Pellet eating dragonets

[pcw]

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to keep as many dragonets of different varieties in a single tank recently. I know that this may sound foolish but I've made sure that they have been trained separately to eat pellets before releasing them into the display tank. I'm using formula 1 and formula 2 pellets btw.

Currently I've got a pair of green mandarins, a pair of scooter mandarins and a pair of spotted mandarins. All are feeding on pellets but I've only managed to capture on camera, the green mandarins and scooter mandarins in action.

Hopefully others here are willing to share their experience with keeping these really attractive fish too (:

(I've yet to see a pellet eating red ruby dragonet but that's next on my list)

I apologise in advance for the poor video quality.

http://youtu.be/y-FEF-C8T54

http://youtu.be/bx_1k8JEsoM

[PowderTang]

My spotted mandarin is very aggressive to any mandarin fish that are newly added...I wonder how you introduce them together

[SubzeroLT]

Amazing to see them eating pellets. Nice

I've inserted your video with thumbnail preview here :

[nuj244]

Red ruby is easier than other dragonet to train to feed pellet.

[pcw]

My spotted mandarin is very aggressive to any mandarin fish that are newly added...I wonder how you introduce them together

I added the spotted mandarins after the green mandarins (: the spotted mandarins don't bother the scooter mandarins either

[cutebarra77]

It's a big big big achievement to get green mandarins to feed pellets. Congrats. I'm sure they will live happily in your tank. If they do spawn (which I'm sure they will), raise the young and sell me some tank raised youngs...

[pcw]

I managed to get a clip of a scooter mandarin eating a pellet (:

The green mandarins spawn very frequently but I can't seem to get the eggs to hatch haha

Red ruby is easier than other dragonet to train to feed pellet.

Thanks! That's great to know (:

[Guest]

What's the secret that you manage to get them to feed on pallet?

[pcw]

What's the secret that you manage to get them to feed on pallet?

Hmm I just put them in a small isolation box, fatten them up with copepods before starting them on frozen mysis. After they have taken to frozen mysis, i'll flood the box with fresh pellets daily and remove whatever that is uneaten at the end of the day

[shaohao85]

Nice la ... congrats for ur success .. ur videos looks promising for those who wan to train their mandrians to feed on pellets .. good job PCW

[Mr.E]

Hmm I just put them in a small isolation box, fatten them up with copepods before starting them on frozen mysis. After they have taken to frozen mysis, i'll flood the box with fresh pellets daily and remove whatever that is uneaten at the end of the day

Same here!! Felt super happy the day I saw her take in her first few pellets.