Bicolor Blenny/Green Mandarin

[Laurier 45]

Someone have an experience of these two species together in an aquarium? Bicolor blenny is supposed to be too aggressive towards the mandarin or not? Is it only with other blennies and some goby species?

FYI, I have right now a 90 gallons with a Copperband, One Spot Foxface, 2 clownfish and a bicolor blenny and I wanna add a green mandarin to my reef tank

 

[MondoBongo]

as a disclaimer, i do not keep bicolor blennies. i have a lawnmower, but that's a totally different genus/species: Salarias fasciatus. no problems to report between him and my mandy.

keep in mind that mandarins are NOT gobies. they are dragonets, members of the Callionymidae family. your typical "green" or "red" mandarin is a Synchiropus splendidus, while the "spotted" mandarin is Synchiropus picturatus.

your bicolor blenny is a Ecsenius bicolor. which is from the Blenniidae family. reading over Live Aquarias description i would assume when they say Goby they're talking about things in the Gobiidae family.

hopefully someone who has kept these two together will chime in, but i would be surprised if there was any aggression there. they don't compete for each with food and they are very much different shapes and colors.

-edit- oh and scotter "blennys" aren't a kind of blenny either. that is a misnomer. they are also dragonets, from the Callionymidae family, Synchiropus ocellatus.

 

[Mael]

again slightly different scenario but I have had a lawnmower, tailspot and green mandarin in the same tank, first a 46g and now a 110 and they all pretty much ignore each other. I have heard the bicolor has similar behavior to tailspot for what thats worth, I believe they both like to have barnacles or holes in the rock to chill in most of the time. Love the personality on blennies, very cool fish.

 

[eatbreakfast]

A bicolor blenny will pay no attention to a mandarin. They are perfectly compatible tankmates.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Never had a problem with mine but my mandarin rules the tank

 

[DrSoussou]

They are completely different families of fish with completely different niches in the aquarium. Mandarins are rock-hopping hunters that usually feed exclusively on copepods. Bicolor blennies are cave-poking swimmers that will pick at algae all day and avoid the bottom more often than not. They should be perfectly fine together, considering that the reason most fish fight other species is because they see new tankmates as competition if they intend to feed on the same material and/or take up the same living space. just make sure you are careful when adding the mandarin. They're more skiddish fish and you need to make sure your aquarium has lots of live rock for them to hunt through, but if you get one that's a decent size I'm sure your Blenny won't even notice it. I have a 2.5in mandarin in my 150gal and I'm looking to possibly add a Red Sea Mimic Blenny soon, so I guess I'm going the opposite direction from you haha.

 

[Sams Reef]

a bicolor blenny will pay no attention to a mandarin. They are perfectly compatible tankmates.

^^^+1

 

[74greenjeep]

I have had both together for about 4 months as well as a larger starry blenny. No problems with the two. I also have a yellow tang, flame hawk, falco hawk, neon dotty back, orchid dotty back, coral beauty in the same tank. All the fish treat the green spotted mandarin like he's hands off. Many have been in the tank with him for over a year. The dotty backs are supposed to fight as are the blennies and the hawks just depends on the individual.

 

[ThRoewer]

Very few fish will even pay attention to a Mandarin fish, let alone attack it.
The one big exception are the sixline wrasses and closely related species. These are known to attack and kill mandarins.

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[OrionN]

Very few fish will even pay attention to a Mandarin fish, let alone attack it.
The one big exception are the sixline wrasses and closely related species. These are known to attack and kill mandarins.

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^^^^1000++^^^^
and mandarin does not pay attention to any other fish other than another mandarin.

 

[ginpang]

I had the two for six years together never had any problems.


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