Mandarin Dragonetes with 6 Line Wrasse

[Jaden9933]

Hey everyone. I have two psychedelic mandarin dragonetes in my 25gallon AIO setup. i have an attached side-by-side macro algae display/copepod farm, so there’s always enough for them. I now have the start of digitate hydroids popping up, thanks to some frags I got from Pieces of the Ocean. They were covered in aptasia too, but that’s easy to manage. However, the hydroids keep popping up even after manual removal. So, long story short, I’m considering adding a six-line to clear the tank of hydroids. However, I know they also like to snack on copepods. I’m worried the tank isn’t big enough to house enough copepods for them all to continuously eat. since the six line is a faster, more aggressive eater in comparison. Also, because of how booming the copepod population currently is, I feel they may just choose to eat those instead of the hydroids. Does anyone have any experience with anything like this?

 

[Jaden9933]

anybody know?

 

[landlubber]

I've never owned a 6-line but they're very persistent hunters and my assumption is that it along with 2 dragonettes is going to put heavy to unsustainable pressure on your copepod farm.
The other anecdote i've heard is that some 6-lines won't tolerate the food competition coming from other fish and outright killing the other fish. In a small tank that becomes even more likely.

 

[lil sumpin]

My sixline doesn’t do much about the pests I have in tank but it loves to munch on pods. Keeping up a decent pod population for dragonets in a system that small is pretty concerning already so adding the wrasse is certainly gonna put more strain on the dragonets. What helped me keep hydroids in check was taking out the source, they came on a toadstool mounted on rubble rock, and dipping in diluted hydrogen peroxide. Feeding less and keeping nutrient levels down may also help

 

[Jaden9933]

I've never owned a 6-line but they're very persistent hunters and my assumption is that it along with 2 dragonettes is going to put heavy to unsustainable pressure on your copepod farm.
The other anecdote i've heard is that some 6-lines won't tolerate the food competition coming from other fish and outright killing the other fish. In a small tank that becomes even more likely.

very good info thank you! definitely won’t try it out

 

[Jaden9933]

My sixline doesn’t do much about the pests I have in tank but it loves to munch on pods. Keeping up a decent pod population for dragonets in a system that small is pretty concerning already so adding the wrasse is certainly gonna put more strain on the dragonets. What helped me keep hydroids in check was taking out the source, they came on a toadstool mounted on rubble rock, and dipping in diluted hydrogen peroxide. Feeding less and keeping nutrient levels down may also help

i’ve been slowly lowering nutrients and removed the plug that brought them in and took the main little colony off the glass. the only ones i see now are the free swimming ones that land on the glass. there’s not a ton, but i wanna solve it before it’s an actual problem

i’m not worried about keeping up with the mandarins because of the 20 gallon macro algae tank farming them and i also feed live mysis and have a subscription set up with Algae Barn for 8 jars of copepods every 4-8 weeks (adjusted as needed).

 

[lil sumpin]

I would remove them manually w a baster and just wait it out, they can phase out on their own too

 

[Jaden9933]

I would remove them manually w a baster and just wait it out, they can phase out on their own too

yeah i’ll keep up with manual removal, thanks for the info!