Spotted Mandarin Journal

kizanne

kizanne

Member
I should have labeled this I'm an idiot but since the thread name stays forever.


I was at the LFS and saw what I thought was a female spotted mandarin. And a very emaciated male. Today is day one. I am hoping for them to survive. I tried putting them in the same quarantine container and they fought so I might have two males or maybe I'm lucky and they are two females. Needless to say it will take a while before any breeding will be going on if the emaciated one survives. The other is skinny but not too much. Today I'll see if I can get them to eat anything that isn't live.
 
After reading your other threads kiz, I feel like your house has something about it that makes everything breed like crazy, Your red dragonets, your bangaiis, your other mandarins. I'm sure you'll have no problem with these two
 
Yea I know what is supposed to look like neither had the long spike but sometimes they get nipped off. The one that I think might be a girl didn't look nipped but also wasn't rounded either only time will tell. Like I said probably should have titled it I'm an idiot. Lol working on finding a food they'll eat. They so far have turned their nose up at two different kinds of fish eggs. Frozen Copepods they might be eating a little bit. I also threw in some live baby brine.
 
So these pictures are really bad... But thought you might want to get in on the sexing.

Skinny ?girl? 1. Pretty sure she is a girl and high hopes she'll make it
picture.php





Emaciated ?girl? 2 - So emaciated not sure if she even can make it.

picture.php
 
So don't feel like you have to be an expert to weigh in. Girls? Boys with nipped fins? Obviously no doral spike. I am encouraged that the clearish outside of the fin seems to go all the way across. Also the few male pictures I've seen there is a set of horizontal stripes up there that I don't see. So is it possible I have 2 girls? The odds seem unlikely since girls are hard to find.
 
Well skinny girl (from now on Vera) ate some frozen brine last night. They both are eating newly hatched live brine. I will work on weaning them to frozen after they stop looking like they are starving. Emaciated girl (Olive) didn't like the looks of any of the frozen options, but is eating brine. I also rounded up a few isopods (not the harmful ones) for the emaciated girl. I put in a few copepods too. I'm hoping it is enough to help with brines nutritional value.
 
my vote is female. i cant see how that would be a male even if the long spine on the fin were to be nipped off the whole shape of the fin is different where a males tapers off into the long spine/barb part and the females fins remain rounded throughout.
 
yes i do. i see why you questioned it because the mandarin in the second pic does have more of an incline on the fin leading to where the spine should be but i just feel in my opinion that it is not a male.
again all my opinion based on my observations
 
Hodge.

thanks. You are the first with an opinion so I'm happy to have it. I think they are both girls too but the odds..... When I got Olive I thought she might be a male but couldn't leave her to starve in the store. since they had a spat right out of the bag, I have the in small 1 gallon quarantine containers separated. Once they get healthy and are eating well I'll try putting them in together again with a big male see if I can get a trio. IF not I'm sure someone would love a little girl.
 
With Synchiropus splendidus I have seen "circumcised" males that were intended to be "female looking". The issue is that the males have better coloration, I guess. I have not seen this tendency in spotted mandarins where coloration does not seem to depend on sex.
 
kizanne said:
Hodge.

thanks. You are the first with an opinion so I'm happy to have it. I think they are both girls too but the odds..... When I got Olive I thought she might be a male but couldn't leave her to starve in the store. since they had a spat right out of the bag, I have the in small 1 gallon quarantine containers separated. Once they get healthy and are eating well I'll try putting them in together again with a big male see if I can get a trio. IF not I'm sure someone would love a little girl.
Click to expand...

a trio would be awesome and I have faith that you of all people would have this success.
 
Well it is looking more and more like 2 females. They are both still alive. Though feeding is still challenging. I've been trying to keep up the brine shrimp hatching but it feels like I am not doing enough for both Vera and Olive and the 6 cardinals. I did get the Vera to eat a few frozen brine. I gave them a few amphipods that I could round up. Thank goodness my display tank has some (unwanted) gorilla crabs that spawned that gave them a nice nutritious snack though they aren't gaining weight fast enough for me. I like fat fish. I think I'm going to break down and order some amiphods just to be sure. Once I can get them eating good I'll get a nice male and see what happens.
 
Well a few days makes a big difference. Just last night when I was about to order amphipods as a stop gap feeding measure. They both decided to slurp quite a few frozen brine down. I'm still putting in some baby brine to keep them hunting and feeding all day but now I can relax a little about if they are getting enough. I'm feeding them several times a day with frozen brine and giving some live baby brine. Time to start looking for a male LOL.
 
ive been wanting to add a male to my tank but snorvich advised me not to :(
i really hope you can get some good luck on these batches
 
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