My Mandarin collection is now complete/Mandarin male/female cohabitation

Gigaah

Reefing newb
As some may know. I am the proud owner of a male and female spotted mandarin. I also have a female green mandarin and today I picked up a male green mandarin..I was looking for a juvenile..but this one is no doubt mature and larger than my female...but I got him anyhow

It was pretty white knuckle for the first 2 hours. As soon as I dumped in the new male they immediatly started "sorting things out". She actually bit him first. On the underbelly..she bit him and held on for a good 30 seconds. Then he returned the favor. I was HORRIFIED. I almost yanked him out right then. Then as I was bout to grab the net and a bucked to dump my rocks into..I thought to myself. They both bit eachother in the same spot..and not like a bite..they bit and held on..so maaaybe something isn't as it seems. They had some minor squabbling after that. They both had their fins up and were visibly on the defense/offense. She would look at him and often slowly "shake her head no" but in kind of a rocking figure eight motion. I don't know what her intentions on this action were but she did it quite a bit. Then stopped by the end of hour 2.

Over the 3rd hour The male put down his dorsal fin. The entire time they never were more than 2 fish lengths apart. She remained touchy and obviously didn't trust his movements around her she was kind of jumpy..and would also occasionaly..kind of half dart towards him but turn away.

Over the course of hour 4 he followed her around. at the end of hour 4 I had seen both of them peck food off the rocks at least once or twice and things were getting a bit more stable.

Thru hour 5 she put her dorsal fin down and she started to follow him instead and It seems by my observation things have been settled.

Since then they have been very cool with each other ..occasionally when they turn around they touch each other or swim over top each other with no aggression and we seemed to occasionally puff up and pose for her in a gracefull fashion dipping his head to one side..tho I didn't see that she paid much attention to it as of yet. They seem ok with each other and are still no more than a couple fish lengths apart at any given time.

It was a nail biting experience and went quite differently than when I introduced my juvenile female spotted to my mature male spotted.(she just sat there and got beat up awhile untill things settled). I completely understand how a fish could end up dead over this "sorting out of things".

I'll update tomorrow and possibly the next day to let interested parties know if they continue to get a long or if something changes. Picture attached.
 

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Day 2 Everything is A-ok. They now actually will be seperated by a bit of space for some time. However they both now do not leave a certain section of rock work. Previously the Female would always wander the entire tank.
 
cool fish I'm intrested how this works out. How long have you had the tank up and running??? I heard they were very hard to feed in a new tank and my lfs would not sell one to me until my tank was "older". I took his advice--since he makes money selling fish and would not take my money. My wife and I love these fish and in the future will give one a go.
 
I dropped water in the tank november 1st. So its 7 months old. My situation is A-typical due to care, planning, obsessive attention, and special equipment.

The advice you were given is solid advice. However I am of the opinion that getting mandarins to eat prepared food isn't as rare as most believe. Aside from getting them to eat the food the other difficulty is getting the food TO THEM so they can eat it. You either need a special set up..or be able to feed copious amounts of food so it can rest on the bottom of the tank awhile without someone else eating it.

There is a couple threads one mine and one anothers about getting mandarins to eat prepared food. If your really interested and have access to or capable of raising live brine shrimp your chances are good you could keep one if your dedicated.

This is a great thread on feeding a mandarin
https://www.livingreefs.com/green-mandarin-not-eating-t26531.html

And here is a bit of info i've observed with mine
https://www.livingreefs.com/my-experience-mandarins-and-particularly-picky-new-addition-t26373.html

It all depends on how much time and effort you wish to put fourth. Mandarins in an non mature tank require a lot of attention and need to have food availible to them at least several times a day.
 
Good luck, Gigaah! Your mandarins look cute together!! :sfish:

...heard they were very hard to feed in a new tank and my lfs would not sell one to me until my tank was "older"...

I recently bought a green mandarin and have had quite a bit of difficulty getting him to eat anything other than live brine. It's all in the thread Gigaah posted. There's A LOT of helpful advice in there:

This is a great thread on feeding a mandarin
https://www.livingreefs.com/green-man...ng-t26531.html
 
It is official. They are now sound asleep together in the tank.

Thanks noob.

Next step is to do breeding research on them in case eggs start comming. I couldn't possibly have them start breeding and not attempt to do something about it.

The male/female spotted I have don't seem to be a pair really. I think the female is too juvenile at this point. She is looking much more healthy these days tho.
 
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