mandarin pairing

[hotelbravo]

I have the best mandarin ever she eats like a pig she will swim out into the water column when im feeding and will actually eat other foods like mysis, "LRS Fish Frenzy", and rven pellets and flakes. I have thousands of copepods in my tank it was seeded with nearly 15,000 pods many months before adding the mandarin.

Now I am wanting to give her a mate. She is a green mandarin and I am wanting to find a red mandarin male. Would these be compatible? I thought they were the same species just a slight variation.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Mandarins aren't really that picky, as long as the newly added mandarin/scooter blenny does not infringe on their food supply. If you can see extra copepods lying everywhere, even after the female has been pecking everywhere all day, then yes, you can probably add another.

As for the red mandarin, are you talking about ruby red dragonets? Or Synchiropus cf splendens? If it's the S. splendens, then go ahead. I would suggest that you get another green mandarin, if only so that any offspring you decide to raise won't be variations of dubious color. If you are thinking about ruby red dragonets, I'm not sure about that. Sure the two will get along, but as for breeding purposes? I don't know about that.

 

[hotelbravo]

No definitely not ruby red dragonet.