Mandarin Dragonet

[blabadie]

Has anyone ever read this?

Mandarin in 10 Gal

Opinions?

Brandon

 

[Mr Miagi]

Of-course it "can" be done. But, you definitely need experience, extra effort, patience, and back up supplies. IMO he doesn't have enough jars there, but he might have more, i just didn't read the whole page. As said, youd need to supply extra food to supplement the Mandarins diet, and this can be achieved. Whether the person is willing to continue to do this for 3 years+? A nano CANNOT support a mandarin ON ITS OWN, but if you have one either feeding on frozen/prepared foods, or your wiling to supply its dietary needs for an extensive period (its whole life if need be), its feasible. Is it practical to have a non sustaining population of a fishes food source in your tank, no. Do we do this with other fish? Yes.

 

[gigmeyer]

I read it about a month ago and decided that this is where the hobby turns into a science experiment to see if something 'can be done'. Arguably, we are all scientists to some degree in the environments we are creating though.

Without weighing in on whether it is possible (or even cruel), I prefer the approach of creating as natural and maintenance free an environment as possible given the initial limitation and choice of tank size. Personally, I think there is enough care and maintenance in any tank and experiments should probably be left to scientists. However, for all you budding scientists out there interested in long term care of specific species, feel free to give it a try.

 

[rhysiboy]

just remember that when your giving it a try it is a creatures life your essentialy experimenting with and things dnt always work out for the best.

 

[Synirr]

We've gotten three mandarins at work to eat frozen foods simply by placing them on caulerpa, no joke. These fish wouldn't take frozen to save their lives in the coral tank we usually keep them in, but we decided to experiment and separated them out into individual compartments of our divided crustacean tank. Each compartment had live sand, some rubble rock, and tons of caulerpa. The mandarins would happily pick frozen mysis shrimp out of the macroalgae all day long, but wouldn't touch the stuff that hit the sand. We've only tried it with four fish, and it has worked on three... one was even a spotted mandarin. Something to consider, maybe? One of my coworkers has been keeping a spotted mandarin in his 14g nano for 4 months now using this method, and though he hasn't hit the 6 month mark yet, the fish still looks fat and healthy.

 

[steelhealr]

I"ve posted on this before....I think it's a bad move and not-conscientious aquarism to keep one in a 10G nano tank. HOWEVER, this guy SPENDS HIS WHOLE TIME CARING FOR THIS FISH.

Unfortunately, mandarins are extremely difficult to keep as their diet is not easy to replicate in a captive environment.

And THAT'S from Josh HIMSELF.

Are you guys going to get fish roe and hand feed? This guy is totally focused on this one fish and dedicated and yes..it was like an experiment. I will still stay with my recommendations for NOT keeping one in a nano tank for the average aquarist. SH