Log in

View Full Version : Hiding Manderin Dragonet?


BinaryRun
11/26/2016, 04:29 PM
Hey guys,

Does anyone know if new Manderin Dragonet's hide when they are introduced into your tank? I bought a male and a female today at the LFS. I acclimated the temperature for about 45 minutes before opening their bag for 30 minutes while slowly adding some tank water every 10 minutes (only a 0.001 salinity difference between my tank and the store).

At first I placed the female inside as her bag was opening the first and she swims down into the right back corner. I then place the male inside and he goes into the same direction. I then see them both moving towards the left back corner and look away for a two, maybe three minutes to put my fishnet back in it's bucket.

I then glance back inside and the female is gone. The male moved a bit further into the left back corner and was wandering around a piece of rock for about 3 hours before the light went out for the night. After that the male walked over the front of my tank where there is still some light from my room and keeps moving from the left to right, occasionally inspecting the rockwork and the stone of my closed Xenia.

The female is still no-where to be found. This does remind me of when I got my lawnmower blenny, who wouldn't show himself more then two times during his first 24 hours in the tank. Could the female mandarin also be hiding underneath / between the rockwork or could there be something else going on? I really don't want to loose her as she's a very beautiful fish with lovely orange colours.

homer1475
11/26/2016, 04:44 PM
I'm lucky if I see my mandy once or twice a week. She doesn't hide though, shes just on the hunt for pods. I have pukani rock so there's plenty of places for her to "hide".

If don't see her in a couple days, I might start worrying.

BinaryRun
11/26/2016, 04:50 PM
Is there a chance that she'll come out a some point and hopefully bond with the male? Allowing her to be out to be with 'her man'? For additional information, I don't have any fish that would prey on them. I only have a blue hermit crab, two clowns, lawnmower blenny, xenia and the manderins.

BinaryRun
11/26/2016, 04:54 PM
She did shed quite a lot of her skin protection mucus / layer during transport if that tells anything about her behaviour afterwards.

P.S. Do Mandarin's have a tendency to get stuck between rockwork? I know my hermit crab gets struck occasionally.

CrayolaViolence
11/26/2016, 05:09 PM
I've never had mandarins get stuck, but sometimes i go days without seeing either of mine. Then I might go days where I see the female but not the male or vise versa. Give them time. They'll reappear.