How do I moniter a new fish if I never see it?
 

I got a new mandarin on fri, now I only ever see it at night when it lays down for bed. I'm not joking. I haven't seen it during the day since I put it in the tank. I watched it eating pods half an hour after I put it in the tank, but I literaly have not seen it once since. I can't find it so I can't keep an eye on it.

Atleast you saw it eat. Mandarins love to hide and it is new to your tank, so it will take a while for it to be confortable enough to come out more. I found that with a flashlight after the lights went out worked well for finding it.

That's the only way I know it's still alive. It has found a sleeping spot where I can just see it. It sleeps in the same spot every night

I have a male mandarin dragonet that I didn't see for a month. Thought he'd died and the cleanup crew got to him before I could. Until a week ago when I noticed him out and about cruising for grub. Helluva beautiful fish, wish it were more personable though LOL

My pair are constant attention hounds...if I come up to the tank, they are very "aggressive" sort of a "feed me, feed me" behaviour...it's quite funny, and they both do it!

If you have a ton of liverock...I bet he's just picking away at it where you can't see him "new but handy"

Maybe it's just Waylon then (yes, I named him Waylon). I should find him a girlfriend

Only my male mandarin eats frozen food and its kind of funny to watch him at feeding time. I don't shut the pumps off when I feed so when he sees me coming he nonchalantly swims into the corner where the flow sends all the food.
You can tell he's hoping none of the other fish notice him positioning himself in the best part of the tank

well it came out this morning! It picked at some rock then vanished. At least he's ok

I just purchased a second Mandarin as well, real tiny juvenile and don't see him/her? much. When I do catch a glimpse, I can see it eating, so all good. Your tank is huge so if it's a tiny juvenile like the one I just put into my 75, he has plenty of hiding places. I wouldn't be too concerned if you can see he's eating and watch him in his sleeping quarters.

I may have made a boo boo since I thought I had purchased a female for my now fat & happy male which was introduced a few months after I started my set up. Eyed the little newcomer at the LFS for a good 20 minutes to see if it had the prominent, spiked dorsal fin peculiar to the males and it sure looked like it was just a small dorsal, aka female. Once I got it into my tank and had a closer look, it appears the little bugger is actually a male and when he had raised his dorsal at the LFS, he only raised it half way, the spiked part was sort of folded over. Fooled me and the LFS employee, who didn't know much about the species... it was labeled as a Mandarin goby on their tank.

Don't wish to hijack the thread, but now what? So far so good, since the two met the day I introduced the newb juvi and didn't get into any battles. Just a little fin displaying and the larger resident sort of nudged the newb around a little. Nothing serious, probably because of the huge size difference between the two. Still hoping somehow that the newb might be female, but I doubt it, so eventually I may have to take the little fella out. Anyone have any experience with two male Mandarins in a medium size tank?

I wanted a male/female pair but OA only had males. FWIW OA told me not to get 2 males even in my 180. They have seen males fight to the death in 300's
OA has tanks that are 4'x6'x16" and the males stay way away from each other. 1 of the males had huge bite marks on its back from 1 of the other ones picking on it. mike where did you find the mandarins? How much?