Mandarin Dragonet...

[mbmijo]

What can anybody tell me about these guys? Are they reef safe? Will they eat my hermit crabs or shrimp?

[Wiskey]

They are perfectally reef safe, but they eat only live pods, so it is important that you have a large enough system to support them,.. and that your system is well established. I think 75G is the min to keep this fish.

They won't eat shrimp, and they won't eat hermits.

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Oh,.. it's also important that you don't keep fish that will out compete them for food, like wrasses that also eat pods.

Whiskey

[Mizer67]

What he said. Also, don't believe the LFS guy who says they will eat frozen / pellet / flake unless you see it with your own eyes. Buying live pods to keep him fed will break the bank in a hurry.

[Loverotties]

I agree with both.

[aquawolf]

Yes, it is very sad that most of them end up starving to death because people do not have tanks that are properly established for them and have no idea how quickly they can decimate an active pod population. I guess this is another instance where beauty comes with a price.

[czieler]

I kept two ( a target and mandarin ) in a 65 successfully before upgrading to my 150 ( shortly before this one swallowed an air bubble and died after two days of trying to pass it )....

You have to make sure that you have a lot of live rock ( because pods will breed in there ) ... also if you can snag a big piece of dead pipe organ somewhere..that is a great breeding ground for pods. I would not recommend getting one until you've had a lot of live rock in your tank for 6 - 9 months.

The test I did before purchasing one was to shine a flashlight in the tank at nite.. and I didn't get one until I saw tons of pods swimming around in the rock at nite.