The critters tend to come out at night when the lights are out, and like Steve said, a healthy mandarin is a continuous hunter. All fish sleep. It's likely sleeping when you are too.
Ditto what they said, the mandarins usually hunt at dusk time into the early night. Mine will become more active right around when the lights begin to turn off (I have 3 lights that turn off one at a time over the course of a couple of hours) and then will hunt for a little while after they are all off before turning in for the night. They sleep where they can hole up a little bit and then kind of look dead as they sleep. I had one that would sometimes get blown out of its hiding spot and roll around on the sand in the open at night as the water flow would push it back and forth.
Mine is a little different. She hunts during the day even before the tank lights turn on but the windows in the room make it apparent that it's daylight. As soon as my moonlights turn on for the night, she curls up in a nice rock to sleep
My pair of mandarins are active well before the lights go on (actinics kick on at noon, turn off at midnight) until just somewhat after the actinics go off. They do look pale and frighteningly unhealthy when they do go to sleep, though.
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