hiding mandarin

[rgentry123]

i have had my mandarin in my tank for about 4 days now and he seems to float aorund behind my rockwork all the time, he's the first one i have ever had and i was wondering if this is somthing typical of a mandarin or if once they get a little cozier in their home if they tend to come out more

 

[Bluespot22]

It depends on the size of the mandarin and the tankmates.

 

[rgentry123]

he's not very big yet. he's about 3 inches long. compared to the tankmates he's pretty tame, right now there is a yellow tang, tomini tang, tomato clown, flame hawkfish, coral beauty and an eibli angel.

 

[Dasgruenegesich]

My Spotted Mandarin & my Green Mandarin do the same. I've had them for a few months now & they seam to enjoy the back of the tanks. Only when it is feeding time or they are hungry they'll come to the front or crawl over the rock-work.

My 2 Scooter Dragonets though are always right in the front of the tank.

 

[Zaita]

@rgentry123: How long has your tank being setup? Is there sufficient live food in the tank for the fish to graze on?

@Dasgruen: You have 4 dragonets in a 90g tank??

 

[Dasgruenegesich]

Hi, no I keep the Green Mandarin in a 30g/ the other 3 in my 90g. All eat frozen & are fat and happy.
The 2Scooters "hunt" together (m & f) and the Spotted Mandarin keeps to itself.
I'm trying to set up some crazy petstore tank in the near future. It holds 120g of water/ has a capacety of 180g.
It has dividers & I may split up the Scooters & Green Spotted; though I have never had a problem with them so far.

LLL Sandra

 

[ed4]

These also tend to shy away from intense reef lighting.

Mine avoids coming out to the open unless he's sees something to eat when my MH lights are on. Once the MH's go out, he scoots around the top of my rockwork.

 

[rgentry123]

the tank has been up about 8 months now and it seems tro have a good amount of pods, everytime i pull apart my magfloat cleaner i see about 70 of the little guys running around every where. i was just hoping that once he gets used to everything he will come out more.

 

[ed4]

Give him/her some time. Mine took about a month to feel at liberty to peruse the entire tank.

 

[ReefThuz]

I agree with most of what was said above. I have a pair of mandarins in one of my personal tanks and as soon as the MH lights go out... they are out and about. During the day, they are hiding under and behind the rockwork.
rs

 

[BrianD]

Don't necessarily count on seeing much of them. As has been mentioned, they prefer the "darker" areas for feeding.