Mandarins mating dance gets a bit abusive

[jason2459]

Since the Mandarin primer is in this section I thought some of you all might find this an interesting vid. I've got a mated pair of mandarins and pretty much every night I get to watch them do their mating dance. The female some times gets very aggressive with the male. Don't know if that's normal but they are pretty shy about it and every time I get my camera they stop.

So, I got back farther tonight and zoomed in as much as I could so the video has a bit of grain in it.


and here it is.

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I keep laughing at the mystery wrasse. I can just see him saying "What? What the heck? What you are guys doing... Oh. I'm trying to sleep here. Go get a room."

I had the camera at full zoom plus a little digital zoom because they always stop when they see me. I tried getting a bit closer and you can see they darted away from each other and stopped.

 

[jason2459]

Sorry about the lamp light reflection but that's the only light on and that seems to entice them into thinking its sunset. She's never aggressive like that any other time and not every time they dance around either. In fact they are otherwise never together during the day.

 

[9thwonder]

lol that mystery wrasse is a peeping tom

 

[euromomtx]

ouch poor boy!
I had a spawning pair and there were fights quite often. I increased target feeding thinking they would chill out if they were completely full and happy.
Then the female got hurt, got and infection and died.
My male at that point was fully grown and huge. The only new female I could find was tiny. I was worried but it ended up working out wonderful!
The female is tiny compared to my big male but they ALWAYS get along. Do the spawning dance every night.
I read before that females preferred larger males but I figured once they had been together for awhile it would be over and done with but I now believe that pairing a large male with a smaller female has the potential to make a more peaceful pair over the long run.
Great video!

 

[jason2459]

Interesting. My male is much bigger then the female too but he never fights back. He just locks up and lets her drag him around. They only do it when they are dancing around but not every time. Must be when she has a "headache" and not in the mood. :bigeyes:

 

[jtdesotel]

Haha wow

 

[LukFox]

Wow, I didn't know they could actually bite and hang on with those little mouths! Impressive.

 

[jason2459]

I was surprised they did that too. I still can't believe the male tolerates it and goes back for me.

 

[Elysia]

I have a pair of spotted mandarins. The male has been in the tank for over 2 years, which is about 6 months longer than the female has lived there. The male is approx. twice the size of the female -- she just has never grown much, despite being sexually mature. For the past few months I have noticed her getting swollen with eggs, and since that time, she has become aggressive toward the male.

Like you mention, Jason, she isn't aggressive all the time. My pair hangs out together a bit more than yours does (it sounds like.) And I have seen her go after him both in the morning and in the evening (so it isn't just when they are "dancing.) In fact, she doesn't seem aggressive when they are trying to mate. Regardless, he puts up with it. Perhaps it is the sort of thing where she has to make sure the male is fit to spawn with, so she sees if she can drive him away -- if she can't, she assumes he is healthy? I can't be sure, but I love watching my pair. They are fantastic fish.

 

[Blinding Reef]

That was very interesting to watch. The female really wanted "some" and the male was like "damn baby, I'm not a robot" lol