Green Mandarin?s

Hey guys is it normal for green mandarins to be "nocturnal"?

Mine sits in the same cave all day, but in the early night when I check for pod levels he is out about swimming and eating.

He is new to the tank so i dont know if he is just getting adjusted but Im a little concerned I guess.

Thought?

 

bump for your question. I'm not aware that mandarins are nocturnal though. I would guess it's still getting acclimated. How long have you had it?

 

Never heard of mandarins being nocturnal either, it might just get used to its environment As oldfishkeeper says, how long did you keep this fish?

 

4 days ... So not too long

 

Yeah he's probably just getting used to the new tank.

Or, this mandarin is EXTREMELY smart and figured out that night is when the pods come out to play careful, who knows what could be next. hahaha

 

Never seen that. Not sure why as pods are more abundant at night... Is there any fish that could be bullying him?

 

I still dont know what is going on?
I have my mandarin in a 20 gallon tank, which I know is small, but i really love these fish and knew it would be hard work. He is in with 2 clowns who in hours of looking at my tank have picked on him once, and that was day one.

In a 20 gallon tank with 20lbs of live rock and sand, and only putting in 1 8oz. bottle of trigger pods + amphipods which where already there, I feel like after 5 days this 1.5 in mandarin should have basically cleaned this tank out!

Am I wrong? Everytime I check my tank i see 10-20 amphipods shooting around during the night and I know there is more if I really look. He eats frozen food once a day, even though I feed three times a day, and put the food directly in front of him!!!!

AAAAhhh Any help on whats happening.. thanks guys!
Sorry for the long post

 

My mandarins were out all day. But would bounce around the tank for a few hours after lights out. We even caught them at night with just the moon lights on at the tops of the tanks spitting water up in the air. They would stick thre heads up out of the water and squirt water into the air. No joke wish I had a video.

Mandarins are a funny fish for sure. Keep a close eye on him, if he is eating frozen just a little bit that's a good start. Try getting frozen cyclopeeze to feed, as they are very small.


-Alex-

 

Given the size of the tank, there probably aren't enough pods out during the day so it has to spend extra time at night in order to not starve.

Just an option, not saying this is what it is.

 

2 clowns + small tank = answered own question...

P.S. clowns are extremely territorial and mandarin's very timid. Also mandarins are estimated to eat thousands of pods per day. Most tanks don't keep up. Likely the ones that survive in any tank are eating other things, I suspect, but small tanks are going to be tough as a large portion of their diet will be pods.