[Adam Blundell]

The December article is now online...
Reef Builders magazine - Reef Ramblings: Dedicated Nano Tanks

Adam

[thelastmucci]

Mr. Blundell,
Your article was absolutly outstanding. It really intrigued me. Usually I just glance over articles but your article was so informative I had to read the whole thing. I do have one question though and I think I may know the answer but I wanted to check with you since you seem to have allot more knowledge than I do. As far as housing Dragonets should you always keep them in their own tank or can you mix them in a reef enviorment. These are probably some of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen and would eventually like to get one however I don't really have the room to set up two differeent tanks and was wondering if their "reef friendly" Thanks for any feedback.

[Adam Blundell]

In general I think anyone who has ever had success with dragonets has done so by using large reef tanks. I think about all the photos and videos I have taken of them have been in 90gal or larger reef tanks.
So yes, they are fine with tankmates, and fine in reef tanks. The real issue is feeding them. Often times they starve because they simply can not out compete the others for food.

General rule of thumb for mandarins- if you want one don't buy one. If you really want one don't buy one. Okay fine you are going to buy one, at least put it in a large reef tank that is a couple years old.

Recent developments- there are now some... not really me at this point... but some people who think these fish could do well in a small tank, given that they be alone and well fed. I'm curious to see how this plays out and what others think of this. It may be that 5 years from now mandarins will be thought of as perfect little nano tank fish... which is completely the opposite of how they have traditionally been viewed.

Adam