Mandarin Dragonets fighting

[butterfly_babe4200]

I have a pair of Mandarin Dragonets and tey are fighting they have only been together for a few days. I sexed them using a few different peoples opinions about spines and size. They did ok at first then argued over food once but now I caught the "Male"(long spine) biting the other. Is this normal and they will be fine or?

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Interesting. Here are my thoughts...

1. Two males. One with a damaged spine.
2. Breeding behavior.

I have no idea which it is or if it's something else completely. If you could post pics of both of them perhaps folks could chime in on sexing them... though I know getting pics of mandarins is not easy.

Tom

[butterfly_babe4200]

I will try to get pics up. But the larger has a nice long spine and the smaller has a very small (tiny) spine.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Tom@HaslettMI

Interesting. Here are my thoughts...

1. Two males. One with a damaged spine.
2. Breeding behavior.

I have no idea which it is or if it's something else completely. If you could post pics of both of them perhaps folks could chime in on sexing them... though I know getting pics of mandarins is not easy.

Tom

Tom you may be right with the damaged spine, that or its a younger male who is developing his of a spine since the OP says that one is smaller anyways..... If Im not mistaken females have no "spine"... so just the sign of a spine on the smaller one leads me to believe it is a male.

Personally I would try to separate the two, atleast until it can be confirmed with pictures, but im 99% sure that any sign of a raised "spine" = male with mandarines.

[jimsflies]

How long have they been together?

[Chris]

Originally Posted by jimsflies

How long have they been together?

That, and were they introduced together + tank size are also good things too know that might help too.

[WillBattle]

Without pictures, or a quick video of there interactions together it is hard to say. However when a friend and I introduced my female and his male dragonet, to his 120g gal, they got along quite well. The male, noticing her pretty much right away when she was added came up to her, fins flaring, but never nipping her, after showing off his fins to her for a few minutes or so, he put them down, and followed her around for a few hours. Now, they interact mostly at dusk/night, with a mating dance here and there, but besides that, they ignore each other mostly. From what you discribed it does seem like they are two males, one just has a damaged spine. ( from what I am told this happens quite often with shipping multiple males together) I posted a thread and video a month back or so, of my friends pair doing their 'dance' at dusk, if you are interested in viewing that

[ShockSniper]

Originally Posted by WillBattle

Without pictures, or a quick video of there interactions together it is hard to say. However when a friend and I introduced my female and his male dragonet, to his 120g gal, they got along quite well. The male, noticing her pretty much right away when she was added came up to her, fins flaring, but never nipping her, after showing off his fins to her for a few minutes or so, he put them down, and followed her around for a few hours. Now, they interact mostly at dusk/night, with a mating dance here and there, but besides that, they ignore each other mostly. From what you discribed it does seem like they are two males, one just has a damaged spine. ( from what I am told this happens quite often with shipping multiple males together) I posted a thread and video a month back or so, of my friends pair doing their 'dance' at dusk, if you are interested in viewing that

I've got a female, and I'm thinking of getting a male. She's been in the tank for around 2-3 months doing great. Any advice? Should I or shouldn't I. The last thing I want is for them to fight.