This bites, need advise on Mandarin.

[Scoobaman17]

I ordered a male/ female combo for my established reef and got them in last night......

I think they are both males.................
They are fighting, or at least it looks like it, one has a very distinguished highfin "MALE" and the other about half the sized fin. It's the one with the smaller fin thats biteing the highfin. That normal?

I need help. I want to get the small fin mandarin out of my tank before they kill eachother and put it in another tank. Anyone have any ideas?

"there is way too much structure and rock to take everything apart right now so any other way would be great, thanks.

 

[flameangel88]

They don't hide and just goes into rocks in search of pods. They should swim the whole tank.

 

[Scoobaman17]

They attack eachother like crazy, not just by fright but by actually grabbing eachothers fins and such..............

 

[Sk8r]

The distinction of males is the high fin, and the female's fin of the same location is small. I have known them to fight, usually if one owns the territory and the other is added. Try moving a couple of major rocks: this shifts the territory; or try turning the lights out...every day is a new world if you're a duck---or a fish. They may get up in the morning convinced the other has always been there.

 

[ACBlinky]

If you need to get a fish out quickly and don't want to move the rockwork (or can't), you could try draining the tank. Get a couple Rubbermaid bins and use a powerhead, it should only take a few minutes to remove most of the water. The corals will be fine out of water for a little while. If you have sand, make a depression in one corner; the fish will gather there as the water level lowers. Remove the fish, pump the water back in and you're done -- it should only take about fifteen minutes.