Dragonets

[Dearth]

What are your experiences with Dragonet fish I have been considering taking a mated pair from a friend but I am leery because of their specialized eating habits and can be difficult to integrate into a new system.

My tank is very mature with a thriving population of copepods and amphipods what other things will they eat?

Are they jumpers?

All my fish are non aggressive but when it comes to sleeping arrangements I am concerned that territorial disputes will erupt.

Any other nuggets of info will be helpful in whether I take the mated pair or not I don't want to take them and then they die because I missed something

[The Guy]

I have only one big healthy male, he's very peaceful and bothers nobody. As well nobody bothers him. If you have lots of copepods etc. in a well established tank they will probably do well. The only other concern is pod eating wrasses, as they are very fast swimmers and may eat most of the pods before the pokey Dragonets get enough to eat.
I'm very lucky as mine eats sinking pellets and Mysis as well as pods. Great fish good luck.

[neoh]

I had one jump!

[pinkreef]

follow the advice from the person you buy them from also. if they are doing well in his tank. fish usually leave them alone because they smell/taste bad

[hillbillyreefer]

Mine jumped too. Sad day RIP Mandy

[albert_dao]

Don't get two males. You would be blown away by how aggressive and unrelenting a fish with such a cute and innocuous face can be.

[spit.fire]

Almost all fish are jumpers

[monza]

Don't get two males. You would be blown away by how aggressive and unrelenting a fish with such a cute and innocuous face can be.

I don't think fish mate that way...

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sounds like you have the near perfect system for keeping dragonets.:wink:

[Dearth]

I just worry that if I put them in my system they will die especially if I take them from a friend if I bought from a store that's one thing but a friend I feel there is an obligation to make sure they live

[Dearth]

My quandry of whether to take the mated pair of dragonets was solved for me another reefer took them last night so it saved me a whole lotta stress

[bsung413]

How long have your friend has the mandarin for? And are they trained on forzen food?

I will suggest you train them onto frozen, because they can decrease your pods population fast!

Heres how I trained mine.

Put him in a breeding box, one of those HOB is what i used, size depends on the fish you have. I didn't give mine lots of swimming space because I want him to be able to see food right away!

Then have a small plastic bottle, cut the top off to a size just so the fish can get in, drilled a small hole at the back so you can use Siphon to push food into the bottle. If bottles are not available, I have also tried shot glasses before works the same!

Basically you want your mandarin knows that foods always be in the bottle when he sees your siphon!

I started off with BBS for about 1 week then start puting frozen mysis with the BBS. He probably still won't eat, but once he even take a look at it, this means he's thinking is it food?

Then just repeatedly feed him BBS for another week!

Then I stop and move to frozen only!!

Don't worry if the fish is not eating for a day or two, if he still show no respond on frozen for two days! Give him BBS again for few days mix with mysis, then frozen only.

What your looking for is he sucking a mysis in and split it out! This is what they do! But if you seen him does this!!!

Your half way done!

Just be vary vary PATIENT

it took me nearly a month to finally trained him all onto frozen. Now he will even grab food from a Stainless clip

I ocationally give him some live pods or BBS as treat so he feels hunting for food

Good luck!!!