Feeding a Mandarin Dragonet in a Nano Reef

jacrispy516 · Oct 14, 2023

I threw around this idea way back before I setup my reef. I have a 16-gallon reef 11 months old loaded with coral. I set up some copepod breeding jars to dose the aquarium. I feed the copepods live phyto there are a lot of tutorials online on setting up copepod cultures. I really want a Green Mandarin Dragonet and fully understand a 16 gallon is too small to sustain a copepod population hence why I setup the breeding jars. If I were to add a Dragonet to the aquarium how often would I need to dose the copepods to keep it fat and happy? Does anyone have experience with this?

PizzaIan339 · Oct 14, 2023

I am not sure but if it is an AIO aquarium try setting up a refugium in a back chamber that may provide some space for them to bread. I imagine that you would have to add copepods often or get one the eats frozen as well. Hope I helped!

Mr. Mojo Rising · Oct 14, 2023

I'm sure some might have success, but in my case, sadly, it was a fail. It takes about 3 weeks to harvest pods from smaller containers, its just not fast enough to keep up with its appetite. (I used 3 x 1 gallon cntrs)

I failed with a year old 32 gallon tank, it took about 4-5 months for it to finally starve, it was such a stressful effort to have such an unhappy ending. It was miserable for me and the fish, I'll never try it again.

jacrispy516 · Oct 14, 2023

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
I'm sure some might have success, but in my case, sadly, it was a fail. It takes about 3 weeks to harvest pods from smaller containers, its just not fast enough to keep up with its appetite. (I used 3 x 1 gallon cntrs)

I failed with a year old 32 gallon tank, it took about 4-5 months for it to finally starve, it was such a stressful effort to have such an unhappy ending. It was miserable for me and the fish, I'll never try it again.

Oh no sorry to hear that. I think that's enough info for me to realize I would not be giving that fish a good life especially since my aquarium is half the size yours was.

christwendt · Oct 14, 2023

I can’t answer that particular question but I would recommend a baby brine feeder. Their yolk sacs are very nutritious and all you need is a baby brine hatchery to hatch thousands every couple days. You inject them into a tube into this and they stay in there. The mandarin then sucks them through the screen. Google Paul B baby brine feeder. Here is one already made and being sold.

duckman · Oct 14, 2023

I cant speak for a full size mandarin but with a small captive bred biota mandarin, its possible. It does require work and special feeding. I have a pod hotel in it and feed it reefnutrition liquid pods (arcti and pacpods). two to three times a day. Check out my build thread for the eshop deskmate

AIO Build - Eshopps Deskmate Mandarin Build

Just thought i would share my experiment with the spare deskmate i had lying around. Originally i had plan to get some true nano fish for the build… but i was at my lfs and saw my favorite fish in the hobby - the green mandarin. Except this was a biota captive bred one and it was tiny (like...

www.reef2reef.com

PizzaIan339 · Oct 14, 2023

matthewb01 said:
Oh no sorry to hear that. I think that's enough info for me to realize I would not be giving that fish a good life especially since my aquarium is half the size yours was.

Yes I would say returning or selling or giving away would be best.