my mandarin dragonet is hiding

[nrogan]

his second day in my tank and he just found a hiding spot, not sure if its sick, scared, shy or its natural habit. at the store it was swimming around, but in my tank it found a small cave it decided to hide in. id really love this bugger to come out of the cave and start showing off its colours, because its such a beauty and such a waste for it to be concealing itself in the cave.
much help needed.

 

[leveldrummer]

wait, thats all you can do, mandarins arent usually hiders, they usually just stroll around and do their own thing as if totally ignorant to all the other stuff going on in the tank, if yours is hiding in a single spot, its either sick or stressed, if you can QT it, then the only thing you can do it wait till it feels better and decides to venture out.

 

[falconut]

I just picked up a large one 5 days ago. The LFS said he just came in the night before. When I added him to my tank, he pretty much stayed in one spot. After a few days, he is now roaming the entire tank. So, it could just need some time to get used to his new environment.

 

[MondoBongo]

just give him time. try to entice him maybe by feeding?

i've had mine for about 6 - 8 months now, and she will still fade away if i walk up to the tank. i have to sit still in my chair and just watch for a bit, and then am often rewarded with her floating by for a little bit.

since she forages constantly she usually spends more time in the rock work than in the open.

that being said, my LFS has one that likes to hang out mid water and ride the flow from the powerheads around, so they're all different.

 

[MKReefTank]

I bet it is just getting acclimated, but definitely keep an eye on it. It may also be hesitant if you have a bunch of other fish swimming around.

 

[DopeCantWin]

There are some fish that will attack it, a candy hog for example. On the off chance you have something that will, what's your fish list and tank size?