Mandarin Pairing Help

[Jkraft136]

Well today i picked up a second spotted mandarin for my tank. Well the guy at our local lfs said he had a femal because i suspected mine to be a male with its super long dorsal fin. The one i picked up had a small pointed dorsal and he said it was a female. Well introduced her into the tank and the met for awhile. Well the male was pretty much laying ontop of her. After about an hour i noticed that they were now randomly grabbing eachother. It doesn't look like there fighting and the one not biting isn't squirming to get away. Is this normal?

 

[Tylt33]

Mandarins don't really pair if I recall correctly... there is usually aggression both ways. I have a male and female, and they don't cruise together, but the male usually chases the female and sometimes vice-versa.

 

[snorvich]

Well today i picked up a second spotted mandarin for my tank. Well the guy at our local lfs said he had a femal because i suspected mine to be a male with its super long dorsal fin. The one i picked up had a small pointed dorsal and he said it was a female. Well introduced her into the tank and the met for awhile. Well the male was pretty much laying ontop of her. After about an hour i noticed that they were now randomly grabbing eachother. It doesn't look like there fighting and the one not biting isn't squirming to get away. Is this normal?

You most likely have two males. What you are seeing is NOT pairing/mating.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

I dont know if you read this...but just in case:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=824111

 

[ShrimpChipGal]

Mandarins don't really pair if I recall correctly... there is usually aggression both ways. I have a male and female, and they don't cruise together, but the male usually chases the female and sometimes vice-versa.

I don't think this is true. My pair of spotted mandarin follow each other around a lot. They slowly scoot along looking for pods to eat but following the same path so I wouldn't call that chasing.

As far as identifying sex of mandarins, some males often have their long dorsal fin bitten or fallen off during shipping so if it is pointed, it's most likely still a male. Females have round dorsal fin. Here is a video of my pair of mandarins mating. You can see the female's dorsal fin in it as she flares up every now and then during mating. Female is the more red/brown one, male is the green one. Sorry for the choppy video and crappy quality. I used my old point and shoot. Mandarin Mating Video.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Mandarins do pair. Once they've found each other they try to forage near each other for most of the day and there's little or no aggression if they have enough food.

Females will not likely take males as mates that are smaller than they are, from what I've heard. What are their relative sizes?

 

[SMOOTHIE]

Mine did this the first day and are absolutely fine now. Still happy a year later. PS- check out Mark's video on melevsreef.com "mandarin diner." Great way to keep them fat and happy