KurtG wrote on Mon, 04 Dec 2006:
I added this guy to my tank: http://tinyurl.com/dshws
But, I've noticed a up swing in turbidity of the water. Sure enough, this
little guy is putting up a cloud of dust through his *gills*.

I really doubt this one fish is causing noticable changes to your water
quality.

I thought pods would be enough for him, but it seems that I better feed him
better. Where does one find live worms and brine?

How big is your tank? You really shouldn't have a Dragonet unless you have
75+ gallon tank, with _mature_ (1+ year) live rock and sand.

You really need to support a dragonet's food requirements solely through
a natural population of pods.

If you're getting into needing to feed the dragonet, then you don't have the
right tank. It's rarely feasible to provide them regular external food.

I've got a psychedelic mandarin and a spotted mandarin (separated by a
partition). The psychedelic one basically ignores my fish feeding. I've seen
it nibble on a (frozen) brine shrimp or mysis shrimp perhaps once very few
months or so.

My spotted mandarin, for some reason, I seem to have gotten lucky. While it
mostly feeds itself, it seems to regularly snack a bit on (frozen) mysis
shrimp when I feed the seahorses (in the same tank). My understanding is that
this is not typical.

Finally: you have implied a connection between "putting up a cloud of dust",
and "pods [aren't] enough [...] better feed him better." What's the
connection? Mandarins doing their regular eating will often spit "dust"
through their gills. What makes you think this has anything to do with the
Mandarin being hungry? Or do you have some other observation which suggests
it isn't getting enough to eat?

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
I wish I would have a real tragic love affair and get so bummed out that I'd
just quit my job and become a bum for a few years, because I was thinking about
doing that anyway. -- Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey [1999]