods or live copepods *would be your best bet.
> Just remember every fish is different and so is everyone experience. Best of luck.



Yeah everyone has an opinion but when its a known fact its different.


----------



## Guest

Well every known fact has its differences just because one fish is so called "known" to starve to death because yours didnt make it? Or the guy down the street's didnt make it...Research? What? My opinion is fact I have seen him grow and gain weight as well as others around here so yeah my opinion is FACT! just because someone else didnt have good luck with that type of fish doesnt mean someone else wont..


----------



## Guest

Check this article out might help a great deal http://joshday.com/mandaringoby.htm

Just a quote from there for all the non-believers-


> Mandarins are some of the most popular, easily available, and cheapest fish on the saltwater market. They experience the greatest mortality rate of marine fish as well. Given these two facts, and given the nature of capitalism (let alone the evolutionary advancement of the marine and reef hobby), I believe we'll be hearing a lot more stories of mandarins eating frozen and pellet food and thriving in tanks once thought impossible to sustain them.
> 
> In fact, this is already happening. Many marine hobbyists who've done their homework have reported success in keeping mandarins in nanos, and several have even weaned them onto pellet food. *Unfortunately, people are often afraid to admit their success on forums. *As mentioned above, keeping mandarins in anything but the traditionally accepted housing--100 gallons, 100+ pounds of live rock, a 2-year old, "mature" tank--brings out the worst in some people. *For whatever reason, they will not open their minds to even the idea of success.*
> Originally, I agreed with them. However, once I really delved into google and nano fish forums, I found many different people reporting the same success stories... a green mandarin eating bloodworms, a freshwater food (which I feed my discus); a green mandarin being supplied pods daily from a separate pod culture tank; a whole tank of mandarins eating Formula 1 pellets. They were always met with the same hostile or rude responses and arguments. Your fish will starve after 6 months. They cannot be kept in systems without an excessive colony of pods. Etc.


----------



## squiggles1

i think it's probably hard for a fish keeper to get accurate results with the fish. Mostly because of their sensitive nature and that when they're caught they aren't looked after until someone buys them from the pet store. Which is to late alot of the time. At least the store I got ours from wasn't taking care of them, he had 2 and swore to use they ate flake food. That "he saw them picking at it". We knew better and told him that they were starving in his crappy tank (sorry but it was). Sometimes if you have a fish that's eating stuff the mandarin might try they might learn from example. Whatever you try, I think filling your tank with pods will give you the best chance. This is a pic of ours when we got him, if you look at his side you can see that horizontal line i mentioned before.


----------



## squiggles1

i just remembered that i read before that you can sometimes get them to eat roe. that's a fish egg that people use for sushi. You can get it pretty easily at grocery stores or asian markets.


----------



## 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


----------



## Guest

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.


----------



## Mike

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/prod_Display.cfm?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.


----------

