Green or spotted mandarin?

[Reckotch]

I have been preparing a while now for a mandarin; tank is about 50 gallons, almost 4 years old. Seeding it with extra pods and have set up external pod breeding containers for continuously adding more pods to the tank. Will also build a mandarin feeder with live baby brine shrimp.
I will also try to train it to take live food as a little bit of extra nutrition.

PROBLEM: There is no physical saltwatershop anywhere near my area and my only option is to have them ordered and shipped to a nearby shop where I pick them up at delivery.
If the place they order from have tankbred dragonets in stock I will go for one of those, if not I will take a wild caught.
The worry is how they will deal with the shipping. The photos show plump mandarins but you never know. I know there is a big risk the fish might already be too far gone before I even get it home. If it is in decent conditions I feel like I have done all preparations I can to hope to succeed in keeping one.


My question is now if one over the other would have a higher success rate with my preparations and the shipping situation in mind, or if both will be equally hit or miss?

 

[jefra]

In the past, I've purchased green mandarins from LiveAquaria which were very healthy, plump, and took to eating Nutramar Ova right away. I don't know the availability of this brand in Europe, but cyclopeeze or any other frozen copepod brand would be helpful as well. You might also want to look into culturing microworms or white worms as an additional supplemental food source.

I believe Synchiropus splendidus and S. picturatus require the same care and it's just a matter of preference.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Either species will be fine being shipped. Us a supplier with a good reputation and you should be fine.