New Mandarin with Spotted Hawk/Bully!

I got a beautiful Mandarin last nite at a raffle. I Was really excited about getting her. Ealier this evening I noticed that the Mandarin was not moving a lot. Never having a mandarin before I didn't know how much they moved around. I noticed a small area on her side and didn't know what the deal was until I saw my spotted hawk attack her on her side. Shortly after that the hawk went after her again.

I was concerned because a while back I got a new lawnmower blenney and the hawk seemed to always be picking on it. A week later it was dead. I'm assuming it was because of the hawk. Who knows, maybe it was something else. Anyway, I decided to put the mandarin in the refugium so she couldn't be picked on plus there would be plenty of pods. She didn't try to get away or fight once I netted her. I thought putting her in the fuge would be a chance for her to destress. I'm thinking perhaps I can try moving her back to the tank in a couple of weeks. She has been in about 3 different spots since I moved her a few hrs ago to the fuge. Shouldn't she be moving around more than that? I just checked on her again. She's still in the same spot she was the last time I checked with her head sticking in some cheato. I guess she's looking for pods.

What advice can ya'll give me here? Is this unusual behavior for a hawk and do you think he'll eventually leave her alone? If not I'll be finding another home for her.

Cindy

 

Beamer:
Hope your manderin is still alive today. I think you will find that it will not survive if you put it back in with your hawk. Manderins are slow very easy going fish and has little it can do in defense from an overly-aggressive attacker. The only thing I can suggest is partition your tank until the two become somewhat accustomed to seeing each other. This goes along the lines of having many places for the manderin to hide in. I'm sure you realize moving any fish leaves them somewhat bewildered and lost. Mandy will learn the hiding places and perhaps stay out of the bullies way. Even better, if possible, you could remove the hawk for awhile. This would make Mandy the accustomed fish in the tank.
Do you realize that manderins have very special eating habits. If you do aquaint these fish you still have the problem of feeding Mandy. It is rare to get them to eat any but live foods.
Good luck
Wally

 

Thanks for your response Wally!

Unfortunately she didn't make it. I found her this morning. I had put her in the refugium last night so he could'nt pick on her anymore. Yesterday morning I had not noticed him bothering her but I guess while my husband and I were out on our motorcycles I guess he was giving her heck! What I don't understand is that I have around 200 lbs of live rock with lots of hiding places even on the bottom. I wonder why she didn't go and get under one of the rocks?

I just hate that she died. She really, really was so beautiful! As far as my tank goes my tank is well established . Its around 3 years old. I've had it 1.5 yrs .So I have plenty of pods. In fact, she was down in some button polyps on the sand and they were swarming all around the polyps. I just figured she was putting herself in a position where she could easily get to the pods and that's where I saw the spotted hawk attacking her.

There's one other thing that I have wondered about. Are mandarins more sensitive to water conditions? My nitrates and phosphates have always been really high but everything does very well in my tank. Yesterday I tested and my Mg was off the chart as well as the phosphates (salifert test kits). Yesterday morning I installed a phosphate reactor. My phosphates were like 3++. This morning I tested and my levels are about 2.5. I was really pleased!!
Do you know if it is harmful for phosphates to be lowered too quickly and if so what is the result of that to the inhabitants ? If lowering too quickly is a problem then how should I go about doing it. (Like runnng the reactor just a few hrs a day, or every other day?)

Thanks!! Cindy