Tiny mandarin help

[Amybolton2]

Got this mandarin in today

Captive bred of that helps
In a 125 gallon tank

I currently have them in an acclimation box but I’m curious if I should leave them in here and see if I can get them eating other food too,
Or if it’s better for them to just be hiding in the rockwork finding copepods?

And if I do just let them out when they are this small will they be able to hide incase the larger fish decide to get interested in them haha

 

[Uncle99]

Beautiful!

Try a feeding or two to see what it does.
If it doesn’t feed, into the DT it goes.

It does need to feed, so better chance it will find something it likes in the DT.

I have 4 5” tangs and nobody even pays attention to the mandarin, it cruises the entire 180g.

Slow grower, but great hunter.

 

[Jmp998]

Biota? Try to get food into the box ASAP, the longer they go without eating the harder things will be. Mine grew well on the tiny TDO pellets, still eats them now at full adult size. Mine was tiny when I got him so I kept him in my 10 gallon observation tank for a few months but I’m not sure if that was necessary as most other fish ignore mandarins.

 

[i cant think]

Got this mandarin in today

Captive bred of that helps
In a 125 gallon tank

I currently have them in an acclimation box but I’m curious if I should leave them in here and see if I can get them eating other food too,
Or if it’s better for them to just be hiding in the rockwork finding copepods?

And if I do just let them out when they are this small will they be able to hide incase the larger fish decide to get interested in them haha

If I’m honest, I’ve not seen a mandarin that stays feeding on prepared foods. It’s good if they are but I would never rely on it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It looks pretty small in the pic, if you leave him hungry in there for a few days, he won't make it IMO. It needs to be in the tank eating constantly from morning to night.

 

[Amybolton2]

Thanks guys!
I ended up just putting them both into the tank, tried getting them to eat prepared food and not sure if it was stress or not interested but they didn’t so figured with the large amount of rockwork in the tank it would be better for them to test their luck in it.

After putting them in they stayed in the same spot for a couple hours, then it was night time..
and now..

Havnt seen them for a couple days
They are tiny, and in a large tank with HNSA rockwork so there’s a lot of places they could be that I can’t see but it makes me nervous.

I’m assuming if they are in the rockwork the copepods will be on the rocks too?
Going to be a long wait to see if I ever see them again or if they have died without me knowing.

Hoping they just found a nice little safe area and are eating away

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Mandarin doesn't hide, it should be cruising over the rocks all day non-stop. I hope you find it but it doesn't sound good if you haven't seen it in days.

 

[Jmp998]

Mandarin doesn't hide, it should be cruising over the rocks all day non-stop. I hope you find it but it doesn't sound good if you haven't seen it in days.

Not always true. When I first put my mandarin in the “big boy” tank, he hid a lot. I would often go days without seeing him. I did not see anything harassing him, I think maybe it was flow he wasn’t used to? I would just drop his pellets behind the rocks where they would not wash away. Now he is out most of the time though.

 

[DaJMasta]

Thanks guys!
I ended up just putting them both into the tank, tried getting them to eat prepared food and not sure if it was stress or not interested but they didn’t so figured with the large amount of rockwork in the tank it would be better for them to test their luck in it.

After putting them in they stayed in the same spot for a couple hours, then it was night time..
and now..

Havnt seen them for a couple days
They are tiny, and in a large tank with HNSA rockwork so there’s a lot of places they could be that I can’t see but it makes me nervous.

I’m assuming if they are in the rockwork the copepods will be on the rocks too?
Going to be a long wait to see if I ever see them again or if they have died without me knowing.

Hoping they just found a nice little safe area and are eating away

In a tank that size, that's not surprising. They will sleep at night (usually somewhat in the open, not in caves, and they lose some color when sleeping), and then scoot around during the day, but are shy enough to turn and swim away as soon as you come by, at least until they start getting used to you.

In a mature 125G there should be no shortage of food, and in my experience, basically nothing messes with them, and when something does, they don't care. I watched a flame angel pull up and press its side into a mandarin on the back wall of my tank, presumably to show who was boss, and it sat there and then just kept on swimming. Virtually no reaction for anything aside from being surprised.

I'd take a closer look while moving somewhat slowly and see if it's around the back of the tank/rockwork, and maybe take a look with a flashlight after dark. Provided they're not getting stuck on pumps or something (less likely than it seems because they can actually swim pretty powerfully in short bursts), even a small one should be fine in most tanks with most tankmates.

 

[Amybolton2]

Took your advice.. waited till lights were about off and moved VERY slow to the tank.

One of the little guys was out on a stroll,
Gives me hope the other one is making it too!

 

[Amybolton2]

Took your advice.. waited until lights were pretty much off and moved SO SLOW towards the tank..

Caught one of the little guys on a stroll. gives me hope the other is making it too

 

[Septurn]

Got this mandarin in today

Captive bred of that helps
In a 125 gallon tank

I currently have them in an acclimation box but I’m curious if I should leave them in here and see if I can get them eating other food too,
Or if it’s better for them to just be hiding in the rockwork finding copepods?

And if I do just let them out when they are this small will they be able to hide incase the larger fish decide to get interested in them haha

This is beautiful.

 

[Reef By Steele]

Do you know if one is male and one female. I could be wrong, but I believe dragonets do not behave well with two males.

 

[Paul B]

That is true. 2 males will fight. Sometimes 2 females will also fight but they get over it.

I almost always have a breeding pair and they certainly do hide. Mine are very hard to find and hunt in the back or under the rocks where most of the growth and therefore pods are.

They seem to live about 10 years.

 

[nano7g]

Dragonets are supposed to give off a repelling odor from their skin in order to relp

Biota? Try to get food into the box ASAP, the longer they go without eating the harder things will be. Mine grew well on the tiny TDO pellets, still eats them now at full adult size. Mine was tiny when I got him so I kept him in my 10 gallon observation tank for a few months but I’m not sure if that was necessary as most other fish ignore mandarins.

Did you get one from Biota as well? Do you think you could have kept it in the 10g tank? The Biota captive bred ones are interesting because according to their feeding instructions, it eliminates the requirement of copepod grazing which was the main argument against keeping them in smaller tanks.

 

[herozero]

My biota mandarins eat rods food if small enough and tdo pellet if small enough. C1 or B2, whatever is one smaller from x-small. Frozen baby brine too. I fed them a bunch in the acclimation box before letting them in the tank. They’ll come out when it’s food time and you can watch them eat pellet. Hope yours do well.

 

[Jmp998]

Dragonets are supposed to give off a repelling odor from their skin in order to relp

Did you get one from Biota as well? Do you think you could have kept it in the 10g tank? The Biota captive bred ones are interesting because according to their feeding instructions, it eliminates the requirement of copepod grazing which was the main argument against keeping them in smaller tanks.

Mine came from Biota. He was tiny when he came in, so I kept him in my 10 gallon quarantine/isolation tank for maybe 6 months until he was larger. That tank had been up for a couple of years but i seeded it with extra pods a few weeks before I got him and started feeding daily with phyto so I had a million pods (for such a small tank) when he arrived. However all or mostly all of what he ate the first few months was TDO pellets and some other similar foods, so I stopped feeding phyto after a couple of weeks. Part of the reason I kept him in the 10 gallon for quite a while was I was worried how I would feed TDO in my display. When I did move him, I would put TDO behind the rocks using a pipette and he would eat them, and by then was starting to eat pods too. Now couple of years later he still eats TDO which I just dump in as well as pods and some small frozen food bits that settle to the sand. He does not eat from the water column though. He is about as big as any mandarin I have seen now and plump. He is not a fast swimmer, but he does roam the entire tank (120 gallon).

However not everyone has the same experience.

 

[moretor1]

Do you have any macro algae in your display?

I have a massive ball of chaeto shoved into the corner of my tank so even when the algae comes and goes my isopods still have food and don't die out

The large isopods seem too big to eat and are left alone to breed. Now there are more big isopods giving birth to even more babies

 

[Biota_Marine]

Took your advice.. waited until lights were pretty much off and moved SO SLOW towards the tank..

Caught one of the little guys on a stroll. gives me hope the other is making it too

Glad to hear you're seeing them around your tank. In new environments they will roam around mostly around dusk looking for food before they get the confidence to be in the open more often. You should see them pick on small pellets and even uneaten frozen feeds from your other fish

Dragonets are supposed to give off a repelling odor from their skin in order to relp

Did you get one from Biota as well? Do you think you could have kept it in the 10g tank? The Biota captive bred ones are interesting because according to their feeding instructions, it eliminates the requirement of copepod grazing which was the main argument against keeping them in smaller tanks.

They do give off a smelly odor from thier thick mucus coat that also makes them a bit unpalatable for most fish. Once they're in a tank for a few hours it's usually full mucus coat to stave off predators.

We've had tons of clients have success with them in smaller aquariums like 10G but some end up moving them to 30G or more once they're a bit larger.

My biota mandarins eat rods food if small enough and tdo pellet if small enough. C1 or B2, whatever is one smaller from x-small. Frozen baby brine too. I fed them a bunch in the acclimation box before letting them in the tank. They’ll come out when it’s food time and you can watch them eat pellet. Hope yours do well.

Thanks for supporting us and taking such great care of your mandarin!

Mine came from Biota. He was tiny when he came in, so I kept him in my 10 gallon quarantine/isolation tank for maybe 6 months until he was larger. That tank had been up for a couple of years but i seeded it with extra pods a few weeks before I got him and started feeding daily with phyto so I had a million pods (for such a small tank) when he arrived. However all or mostly all of what he ate the first few months was TDO pellets and some other similar foods, so I stopped feeding phyto after a couple of weeks. Part of the reason I kept him in the 10 gallon for quite a while was I was worried how I would feed TDO in my display. When I did move him, I would put TDO behind the rocks using a pipette and he would eat them, and by then was starting to eat pods too. Now couple of years later he still eats TDO which I just dump in as well as pods and some small frozen food bits that settle to the sand. He does not eat from the water column though. He is about as big as any mandarin I have seen now and plump. He is not a fast swimmer, but he does roam the entire tank (120 gallon).

However not everyone has the same experience.

This is usually what we suggest, either a QT tank, XL acclimation box, or frag tank for a few weeks so they can bulk up quickly before going in with some of the bigger fish. We're glad to hear they are eating everything in your aquarium.