Mandarin/Dragonettes

[abmxdad2]

Hi I have a Mandarin/Dragonettes & he is eating frozion brine shrimp But I bought a female & she would not eat anything & died I would like to knoe what I need & where I can get food for them ? I have a 90 gallon with over 100 pounds of live rock & 3" of live sand & crushed coral. All my other live stock are doing great ?

 

[MMERITT28]

You can buy pods and should be fine.

 

[Peppie]

How long has your tank been running? Do you have a sump?
Yes pods can be bought on line or at some of our sponsors stores. Locally

 

[abmxdad2]

Hi I live in Orting WA could you tell me which sponsors stores or close to me ? I am still trying to find my way around here
Thanks

 

[Peppie]

First one that comes to mind is Barrier Reef in Renton.

Our sponsors are just below our forum section.

 

[abmxdad2]

Hi peppie thanks I am looking at there web site now My tanks has only been set up at my house for about a month. But it was a running set up before I got it & they said it was a four year old set up... But I don't think it was But now that I have had it going & all the soft corals & live stock in here that a buddy came by & dropped off only 3 days after I got it running. It's all growing like crazy with the new lights I do have one Red bubble Anemone thats not doing good & another one thats doing great ??? should I try giving it some clam meat or ???
Thanks again for your help

 

[Peppie]

I myself have not kept any Anemones. So I speak only on what I have read.
Some say they feed them once a mo. others say not at all. I belive light requirements are much more important than the feeding habits.
You will get better feed back on that Q if you post in in the INVERT forum.

 

[wsboyette]

Years ago, I ran across something that will support a Mandarin even better than pods. There is a type of miniscule white worm that lives in the live sand substrate of many reef tanks. I obtained a generous culture of these from my local reef shop and established a colony in the 45g FOWLR setup I had at the time. They colonized the sand & self-propagated rapidly enough to keep my Mandarin fat as butter, and lived on detritus, thus helping keep the substrate clean. Call around to the reef shops in your area, one of them should have these worms in their tank(s), and will gladly sell you a culture. In your 90, I would estimate you would need about 6-8 lbs of worm-infested live sand to get your colony going.

 

[NC2WA]

abmxdad,

Welcome to RF !!!

typically, a mandarin should not be placed in a tank until 1-2 yrs maturity as its main diet is pods..however, there are captive raised mandarin that are said to be eating mysis but still I would like to have a good population of pods in my tank before I would ever think about owning one, as starvation is the number one killer of this fish..

as far as the RBTA, can u post a pic? what lighting are you using? what are the water parameters?
when did you notice the RBTA was looking bad?

if the water parameters are in check (and have been stable for sometime), then there may be a chance it is splitting, but a pic would confirm that.

HTH
Kirk

 

[wsboyette]

abmxdad,

Welcome to RF !!!

typically, a mandarin should not be placed in a tank until 1-2 yrs maturity as its main diet is pods..

Typically is correct. But the setup in the relatively tiny 45 I had proved to be atypical, as the worm colony only took about a month to establish, and the mandarin thrived (for nearly a year) until the tank was taken down (when we moved to a place where there was no room to set it up). This was accomplished with no further import of worms or pods after the original establishment of the population as well. I have recently made a place in which I re-established this aquarium, and am now in the process of obtaining a generous culture of the white worms to support my current mandarin (as pods must be frequently replenished to ensure his survival in such a small setup). If (as I am confident) this proves as successful as the previous setup, I will post my success and thereby anger the Reef Nutrition folks and other sellers of pods. :flame:

 

[estanoche]

Typically is correct. But the setup in the relatively tiny 45 I had proved to be atypical, as the worm colony only took about a month to establish, and the mandarin thrived (for nearly a year) until the tank was taken down (when we moved to a place where there was no room to set it up). This was accomplished with no further import of worms or pods after the original establishment of the population as well. I have recently made a place in which I re-established this aquarium, and am now in the process of obtaining a generous culture of the white worms to support my current mandarin (as pods must be frequently replenished to ensure his survival in such a small setup). If (as I am confident) this proves as successful as the previous setup, I will post my success and thereby anger the Reef Nutrition folks and other sellers of pods. :flame:

Just curious - are these the sand worms you are talking about??

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f224/sand-worm-critter-id-62221/

I've had them ID'd as possibly chaetopterid worms... but who knows without a true scientific investigation....

Hi peppie thanks I am looking at there web site now My tanks has only been set up at my house for about a month. But it was a running set up before I got it & they said it was a four year old set up... But I don't think it was But now that I have had it going & all the soft corals & live stock in here that a buddy came by & dropped off only 3 days after I got it running. It's all growing like crazy with the new lights I do have one Red bubble Anemone thats not doing good & another one thats doing great ??? should I try giving it some clam meat or ???
Thanks again for your help

Pics will help us out soooo much with your anemone... It could be dozens of things causing it to be "unhappy" that we can pick up from a simple pic.... lighting, flow, feeding, location... etc

Typically a nem will move if the spot isn't right for it - has it been moving around a lot lately?? Also, a bleached nem often will not eat, so attempting to feed it can help, if it actually accepts food :crazy:

 

[wsboyette]

Just curious - are these the sand worms you are talking about??

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f224/sand-worm-critter-id-62221/

I've had them ID'd as possibly chaetopterid worms... but who knows without a true scientific investigation....

From the pics and description, those worms do look like the ones I had. Tiny whitish filamentous worms, no more than 1/8" in length and not too much thicker than a hair. I do not recall them being in tunnels, but they did stick up out of the substrate and they kind of waved with the current. That was so many years ago. I seem to recall them getting into the LR as well, I remember observing the mandarin picking them off of the rock.

 

[BigAl07]

Hello abmxdad2 and welcome to the world of REEFING! I think one bit of advice that will serve you well now and for many years to come is to take a step back and slow down on your new additions to your tank. Even if the tank were 10 years old the owner of the system (you in this instance) needs to also have some "Salty time" under his belt. The 2 very animals you've mentioned having problems with are considered to be advanced or possibly even EXPERT level animals. It's entirely possible/probable you're jumping in a bit deep to early in the game. Trust me when I say I know what I'm talking bout here because I learned this lesson the hard (aka expensive) way. Slow and steady is the way to win with a Reef Tank.


Re: Mandarin/Dragonette
A mature system with a healthy supply of pods is a great idea but as suggested there are other alternatives. Unfortunately most of these alternatives also take time to "mature" so they need to be implemented at least a month or more before you even consider the purchase of that animal. This month's CORAL magazine has several well written and extremely informative articles specifically about Dragonettes and Scoot Blennies. This would be a great investment in your library right now. The more knowledge you have about them the better equipped you are to make intelligent and solid decisions about them.

Re: Anemone
Stability and Light Intensity for an anemone are like Water and Oxygen for us. They are notoriously deceptive in that often times they can seem/appear to be thriving in a tank for months at a time and then suddenly start to perish almost over night. These animals are extremely sensitive to changes in water chemistry (even when in the OK range but changes none the same) and need High Intensity lights and they must be in the correct spectrum. With all due respect it might be a good idea to relocate both anemone to another home and let your tank and yourself stabilize and grow into each other. Reefing isn't rocket science but there is a stiff learning curve in many instances and the penalty for going too fast is usually the loss of life of some amazing animals.

I like to tell people that a Salt Water Tank is like building a home. You need to take the time and effort to get the foundation straight and solid then slowly build upon that. If the foundation (basics, knowledge, equipment) isn't right then everything else down the road could literally crumble and fall. Fast reefing = Hard Crashing.

Good luck and Happy Reefing

 

[wsboyette]

Well written, Big Al ! :clap2:

 

[abmxdad2]

First thanks for the info & help I have only bought the female Mandarin goby & two cleaner shrimp & about 100 lb of live rock. The rest of the live stock I have in this 75 gallon tank was dumped on me by a friend who got called back to the army & had no one to take care of his aquarium. I don't even know what most of the live stock is I did hook up a 2ND Rena XP3 to help the filtering & add more flow. I have two Rena XP3 running & a maxi-jet 1200 Circulation pump. All the live stock that was dumped in my tank was in a 55 gallon... His tank was running for two or three years. As for my tank I was told it was up & running for four or five years before I got it but it was broke down so they say a week before I got it. My LFS did test my water before I added the live rock & it was all good I added three blue damsels & it was running for a week & I had the water tested again & all was good. Then my buddy dump all his live stock in. When I come home & seen everything in there I freaked out & had the water tested again & again & it's always good & the LFS said I should get a cleaning crew & some shrimp & I did that is also when I bought the female mandarin & she died two weeks later Big Al you are right & I don't plan on getting thing more for this tank until it is stable for awhile & I find out what all I have in it Thanks again for every-one's help & input & please keep helping

Hello abmxdad2 and welcome to the world of REEFING! I think one bit of advice that will serve you well now and for many years to come is to take a step back and slow down on your new additions to your tank. Even if the tank were 10 years old the owner of the system (you in this instance) needs to also have some "Salty time" under his belt. The 2 very animals you've mentioned having problems with are considered to be advanced or possibly even EXPERT level animals. It's entirely possible/probable you're jumping in a bit deep to early in the game. Trust me when I say I know what I'm talking bout here because I learned this lesson the hard (aka expensive) way. Slow and steady is the way to win with a Reef Tank.


Re: Mandarin/Dragonette
A mature system with a healthy supply of pods is a great idea but as suggested there are other alternatives. Unfortunately most of these alternatives also take time to "mature" so they need to be implemented at least a month or more before you even consider the purchase of that animal. This month's CORAL magazine has several well written and extremely informative articles specifically about Dragonettes and Scoot Blennies. This would be a great investment in your library right now. The more knowledge you have about them the better equipped you are to make intelligent and solid decisions about them.

Re: Anemone
Stability and Light Intensity for an anemone are like Water and Oxygen for us. They are notoriously deceptive in that often times they can seem/appear to be thriving in a tank for months at a time and then suddenly start to perish almost over night. These animals are extremely sensitive to changes in water chemistry (even when in the OK range but changes none the same) and need High Intensity lights and they must be in the correct spectrum. With all due respect it might be a good idea to relocate both anemone to another home and let your tank and yourself stabilize and grow into each other. Reefing isn't rocket science but there is a stiff learning curve in many instances and the penalty for going too fast is usually the loss of life of some amazing animals.

I like to tell people that a Salt Water Tank is like building a home. You need to take the time and effort to get the foundation straight and solid then slowly build upon that. If the foundation (basics, knowledge, equipment) isn't right then everything else down the road could literally crumble and fall. Fast reefing = Hard Crashing.

Good luck and Happy Reefing

 

[Skimmy]

the best way to feed new mandarins or dragonetts not eating is with prawn roe,
and they carry it at barrier reef aquariums.
havent seen a mandarin yet that didnt hit it.

 

[wsboyette]

the best way to feed new mandarins or dragonetts not eating is with prawn roe,
and they carry it at barrier reef aquariums.
havent seen a mandarin yet that didnt hit it.

I just checked their site, but could not find it. Could they possibly have discontinued it ?

 

[Peppie]

They dont always list what they have in store on line. Best to call.