New Green Spotted Dragonet...advice?

A species caught up in the information of another more popular species. Many will tell you all Dragonets are difficult to feed. They're wrong. Green Spotteds, Synchiropus picturatus, generally feed readily on frozen food. They're not nearly as difficult to feed as S. splendidus, the more common Blue Mandarin. Wild caught splendidus rarely take non-living foods in the short term. Most picturatus eat frozen almost immediately. Give a mix of mysis, cyclops, bloodworms, and any other frozen whole animal foods small enough for the fish to take whole. That combined with what they graze will keep them fed. A 29 is a bit small to keep a Dragonet and also maintain a healthy microfauna. Biocubes are a pain to work with, but a refugium would be a good addition to help keep critter populations up. Btw a picturatus will keep Flatworm populations under control as well, which splendidus generally ignore.

The tank size is fine for the size of the fish. Larger tanks (should) have more live rock and more live rock means more hunting grounds for them to find their natural food source (pods). The rock picking is either your fish finding an eating a pod or picking at something it thinks is a pod. This is why is is critical to get a mandarin on prepared foods when they are kept in small tanks. It's either that or buy pods (expensive) or run a large enough refugium where pods can breed and be introduced into the tank fairly consistently.

You can make a HOB refugium out of an Aquaclear HOB power filter (google it and you'll get lots of examples). CPR aquatics also makes a HOB refuge and there are other HOBs out there that I believe are cheaper than the CPRs. Some people convert one of the rear chambers of their biocubes into refugiums but I have serious doubts of a refugium that small being able to provide enough area for an adquate pod population. When it comes to refugiums, the bigger the better (for both nutrient control and natural food refuge). Even the largest HOB refuge would not provide enough benefit to outway the cost of buying one IMO.

If your fish is eating prepared foods with gusto, my advice would be to not introduce a pod source in order to avoid the risk of the fish turning back to a live food preferance. However, even if your fish is eating frozen, you'll want to feed it at least twice per day. These fish hunt and eat all day in the wild and have a fairly high metabolism.

Pods serve more uses than merely food. They're an integral part of the microfauna that is a building block of a stable captive reef system. A Dragonet in a tank as small as a 29 BC will decimate the population and prevent it from recovering. A refugium will allow the population to recover at least somewhat. I agree with greech that anything in the back of the BC is uselessly small. An Aquaclear filter makes for an easymod. Once a fish learns to accept a free meal, it won't forget it.

SubRosa said:

Pods serve more uses than merely food. They're an integral part of the microfauna that is a building block of a stable captive reef system. A Dragonet in a tank as small as a 29 BC will decimate the population and prevent it from recovering.

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Good point and another reason to add to the list of why mandarins are better off in larger tanks.

greech said:

Good point and another reason to add to the list of why mandarins are better off in larger tanks.

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No question about that!

I have one, he started eating frozen and flakes a day after I put him in the tank. He'll eat brine over mysis if you put both in at the same time. But will eat mysis by itself. I soak everything in selcon too.


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you have one which, RN? The conversation has gone back and forth from the dragonet to the mandarin enough times my scorecard is getting too marked up to read.

am taking notes as my lfs had a little bitty mandarin last time I was there. I was led away from temptation when they said they would not sell it at present as its tail had been chomped by a crab of some sort and they wanted to wait awhile to be sure it was okay.

XanAvaloni said:

you have one which, RN? The conversation has gone back and forth from the dragonet to the mandarin enough times my scorecard is getting too marked up to read.

am taking notes as my lfs had a little bitty mandarin last time I was there. I was led away from temptation when they said they would not sell it at present as its tail had been chomped by a crab of some sort and they wanted to wait awhile to be sure it was okay.

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The spotted one. One of my favorites.


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