- Location
- Bronx, NY
Alright I've had a reef tank for a little over a year now and through out time I have picked up various fish from break downs etc. One fish i picked up was an orange spot prawn goby who mostly keeps to himself etc. A couple weeks ago I picked up a green mandarin from another tank break down who will even pick at flakes on the bottom of the tank ;D. However when I first added him a couple weeks ago I was a little worried him and the goby would not get along since they are similarly shaped and share a common area of the tank as well as the goby being larger and established in the tank for atleast 6 months now. So I have been monitoring the tank for the past 2 weeks making sure everyone gets along with the newest member of the tank and I even check up on the tank at night with a red flashlight because I like to know where everybody sleeps when last night to my surprise i found the goby and mandari sleeping next to one another 
. I had seen them close to each other on a few occasions and they both showed no aggression toward one another no flaring of fins or anything but them sleeping with each other still came as a shock to me.
heres a couple picture of it
this little mandarin is one of the best adds to the tank, hes tough and friendly plus on some prepared foods. Just yesterday he had a rough adventure. I woke up at 6 am to my return pump going nuts, I am a light sleeper and the tank is in my bedroom, and I found that I had a clog in my drain. So I figured it was just another snail and blew out my drain line and it was still clogged so I sucked on it and saw something dark come sliding down and get stuck at the valve(i have clear vinyl tubing as my drain line). I pulled apart the pvc at the valve and shook it out and heard a plop go into my sump so I figured I'll get the snail later and went back to sleep. I woke up went to work etc and when I came home I was looking in my tank with the lights on and noticed I could not find the mandarin anywhere and hes usually a very friendly guy and comes out of the rock work whenever I walk into the room. So my heart dropped and I shined my flashlight in the sump and there he was sitting there staring at me and perfectly fine so I scooped him up and put him back in my DT....the pvc is only 3/4 inch and he could barely fit into it so the stress on him being stuck let alone getting shot down into the sump and sitting there for 6+ hours and surviving with no apparent damage amazed me alone and he was back to scooting around the tank like nothing happened after about an hour or so of rest
. I had seen them close to each other on a few occasions and they both showed no aggression toward one another no flaring of fins or anything but them sleeping with each other still came as a shock to me.heres a couple picture of it
this little mandarin is one of the best adds to the tank, hes tough and friendly plus on some prepared foods. Just yesterday he had a rough adventure. I woke up at 6 am to my return pump going nuts, I am a light sleeper and the tank is in my bedroom, and I found that I had a clog in my drain. So I figured it was just another snail and blew out my drain line and it was still clogged so I sucked on it and saw something dark come sliding down and get stuck at the valve(i have clear vinyl tubing as my drain line). I pulled apart the pvc at the valve and shook it out and heard a plop go into my sump so I figured I'll get the snail later and went back to sleep. I woke up went to work etc and when I came home I was looking in my tank with the lights on and noticed I could not find the mandarin anywhere and hes usually a very friendly guy and comes out of the rock work whenever I walk into the room. So my heart dropped and I shined my flashlight in the sump and there he was sitting there staring at me and perfectly fine so I scooped him up and put him back in my DT....the pvc is only 3/4 inch and he could barely fit into it so the stress on him being stuck let alone getting shot down into the sump and sitting there for 6+ hours and surviving with no apparent damage amazed me alone and he was back to scooting around the tank like nothing happened after about an hour or so of rest
