spotted dragonet pairing

[telamont]

Anyone have experience with pairing these or fish in general?

I have a female in my tank whos male mate died a few months ago. I have tried one other male to repair her. The male was a bit small. She attacked it and help its eye in its mouth until i broke them up. I took that mandarin male out and she has been alone again for a few months.

Yesterday I purchased a pretty healthy looking male. It is a little smaller than my female. This time the two fish swam together and were checking eachother out a lot longer than the male I put in before. Unfortunately she attacked this male as well. The only difference was that he held his ground and was not backing down. I am wondering if she is looking for a male that can handle that kind of abuse until she realizes that he can and accepts him.

My wonder is, can i take the male out, try and beef him up and try pairing them again? Or If i put the male or female quarantined in a container in the top of my tank for a little bit would she calm down and maybe a different scenario would pan out?

Should I just leave them both in the tank to meet again and see what happens? Its has been about 8 hours for them being in the tank together and the lights are just coming on for the first time now. They met in the morning and she attacked. I will be waiting to see when they come across eachother again in the tank but I feel it will be the same attack from the female as before.

Thanks for your help!

 

[_shorty_]

i have no idea, but very interested in responses. Obviously - fish that change sexes have to fight a bit to work out dominance... but when sex is already determined, I am curious how this ends up. Please keep us posted.

 

[telamont]

when they encounter eachother they go head to tail and do some kind of standoffish circling until eventually the female pecks at him. second time its happened. i broke it up this time and did not let the abuse go as long as before. I think the male is just the tiniest bit too small. If he were healthier and better fed he may be a good mate. He is tough though and likes her and will not back off. he is not searching the tank for her though which is good for him. the female has a good couple centimeters on him and a bit more girth. she will not leave him alone :/ ouch yeah shes snapped at him pretty hard trying to grab and not let go of him. Hes a tough one.
ill be gone for a couple hours but today will be devoted to my aquarium so i will keep you posted how this works out. I have a bad feeling about the two of them working out but I do wonder if I put the male into my refugium and try to beef him up would there be a chance for the two of them in the future... all else fails that will be the new plan.

One good sign, she attacked and has seemed to back off and went to a different part of the tank. I havent seen that happen yet.

 

[telamont]

looks like she is trying to entice him now into following her.

ended in her snapping and trying to grab him but he stood his ground and almost snapped back and she ended up swimming off.

 

[telamont]

taking him out. shes too abussive. she needs a bigger mate im assuming. ill try and beef him up in a friends tank and see how it goes later.

 

[_shorty_]

Too bad. Hope it works out!

 

[Chad Vossen]

They could need more food. In the absence of available food, they may become aggressive towards competition, including potential mates.

 

[telamont]

The male is from the wild and been in captivity without being well fed for a while so i can tell he is malnourished. there is plenty of food in my tank without me adding food for the both of them and all my other fishes to eat and live well. fortunately both the mandarins are eating all types of food too. my female is trained to eat everything and i got the male eating frozen mysis and these other pods i cant remember the name of.

I will beef up the male at my homies in his tank and then try again later when he is bigger.