Mandarin Dragonet Questions

Hey everyone,
I've been lurking around and asking a few questions about a tank I'm about to setup, but I have one about a tank that is up and running. My college has a 150 tank that has been up and running for years, and no one is taking care of it right now. I've volunteered to take care of it, and am starting maintenance tomorrow. The tank is a 150 with tons of live rock, a 30 gallon sump and a skimmer. the display glass is infested with red flatworms, crystalline algae, and just plain old algae.
Was wondering a few things
1. I really want to get a mandarin dragonet. Will check how many pods I see when I do a waterchange, but I'm assuming with as much algae/live rock in the tank we should have more than enough to keep 1 dragonet alive. Correct assumption, or think again?
2. Been doing some research on tankmates, and my initial search has said my two occupants are dragonnette friendly. There are 2 fish in the tank that have been there for years, a black clown fish, and I believe the other is a yellow tang. Am I right in assuming it's ok to add a dragonette with no aggression? I know both of these are supposed to be semi-aggressive, but have seen no aggression out of both of them.
3. Will a mandarin dragonette eat red flatworms? if so I have no fears of feeding one, as the display glass is covered, it's an acrylic tank so unfortunately I cannot scrape off the crystalline algae, but am wondering if I should leave the flatworms or not when I do a waterchange tommorrow.
thanks!

 

1- Most likely this tank will surely support a Mandarin.As long as the tank was started with LR there should indeed be a large population of pods. In order to be sure it might be a good idea to add a bottle of live tigerpods to the tank.(but not mandatory as long as the original rock came out of the ocean and was not just base rock).
2-Most fish will not bother a Mandarin and the Mandarin will not bother anything except another Mandarin.(two males will fight but male and female would be fine).
3-Not sure if a mandarin will eat flat worms as I have never experienced this.
The most important thing with this fish is tankmates. You do not want to add any kind of fish that will compete for pods.i.e. wrasses. Although due to the size of the tank and considering you have flat worms you may be able to get away with one wrasse. I would probably add the Mandarin and see if its interested in the flatworms.If not you can go from there. Either using flatworm exit or taking a chance by adding a wrasse.
Heres a great link to read more on these beautiful fish. Good luck!

http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-month/mandarin-dragonette-fotm-may-08-a-47991.html

 

Can you take a picture of the flatworms? Just curious as to what kind they are. I had some on time and they kind of worked them self out as I got tank straightened out.

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I'll take a pic tomorrow when I do a waterchange. Thanks for the site! I'm probably not going to jump into getting the mandarin just yet(need to do some more research), so i'll check with my lfs to see if they have any bottles of tigerpods so I can add it to the tank tommorrow and at least get the pods going(or order them online).
How long should I wait before I'm certain there are enough pods after I add the bottle of tigerpods to the tank? It's covered in algae, and I'll have some macro algae going in the fuge.

 

The person I had bought my t5s had s good idea with his mandarin, he leaves a pile of shells in the back as like a refuge area for pods. He also had a fuge but the pile was like an area for the mandarin to hunt. You could do it with rubble rock too but shells would work just as well.

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Very good point. I also love this idea although if you have a fuge it is redundant as it will provide a refuge for pods to thrive.(macro helps a great deal as well because they love to congregate there.) I like to call them piles to the pods.;D The basic premise is the piles of small rocks create areas were the Mandarin can not reach the pods thus giving them a place to multiply.If you want to see your pod population just grab a flashlight after the lights go out and you will see them scurrying around. This may or may not be possible if you don't have access to the tank at night.Good luck they are super hardy fish if you have enough food to sustain them. I am going on 10 months with mine in a 90 gallon aquarium with no supplements of fresh pods.8)8)If you want to be absolutely certain of a good population I would wait a couple months after the addition of the pods but considering the age of the system I am pretty sure you probably have a decent population going already.

 

I want a Mandarin now.....When I turn my lights on they all look like roaches scattering. I hope I don't get flat worms like you describe, but please let us know if the Mandarin eats them. That'd be an awesome way to clear those guys out. Good luck.

 

a mandarin will do just fine in your tank. I would add some cheato somewhere in the sump and just everyonce in a while add a bottle of pods to that to ensure the population stays up.

As far as flatworms, the mandarins will not eat those. I would also purchase a yellow coris wrasse as these will eat them. However if you have as bad of an outbreak as you say it is going to take a very long time to see a differnece. Do you have any corals?

 

I kept a mandarin in a 30g for a while. When i first got him i kept him in a breeder net for about 2 weeks and slowly introduced foods. After 2 weeks he was eating mysis and nls pellets. This definitely raises their survival rate

 

The mandarin might even go for the flatworms.