Mandarin Dragonet...?

[Sker]

Firefish, they are reef safe. But you had better have a well established tank with a lot of live rock for a food source. (probably at least 100 lbs) You should also have a heavy population of amphipods, coepopeds etc., to keep them fat and happy. If you do not have these things the fish will eventually starve to death.

Sker

[Ninong]

Here is a recent thread on this subject: http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...?threadid=3802

Yes, they are reef-safe and yes, you would be well served to assume they will only eat live foods, mostly copepods. Even if they can be coached to take commercial foods, they usually fail to thrive unless the tank has ample microcrustaceans that make up their natural diet.

Your 155-gal tank with 175-lbs of live rock could support a pair of Mandarins, just make sure you don't put two males together.

Ninong [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]



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Irrational Exuberance!

[naser]

how do you tell if its a male or female?

[Ninong]

Originally posted by naser:
how do you tell if its a male or female?

Males are a little larger and have a larger first dorsal fin which they erect when they display to females or rival males. I realize this isn't much to go on but if you were to see a pair together, you would be able to figure out which was the male, especially if he was displaying.

Ninong [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]


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Irrational Exuberance!

[naser]

thank you

[Firefish]

No! Thank-you [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img] I have a ton of those amphipods and coepopods, they completly cover the substrate when the lights go out and they are always (like ants on an ant hill)
gathered around my sponges!! Thanks again guys!

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"It's better to have a hen tomorrow then an egg today."

[Firefish]

Are these guys reef safe? I was told they will only eat live food...?

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"It's better to have a hen tomorrow then an egg today."

[outerbank]

Just make sure that the male is bigger than the female when you pair them up. A friend just gave me his male and this was the case. There was no problem with these two chasing, but I do not think they have "paired" up yet. The male I received was being chased by the male in his tank.

Scott

[Elmo18]

I'm thinking of moving out all the fish from my 25 gallon and into my new 80 gallon soon and would like to only have one fish in my 25 gallon. I have 34 lbs of live rock there and i see lots of copepods, amphipods, and other critters in the tank. Can I support one Mandarin in there? I will only have that fish and some soft corals.

Regards,
Ilham

[ranaman]

You can keep Mandarins in smaller tanks with supplemental feeding. They will accept frozen mysis shrimp, most people who have reported this use M.Y.S.I.S. brand shrimp from Piscine Energentics. See http://www.mysis.com Mine also ate with gusto red shrimp AKA opae ula. You can get these from ocean rider or stockly's. If you are only keeping one mandarin you might try Stockly's since you can get a 100 for $20.95 postpaid I believe, his website is http://www.ecosaqua.com My mysis munching mandarin jumped out last night but I know of two other locally so it is not a fluke. He was housed in my 30 gallon seahorse tank.

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"The octopus notices the little cowries."