[Inaudible] with water logged. We're going to talk about Jawfish and dragonets.
Okay. Let's get started talking about our jaw fish and our dragonets,
right?
So we're going to break them down into two care categories just because they're
two different groups of fish, but they're relatively small groups of fish,
which is why I'm putting them together in this one video.
So first off our, our, our jaw fish, that's kind of a tongue twister.
So there's not really that many jaw fish that are popular in the hobby.
There's only a small handful,
but these two are the most popular ones that I typically see.
So first off is the blue spot jaw fish.
They are characters. Now, if you do a quick search online,
I'm sure you can find there's a hilarious video of a jaw fish and a
diamond go. We just like throwing sand at each other.
It's it's quite entertaining. I encourage you to go look that up.
So they are sand sifters.
That's one thing to keep in mind before purchasing them.
Now our next jaw fish is going to be the yellow headed pearly jaw fish.
So those are really the only two offish I have to talk about.
Next up are going to be our dragon nets, right?
Sometimes you may have heard them called Mandarin gobies or Mandarin
dragnets. So again, this is another small group of fish to talk about.
First off is our red Mandarin.
Then we have the green Mandarin and the spotted Mandarin.
Now,
a lot of times you should be able to find some of those captive bred
mandarins at your local fish store. I've seen some that are teeny, teeny tiny.
Um, it would fit on the size of a penny. So really,
really small guys that are available if you look for them,
but they are a advanced fish. Despite the fact that they're advanced,
they are beautiful and all sorts of colorful,
which makes them a very popular fish for people to keep in their reef
tanks. Next up,
when it comes to dragnets is going to be the red and the Brown
scooter dragon hat, right? So there's basically the same,
just different colorations. You've got a one that's Brown and one that's red.
Now the last one that we'll talk about today is going to be the Ruby red
scooter, dragon,
that now these guys look very similar to that red and that Brown, but again,
they have that gorgeous dorsal fin with the ornate colors.
It just very bold and stands out.
Now these are relatively slow moving fish that kind of cruise along in
your reef tank. They're not going to get very big.
There stay about three inches in size.
So they're perfect to keep in some of those reef tanks that you have, um,
30 gallons will probably be about the right size. Now,
when it goes to the jaw fish, they do need a little bit larger of a system,
but for both of them,
you want to make sure that your system and your sand bed and your Copa
pod populations are well-established before you add either of these.
Fish. All right.
Let's move on to the kitchen and talk about diet. But before we do,
I want to hear what kind of jaw fish you've ever kept,
or if you've ever kept a Mandarin, let me know in the comments below,
okay, let's talk about the diet that Joe fish and dragnets need. Now,
we're going to do things a little bit differently today when it comes to their
diet, while they are both carnivores, I'm going to keep them separate.
We're going to do Joe fish first,
and then we're going to go over the diet for those dragon dragnets.
So Joel fish, as their name suggests they have a pretty big mouth.
There are going to be sand sifter.
So they're going to be sifting through the sand.
There are detritivores they'll eat the things that they find in the sand.
So that means any pellets that have fallen down that have gone, um,
missed when, uh, it was feeding time,
they are going to be taken care of those pellets.
So any pellet that you would be feeding your reef tank,
an overall community pellet, like they're a by new life spectrum. Um,
that's probably going to be good for them. They.
Won't be too picky. Now.
Another option that you have for feeding is some of those gel and DIY
foods. I talk about this every time, and I'm curious,
please leave a comment below.
Let me know if you have ever tried these gel or these DIY foods and what your
favorite one is. I feel like they're very under utilized at, for the hobbyist.
I'm actually going to be making a video about how to use them a little bit
later, but we'll just stick to talking briefly about them today.
So Nilo spectrum makes a gel antidote mix. They are really,
really phenomenal products for adding in medications or just helping to get your
fish, um,
a little bit of extra nutrients that they might need that maybe they're missing
in their diet and the way that these work,
you can specifically target those fish and feed them. So this is really a great.
Option. Next.
Up is our frozen foods.
And I really feel like a lot of the bulk of what these job fish are gonna eat is
frozen.
So first off is going to be predator blend foods right
now Rod's food has this great predator blend. If you look at it,
a lot of the pieces though are a little bit large. They're big,
chunky meaty foods, and that's fine. So before you feed this,
I would recommend breaking off a piece and then chopping it up with a knife,
getting those pieces a little bit smaller for those jaw fish to eat. Now,
if you don't want to get your hands messy,
when it comes to feeding the jaw fish,
you could also use something like ocean nutritions, um, prime reef.
It's a great option. If you don't want to get your hands messy. And again,
this comes in those blister packs.
You can just pop out whatever you need to feed them. Okay.
That pretty much sums up when it comes to Joe fish.
So let's move on to our dragon apps. Now leave a comment below.
Let me know if you have ever kept a dragon at what their favorite thing was to
eat. Okay. It comes to pellet food.
I'm going to be completely honest with you. A lot of times,
unless you've gotten a captive bred Dragnet or Mandarin,
they're probably not going to eat pellets, but if they were, um,
there's a good chance that they would probably be eating something like the reef
nutrition, Oh, it's a very small size pellet.
So this would work like the, um,
coral frenzy food that is for corals, but also for those smaller fish, um,
this would be another option for you as well. Now,
next up is going to be our frozen foods when it comes to our mandarins. Um,
these are probably going to be the one of the smallest fish out there,
out there, or the fish out there with the smallest mouth that you have to feed.
So think about what you're feeding, right?
Number one option I recommend is Brian shrimp.
There's a lot of different varieties of this out there on the market.
This is just one of them. You could also get one of the reef.
Multi-packs again, some of these blister packs,
they have foods that are a little bit smaller and are going to be great for
those small mouths of the mandarins. Now, sorry,
I think to keep in mind when you're feeding the mandarins,
those frozen foods is you're going to want to make sure that something is going
to be big enough for them to see,
but small enough that it kind of escapes those other fish's eyes that are in
your tank, right? Mandarins as a group are very, very, very slow eaters.
They just kind of cruise and coast along the reef.
And along your rock work slowly picking at the different foods that they might
find.
So another thing that you can do when it comes to them,
picking out some of those smaller foods is having live foods already in there,
ready for them. Now, one thing with mandarins, they're not a beginner fish,
not at all, but they're very, very popular.
So if your tank isn't old enough to have an established population
of live, CocoaPods,
there's some things that you can do to help establish that population.
There's a bunch of different companies that are out there that make those live
Copa pods. So right here, we've got these TSB pods.
That's great brief nutrition has a whole line of different kinds of pods.
We get the Tigger pods and our apex pods.
Now you are thinking of going this route,
keep in mind that when you're feeding an aquarium, if you've got,
say for example, a 55 gallon tank, um,
you probably gonna need two of these bottles.
And then you're going to continue to need to see that population every month and
a half to two months, because as the population is growing,
those mandarins are cruising along the reef,
eating some of those Copa pods and diminishing the population.
So you want to make sure that you keep adding to that.
Another thing that you can do is you can add one of the pod habitats that we've
talked about in the previous videos. We'll link to that below.
And that is to good,
be a good way for helping to establish your pod population.
One last thing that you can do when it comes to those live Copa pods is when you
are cleaning out your tank.
I don't know if you have filter socks or filter floss or pads, whatever,
take things out really slowly, right? Little bit,
and then go through your filter floss or the socks and look for the copepods.
You can pick those out really gently with your fingers and toss them back into
the tank. That way you're not getting rid of any of those population of pods.
All right, that's all I got to talk about when it comes to diet and nutrition,
let's head up and talk about some of the issues that they might encounter.
Like the rest of this video,
I'm going to keep these in two separate categories of the dragon heads and the
jaw fish, but let's get started with those jellyfish.
So like all of the gobies that we talked about on the last episode,
jaw fish are jumpers.
They can clear the tank if given the option.
So you want to make sure that you have a good, nice fitting lid on your tank.
There's a bunch of kits out there on the market for the type of tank that you
have. Um, if it didn't come with the tank, there's DIY kits,
a whole bunch of different things. Check out the Marine Depot website.
I D they definitely have several options for you. Okay.
Additionally,
kind of like the gobies from last video is the sand is really
important. You're not going to want to put a jar of fish in a new set-up tank.
You're going to want to make sure that you give that sand bed time to mature and
to establish itself before you put those jaw fish in because they are sand
sifters. That's a really important part of their life. Now,
also with the sand bed, you want to make sure that it's deep enough for them.
They do like to have their burrows.
So having several inches that they can dig into is important
next up, when it comes to our dragon nuts,
I mentioned in the kitchen that having a live supply of food readily available
for them is really important. They are super slow eaters. Like I said,
they're always slowly moving along the reef,
picking it foods that they might find. And when it comes to mandarins,
I know so many people who have had terrible issues with their mandarins,
starving to death, just because they weren't getting enough food.
So it makes sure that you have enough food in there.
And if you're worried, whether or not you have some, you can seed,
but you can also add one of those pod habitats that we talked about earlier to
help entice that population to grow even larger
next,
when it comes to different things that you can do to help keep your fish healthy
is making sure they have good water quality.
And now let's goes for every single kind of fish out there,
not just these job fish and dragon nets. Now to do that,
I like to recommend that you do regular water testing.
You don't have to do water changes. You might not need it,
but at least if you're testing your water,
you're going to know that something is wrong. All right,
let's talk a little bit about enrichment.
I really like enrichment as a way to help your fish live their best lives.
By changing up their environment. It doesn't have to be anything big.
You could change up the different types of Copa pods that you're feeding your
mandarins or the different type of food that you're feeding those jaw
fish. Now,
one cool thing when it comes to Joe fish and feeding enrichment is a lot of
people I know, like to turn off their pumps when they're feeding makes sense,
you don't want to waste any food,
but you could leave your powerheads on and put some food in the flow of the
power head.
And that is going to give your jaw fish something fun to chase around the tank,
right? In addition to your other fish who I'm sure will enjoy that as.
Well. Now, something.
That you could also do if you have a Fowler tank, or if you have, um,
a choral tank that you could easily move around is moving around.
Some of those rocks give them access to different parts of the tank.
Just be careful. You don't want to make sure that you squish anybody.
All right. The last method of enrichment as always is tank mates, right?
So one big thing, when it comes to jaw fish,
you don't want to have more than one and you don't want to mix them.
They do not get along with each other. And the same goes for those mandarins.
Typically one in a tank is going to be all you need that being said,
they are very peaceful fish and they do well in community tanks.
So they're going to get along with a lot of the fish that you might already have
in your reef tank, or are thinking about putting in your reef tank,
but before you buy your fish, make sure you do your research.
Nothing is a substitute for being well-prepared before buying fish.
And you can check out Marine Depot's website,
look for that fish compatibility chart.
Or you can always go online and ask some friends and do your own research.
All right. I hope you guys have enjoyed this video.
Let me know what you thought about it down in the comments.
Thank you so much. And I'll see you next time.