1 1/2" Female Mandarin Mature?

[plaz]

I have a really fat close to 3" male Mandarin in our 230 gallon. We lost the female (I'm finally convinced she was too far gone to start with). I found a small (barely 1 1/2" nose to tail) fat female and have her in QT with alot of live rock and sand. She is the healthiest female I have seen.

The plan is of course to add her to the 230 gallon with the male. However, I am not sure if she is big enough to be sexually mature (I read 2 years - but am not sure how big that is). Will it be okay to put her in the big tank with the 3" male now or is she big enough?

Thanks for input!

PS I have had the QT setup for several months and also have 2 established copepod cultures to supplement - just in case she has to stay there a long time.

 

[aomont]

Sadovy has colected eggs from females as small as 1 inch.
Anderson.

 

[mwp]

I'm curious, is your intent to actually attempt breeding and rearing? If so, I'd think it might be better to wait until she puts more size on; my experience with breeding fish is that if you allow females to spawn early on, their bodies shift into spawning mode vs. growth mode, resulting in smaller spawns over the life of the fish. That's just a generalization of course - I can't say if that'd actually be applicable to mandarins.

I'm somewhat in the same situation with the Red Scooters - our male is about 2-3" whereas our female is maybe 1.25"...for now I'm keeping them seperate, pumping the female full of food to encourage her to grow.

Good luck either way!

Matt

 

[plaz]

Thanks to you both for the information! I don't think I have the expertise to rear them - although I admire the efforts greatly!
Also, I travel for work which would make the long grow out time very difficult even if I were to have some success.

I am just hoping for a very peaceful co-existance and happy lives for both of them! I also want to do what is most healthy for the female. Do you think it might be healthier to keep them separate for longer than the few weeks we originally planned (original intent was to ensure she is healthy, very fat and rested)?

 

[mwp]

Well, my pair still fights occasionally (found a split fin on the female this evening) so life may never be perfect. I've seen pictures of some other breeding pairs of mandarins where the female is TOTALLY ragged.

A couple weeks of solitude is definitely NOT going to hurt anything. My personal advice which is likely unrealistic would be to SWAP the fish out..place the female in the larger tank by herself, give her a week or two and then reintroduce the male. I have NO hard evidence that this will work better than the existing scheme when it comes to mandarins, but it DOES work with other fish species (i.e. to pair my juvenile percs the larger fish was introduced into the smaller fish's tank).

FWIW,

Matt

 

[plaz]

Thanks Matt!
I'll try that if I can catch him out and asleep - maybe he will be less territorial that way!