Madarin Dragonet & False Perc Clown

[singold]

After turning tank lights off, for the last hour my Mandarin Dragonet keeps challenging my clownfish by the clownfish's rock that it thinks is an anemone. To the point where the clownfish gets ahold of the Mandarin's fin or tail & drags it around. Seems violent, but the Mandarin still goes right back up to the clown and challenges it. Here I thought the Mandarin was a docile-passive fish. Anybody else witness this sort of bold behavior by their Mandarin?

 

[snorvich]

I am sure that the mandarin is just trying to feed on copepods. They normally will not notice any fish except conspecifics.

 

[singold]

Well, I wish I could have videotaped it. These 2 have been together in tank for close to 3 years. Have never seen this behavior before. It appeared that the Mandarin was irritated with the clown and was directly antagonizing it for over an hour. The clown became fed up & grabbed the Mandarin by its tail at least 3 times holding on to it & dragging it around. But the Mandarin kept going back to the clown not even appearing to want to land on the rocks to eat copepods. Possibly a territory dispute, but a was amazed by the persistence & boldness of the Mandarin, even after the hostile actions towards it by the clown fish.

 

[small alien]

that is crazy.