Information on Mandarin Dragonets.

This thread will be about all the information I know about mandarins so hopefully this will help with people that want to buy mandarins and people that already have mandarins. Remember nothing here is written in stone there have been success stories with smaller tanks buy if you want to do things the right, and safe way for your mandarin hopefully you will follow these tips.

Types of Mandarins: Green, Blue, Red, Spotted, and closely related scooter blenny
Food that mandarins eat in wild: copepods, small isopods these creatures feast on detritus in your tank and are very benificial for ay reef system. If you are buying copepods the best way to get copepods into your refugium or POD farm is to put a piece of macro algae or lr in.
Food that mandarins eat in your tank: copepods, small isopods, rarely they will eat brine shrimp, mysis, cyclopeeze, fish roe
Fish that will compete with mandarins for food: most wrasses, scooter blennys, other mandarins
Minimum tank size: 45g with atleast 10g refugium, 55g with 2-5g fuge, 75 and up no refugium 180+ you can have 2 mandarins

Refugiums: refugiums are systems that are usually in a persons sump or hanging on the side of there DT. Things that you will want in your fuge will be macro algae( caulpera, chaeto and many more) with chaeto being the most beneficial. also reef mud small pieces of live rock.
Benefits of a refugium: not only do they provide a safe haven for copepods and isopods to grow but with the macro algae it filters out unwanted nitrates and phosphates.

POD farm: usually a bucket or tub with copepods, lr, sponges or shower poofs
benefits of a POD farm: This is a safe haven were copepods and isopods can breed.for more information on POD farms Peredhil ( a member on 3reef) has a thread explaining a POD farm in more detail

More information: Tanks should be set up for atleast a year before adding a mandarin. Mandarins are non aggressive and reef safe the only difficulty with keeping them is there feeding
You have about a 75% chance that your mandarin will eat some sort of frozen food (if you continually train them)!!! but still dont get one because you hope that it will eat frozen food be sure that even if it doesnt it will be able to thrive in your system
Sexing your mandarin: Males have a elongated dorsal fin while females have a much smaller dorsal fin
ORA will be selling TANK BRED MANDARINS= they eat prepared food!!!!! just remember to feed them multiple times a day due to there high metabolism( or you can use a mandarin diner, how to is specified on page 4)
Behaviors: will likley stay mainly to the bottom of the tank and will tend to stay around the rocks foraging for food. they are very peaceful and are very disease resistant due to a slime that covers there skin. During the night alot of there pigmintation is lost and they look white while they sleep dont worry this is a normal behavior.

VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEVMnjLgQNk&feature=related ---- feeding diner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTus19Ezas -------- mating dance



OK this is my OPINION on things based on my experience and knowlege. size of tank and what prepared foods they eat are highly debatable.

 

Thanks for the extensive info because I am just starting my new 110g and intend to get a mandarin in about 10-12 months. Simply love that fish but willing to wait. So, thanks a lot for starting this thread

 

no problem any further questions just ask here

 

Tigger-Pods (Tigriopus californicus) are actually both and cool and warm-water species of copepod. Tigger-Pods is a specific brand name of live copepods produced by Reed Mariculture (my company) in California.

TC don't live in the ocean - they live in splash zone pools, up above the ocean. These pools are shallow and get quite warm during the day, some much warmer than reef systems. That's where they live, grow, and thrive.

TC range from the very cold waters of the Canadian border to the warm waters of Mexico so it’s a good assumption that ones from different locations locally adapt to grow best at those temperatures. Our broodstock came from tide pools in central California where it gets pretty hot so they thrive in warm water and can easily be cultured at standard reef temperatures.

We produce millions of them each month in greenhouses where temperatures range from 65 to 85 F. Our heaters kick on at around 70 F and there are no chillers so the tanks can creep upwards of 90 F on a hot day. We get our best production between 75-80 F. If they fall below 70 F production falls off dramatically.

Usually the reason that copepods don't take off in reefs is that they are either eaten too quickly, or starve. The population of copepods in a reef is often food limited by the amount of natural microalgae that the reef system produces each day. If you supplement with microalgae you increase the amount of available food, and hence the population that can be supported. When additional pods are added the amount of food required immediately goes up, especially when feeding very large copepods like Tigger-Pods. Unfortunately many people don't add additional microalgae so both the Tigger-Pods and the natural copepod population have a food shortage and quickly starve.

Here is a link with more information about them:
https://reefnutritionfaq.pbworks.com/Tigger-Pods FAQ

 

ignore sea farms comments its one of the Tiger Pod selling companies

 

What?! LOL.....

Don't ignore them.
My LFS sells "Tigger-Pods" and they are perfectly suited for warm water...


Side note:

I have a 29g tank and to feed the thriving population of pods I drop an algae wafer in at night every so often.

 

Just dont get Tiger Pods there is a controversey over them and i am going to air on the side of caution and tell people not to get them because not only because of the controversey but they will not thrive as well as normal copepods because they are bigger and require more food. Its easyier just to get normal copepods than risk waisting 20$

 

Right but that is like me telling you that crest is the only toothpaste you should ever use. In this hooby there are a lot of opinions and that's exactly what they are....individual opinions. I would try to air more on the side of not making definitive statements in an "informational" thread especially because the name tiggerpod is a product name and not a species per se.

 

they are a species.....(Tigriopus californicus) i also said at the top of this thread that it is my opinion not fact

 

:facepalm. Nevermind