New fish - bright red mandarin!

tektite

I never finish anyth
Found this little mandarin at one of my LFS, couldn't pass it up! I've looked over a couple hundred mandarins and its got the brightest colors I've seen on one. Plus she's a girl :) I tried to represent her colors as accurately as possible in the pics. All I can say is she is STUNNING in person! She has so much red to her, bright red not the normal dark red/reddish brown. I guess she's better called a red mandarin than a green/blue. Never seen a red mandarin in person before, so not sure how she stacks up against the 'regular' red mandarins. Pics online seem to vary a lot.

Her fins have so much more red than a normal green mandarin, and her face is almost entirely yellow/orange instead of the normal green/blue. And her eyes are circled in red, not blue.
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I'm really hoping she was collected properly and makes it. Looks fine in QT so far, but only had her for a day.
 
Thanks everyone :)

No it is not ORA, it's wild caught.

I'll probably keep her in quarantine for a month or so, hopefully train her to eat some frozen foods during that period. For now just pulling clumps of macroalgaes from my macro tank, they're covered in pods for her.
 
If you're determined to keep her in quarantine, I suggest you get some Nutramar Ova. Even wild caught Mandarins love this stuff. It's frozen prawn roe and the size is perfect for her little mouth.
 
I will be; ova, mini mysis and maybe cyclopeeze to get her started on frozen. For a little while though I'll just be feeding her live pods as she acclimates to captivity, get her weight up a bit. I am definitely going to be keeping her in quarantine.
 
Very nice ...I've never seen one with coloring like that....you are lucky.

I also love the personality of these guys. Mine is very friendly and curious...a beauty as well (tho not as spectacular as your).

Good luck with her!
 
Thanks! I'll be on the lookout for a mate for her, definitely want to see what her offspring will look like.
 
Not entirely sure yet, I'll figure something out in the coming month or so...

This is a terrible fish to buy on impulse and I never recommend anyone get one without extensive research and preparation - but I did it knowing that I can care for her. I already have a red scooter blenny and a mated green mandarin pair.
 
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