Pairing Mandarinfish

SourAngelfish · Apr 24, 2018

I’ve had my male mandarinfish for a while and was wondering if he could be paired with a female once I upgrade my tank. Is it easy or is it really complicated? I’m not super interested in breeding, I just think it would be cool to have a pair.

Also... can tailspot blennies pair?

DeniseAndy · Apr 24, 2018

If you can get your hands on the female and know for sure you have a male, should be okay. No guarantees on any pairing though. Good luck! I have been looking for a male spotted for over two years now. Can only seem to find females.

Paul B · Apr 24, 2018

I never had a pair that didn't pair and spawn. And I have had a lot of them.

SourAngelfish · Apr 24, 2018

DeniseAndy said:
If you can get your hands on the female and know for sure you have a male, should be okay. No guarantees on any pairing though. Good luck! I have been looking for a male spotted for over two years now. Can only seem to find females.

I currently have a male spotted, we have 2 more at the LFS, I’m having a similar problem, but I can’t find females

DeniseAndy · Apr 24, 2018

Dang, where are you located? Wish I could get a male. Too funny.

Tallison · Apr 24, 2018

Algae barn sales their captive bred by sex. Probably an easier way of finding a female

SourAngelfish · Apr 24, 2018

DeniseAndy said:
Dang, where are you located? Wish I could get a male. Too funny.

I’m in Georgia

davocean · Apr 24, 2018

It's never been difficult for me pairing mandarins, and it is awesome to see their mating dance as lights go low.

Tailspots can be paired, just a little tougher to ID male/female

SourAngelfish · Apr 24, 2018

davocean said:
It's never been difficult for me pairing mandarins, and it is awesome to see their mating dance as lights go low.

Tailspots can be paired, just a little tougher to ID male/female

From what I’ve read with the tailspots, the males seem to have a deep reddish hue and streamers on the tail fin, my Blenny currently has those attributes so I suspect it’s male

Ley3198 · Apr 24, 2018

I have found that It will depend on size if they are compatible or not. As long as they aren't to drastic in size, they should be ok with each other.

I have successfully paired up a pair of scooter that were quite a bit different in size by just keeping them well fed, but am still missing an appropriate sized female spotted or blue to try and introduce to my other dragonets.

Nihilus · Apr 25, 2018

Paul B said:
I never had a pair that didn't pair and spawn. And I have had a lot of them.

Just out of curiosity what happened to the Mandarins that aren't SUPERMAN?
"A lot of them" over the years doesn't really sound good IMO. A different story perhaps?

Paul B · Apr 25, 2018

Some jumped out, some died of old age about 12 years old, My last female died from being egg bound as did a couple of others. I forgot what happened to the rest, probably starved before I invented my mandarin feeder.

Remember I have been keeping them over 40 years.

This one was egg bound

Spawning

SourAngelfish · Apr 25, 2018

Since pairing doesn’t seem too relatively challenging, is it too hard to breed them? Or is it just as easy?

davocean · Apr 25, 2018

Nihilus said:
Just out of curiosity what happened to the Mandarins that aren't SUPERMAN?
"A lot of them" over the years doesn't really sound good IMO. A different story perhaps?

Some of us have been in the hobby a long time, 30-40 years ago keeping a tank or animals a year was considered doing pretty good.
The hobby has made leaps and bounds since sites like this.

Also keep in mind many of us have had multiple tanks running, 5 at one time was my record, and that was in a 1 bedroom house...

Nihilus · Apr 25, 2018

Paul B said:
I never had a pair that didn't pair and spawn. And I have had a lot of them.

Nihilus · Apr 25, 2018

lol, you might be speaking to the Devil... I'm actually surprised your on this guy's side Davoeon... Your better than that....

Nihilus · Apr 25, 2018

Don't forget, there's a lot of us that think this old man has lost his marbles... Just an EGO MANIAC... Will see...

Ley3198 · Apr 25, 2018

Very nice pictures Paul. I never noticed they get so big and round when they are carrying eggs. These animals aren't hard to keep once trained to eat frozen as long as you keep up with the feeding. They do like to jump unfortunately.

davocean · Apr 25, 2018

Nihilus said:
lol, you might be speaking to the Devil... I'm actually surprised your on this guy's side Davoeon... Your better than that....

Lol, we all lose some marbles eventually!
The only side I cling to is the fishes...

I'm just saying, often as I tell people I've had many of those, don't think that in the back of my mind anyone that does not know I've been around is probably thinking, yeah, you've gone through many of those cause you can't keep em!