Animal Stories - Mandarinfish and Dragonets


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Marine - Saltwater Fish Articles

Latest Animal Stories on Mandarinfish and Dragonets (29)

Shane Arthur - 2009-02-21
I have a Synchiropus splendidus in a 20 gallon nano reef, have trained him to come eat pellets twice daily with my clowns. He eats well and is gaining weight normally.

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Sanctum Una Una - 2021-11-08
I get incredible information in your blog.

Tim - 2017-05-06
Our lil green Female Mandarin, Maze , is in love with our lil Blue spotted Watchman Goby,Joe, They sleep side by side Every Night, we have Never seen anything like it

diane Stegman - 2011-01-17
I am not sure how to feed this fish. I put in brine frozen shrimp and didn't touch it. Any suggestions?

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Enoch Park - 2015-11-01
Dear Ms. Stegman, Mandarin dragonets are generally finicky eaters; not many are captive bred, so not many will touch frozen food. Make sure that your mandarin is a 'blue mandarin.' That term means that that mandarinfish has been captive bred and might accept frozen food. When buying one, make sure that the mandarin has been fully 'weaned' onto frozen food. You can train a mandarin to accept and even depend on frozen or pellet food, but trust me and my experience; that is a very long and tedious process. Generally, mandarins are to be left to the experts. Good luck! -Enoch

Ruth - 2010-03-09
Scooter blenny was my favorite too. I say "was" because he passed on yesterday. I had a lot of algae on the rocks in my 65 gallon berlin style reef and not a lot of coral thanks to the Racoon Butteryfly (which are awesome to get rid of aiptasia btw if you don't care about losing all your mushrooms too). To decrease the algae I took 3 actions: decreased frozen food (mysis etc.) from 2 cubes per day to 1 for all 8 fish; turned off the MH--actinic blue fluorescent only each day for 12 hours; stepped up 10% water changes/vacuuming from every 2 weeks to every week. Which killed the blenny? I swear he was eating but maybe it wasn't enough. You be the judge and comments welcome.

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Tyler seyfert - 2014-06-14
How long have you had your scooter, they eat really small copepods that reproduce normally in your sump so its possible he didn't have any food to eat

Ruthie - 2008-12-03
I just came home with my spouse and took a looked in the 50 gallon breeder tank, and we found our two scooter blennies mating! What a suprise! As soon as we walked up to the tank though, they separated quicker than an 85 year old at the slot machine. After they separated we saw the eggs or sperm sacks, whatever they were. We don't know, does anyone have an answer for me? Are they egg layers or live birth fish? We have a 3 stripped damsel, Yellow tailed damesel, a yellow tang and a zebra tang, 3 turbo snails and 4 hermits and a sally light foot. Will all the rest eat the eggs if the scooters lay eggs? Thank you very much

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nat - 2012-10-01
My scooter blennie is not eating and it's not moving around like it used too and I think he will die. The tank has some algea on the glass and red stuff on the heater what should I do.

Anonymous - 2012-02-11
Alguien me puede ayudar estoy muy preocupado x qme acuario se ensucia mucho, le sale mucha cosa d color morado y manchas verdes y se las limpio y al sig dia otra vez . Le cambio el agua c/ 8dias y nada my anemona y blenny estan muy tristes porfavor aconsejenme.clownfish y yelowtail blue estan muy bien en el mismo acuario. Gracias.

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Alex Burleson - 2012-02-11
¡Hola! Es lamentable que usted está experimentando los problemas con tu acuario. Sin embargo, hay esperanza. Cambiar el 25% del agua cada 7 días, o una vez por semana. Asegúrese de que el acuario no está cerca de la luz del sol, y asegurarse de que la luz en el acuario, sólo lo hace durante 6-8 horas diarias. Ni más ni menos. Espero que esto ayude! Por favor, disculpe la calidad de mi español, soy un hablante nativo de Inglés.

Trevor - 2003-12-29
Hi, I live in Burnaby B.C. Canada and I find that the mandarin goby is bi-far more expencive than its counter part and its counter part is far more abundant than the mandarin. I am talking about the "Psychedelic Fish". I have also been told that these and Mandarin gobys are very very hard to keep. I have a 100 gallon tank with about 200 lbs of rock and I usualy do 20-40 gallon water change every 12 days and he love the fresh water,hes right in their when I just top off the water my tanks temp id at 80 degrees. I got him 5 months ago and he has more than doubled his size since I have had him. But what I need to know is,is that will a Mandarin and a Psychedlic live together and NOT fight when crossing each others paths?

shelly - 2011-02-28
I have a 55 gal aquarium that I just went to from a 30 gal. The guy I bought it from had crushed shells and coral on the bottom so I left it. Now I wanted to go and get the scooter blenny that I have wanted so bad and was told no because it must have a sand bottom. Anyone out there that can tell me different?

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Jeremy Roche - 2012-03-01
Add a layer of live sand. I have mixed it before and my blennies did just fine. Really do not recommend removing crushed shells because you already have all the established colonies in your existing substrate.

Lewis - 2011-08-01
Hello, I have a 30 gallon tank with a scooter blenny, a diamond goby, 2 firefish, 6 chromis and a Clarks clownfish along with 2 cleaner shrimp

I want to get one of these or a phycadelic mandarin can anyone tell me what one would be better??
Thanks :) :-)

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Charlie Roche - 2011-08-01
I believe you have too many fish for the 30 gallon tank you have now. Rule of thumb is 1 usuable gallon of water for each inch your fish are going to be as adults. Not the size they are now. With so many in the tank, the fish will become stunted and could die. I would look up the adult size of each of your fish and than get another tank or a larger tank. Sorry bout that but it is fun to have more than one.

CRRose - 2011-04-28
I have a male mandarin in my 40 gallon reef that is doing excellent and growing well. He eats anything frozen (especially Nutramar Ova) though I'd like to get him eating New Life Spectrum pellets as well. These fish are easy to care for in any sized tank provided that the owner is willing to work with them and train them onto other foods. It is important to choose a mandarin that is not skinny with a sunken-in stomach, as they often won't start eating again. Putting them in a breeder net or similar and offering foods several times a day (siphoning out anything left over) is an excellent way to train them. Once they are eating well, they can be released. No one willing to invest a little time should be scared away from these lovely little fish.

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Charlie Roche - 2011-04-29
Thank you for the information. It is always great to hear from someone who has been through it and can help others. Thank you.

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