Mandarin pair aggression

[john92708]

Anyone have success keeping a pair of mandarin for long term without aggression? mine last for 8 months and now the smaller female is showing sign of aggression toward the larger male. want to know if it's temporary or would I need to re-home the female

 

[DaJMasta]

How consistent is it? Are you sure the aggressor is a female?

With my two, the male is the one that does the chasing, but aside from the very occasional bicker, it really only happens in the evening before spawning time, and in the first few months it only happened occasionally during the day.

Also, how big is the tank and how much space do they have? If the tank is small and there aren't many crevices or overhangs, maybe they are just unable to get away from each other.

 

[john92708]

How consistent is it? Are you sure the aggressor is a female?

With my two, the male is the one that does the chasing, but aside from the very occasional bicker, it really only happens in the evening before spawning time, and in the first few months it only happened occasionally during the day.

Also, how big is the tank and how much space do they have? If the tank is small and there aren't many crevices or overhangs, maybe they are just unable to get away from each other.

yes it's the female. it's only a 14 AIO and the pair is the only fish in the tank. The female would flare her fin and if the male doesn't move then she would bite him. just started 4 days ago and his eye just healed. I used a tank divider to isolate her but that seem to stress her out and she stop eating. I remove the divider tonight and she's eating again. they sleep together when light goes out. aggression is mostly during feeding.

 

[DaJMasta]

Hmm, I would suspect either proximity or food competition, then. If you can feed more (or leave powerheads off for longer, or similar) that may be something to try. They aren't particularly efficient eaters and will miss a good bit of the stuff just lying on the ground, so giving them more good options could help. It's also a pretty small tank for one, let alone two, as they can get to 3" long or sometimes more. While they don't need a lot of space to swim, especially a tank with a smaller footprint, they probably don't have very many ways to break line of sight with each other.

 

[blaxsun]

Yes, but I also had a much larger system (160-gallons) - although the pair got along great for many months in a 25-gallon system prior.

In a 14-gallon system I'd wager it's a competition for food thing as @DaJMasta suggested.

 

[mtraylor]

Picture of male and female flared up would be great. Maybe the female is male with broken fin on top

 

[john92708]

Picture of male and female flared up would be great. Maybe the female is male with broken fin on top

I'm pretty sure it's a female and male. the female is on top in the picture. the male never flared his fin, only the female and only recently

 

[john92708]

Hmm, I would suspect either proximity or food competition, then. If you can feed more (or leave powerheads off for longer, or similar) that may be something to try. They aren't particularly efficient eaters and will miss a good bit of the stuff just lying on the ground, so giving them more good options could help. It's also a pretty small tank for one, let alone two, as they can get to 3" long or sometimes more. While they don't need a lot of space to swim, especially a tank with a smaller footprint, they probably don't have very many ways to break line of sight with each other.

They're still very small right now and I feed a lot at two different location. I'm starting to think it's territorial aggression. The female seem to claim half the tank with the rock and chase the male away when he comes over. going to re-home one and see if I can find someone nearby with a nice jawbreaker for trade. Or do you guys think removing the female temporary to a separate tank for a month might work? would like to keep the pair if possible. just remember the aggression started shortly after I redo the aquascape