Mandarin dragonet and algae blenny

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I have a Lawnmower blenny and a mandarin in my 75G display.

When I got the mandarin, I thought it would see a little aggression from my blenny from what I've read and keep their dustance from eachother a little.

But...

Everytime the mandarin is on the half of the tank the blenny has it's home in, the blenny comes out and hangs right with the mandarin. They practically cuddle. It's super cute.

Is this common? I swear I have not read anywhere that these fish are that friendly to eachother.

 

[LeannaBanana]

I don't have these two specific fish, but my tailspot blenny and diamond goby hang out together when the diamond goby is still enough near the rockwork. Otherwise, my tailspot chills with the male clownfish. (The female runs the blenny off, but the male will swim around the rocks with it.)

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I don't have these two specific fish, but my tailspot blenny and diamond goby hang out together when the diamond goby is still enough near the rockwork. Otherwise, my tailspot chills with the male clownfish. (The female runs the blenny off, but the male will swim around the rocks with it.)

A year ago, when we started, I had no idea that fish or larger invertebrates had such personality.

I love this hobby

 

[Lord_Mort]

How DARE you, sir? You talk of such cuteness and then post only ONE picture??? I am SO offended! I will forgive this transgression if you post more pics. (Extra bonus points if you clean your glass too!)

 

[Tired]

As a general rule, most fish will show little to no aggression towards other fish that don't closely resemble them. Those two are about as unlike as it's possible for fish to be, which I'm sure helps.

That said, this is unusual, and cute. Look at em!

 

[BirdFish5000]

I am going to have to report this post for not having enough pictures.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I see them together all the time, but they will not let me get pictures.

Glass is dirty from my kids getting water on the front feeding the fish, and they split soon as I get my phone out. But here is one, will put in effort to get more.

Also, the mandarin seems to seek the blenny out more now and flashes, which I tried looking up what that means for mandarin behavior and came up with nothing. By flashing I mean fully extending all fins.





Edit: also, they have been coming out of one of the engineer gobys entrances together pretty frequently, but still have their seperate homes at night. They really seem like best buds.

 

[Tired]

Look up videos of mandarin courtship. I wonder if the flaring is something like that.

Edit: you'll probably want to look up mandarin /dragonet/ courtship, to get anything useful.

 

[Kasrift]

I have a female mandarin goby and what I think is a male starry blenny. The starry blenny is definitely king of the tank and I had to move my yellow watchman goby to another tank due to aggression, but for some reason the starry blenny could care less about the mandarin goby.

Incidentally, the mandarin goby loves to perch on top of the blenny like a hat or just sit on him in general like your photo. Doesn't seem to bother the blenny at all.