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.
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.
