[Papa Doug]

A happy, albeit ugly, pink spotted goby in his home. He prefers this, compared with under a rock, because of another larger one that was to be its mate, but prefers to be a bachelor.

The other is a fat spotted mandarin, thats eats everything in the tank.

[Papa Doug]

Mandarin

[Ninong]

Doug,

Nice Mandarin. Only one little bitty problem. It's not a Spotted Mandarin (Synchiropus picturatus), it's a regular Mandarin (S. splendidus) -- whatever the heck it's common name is.



P.S. -- I think what you have is sometimes called a Green Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus). S. picturatus, which you do not have, has at least two common names and one of them is Spotted Mandarin. It's other common name is Psychedelic Mandarin. It's a lot easier to just remember the real names.

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Doug,

Nice Mandarin. Only one little bitty problem. It's not a Spotted Mandarin

....
.

I see green spotted on the body near the tail. Doug can call it what ever he like as long as he show us a picture. Spotted, non spotted, green, blue.... What ever.

[Elmo18]

Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen

I see green spotted on the body near the tail. Doug can call it what ever he like as long as he show us a picture. Spotted, non spotted, green, blue.... What ever.

Hahahaha! Nice fishes Doug!

Yeah just to add Minh, looks like he's got the Amazon basin river system mapped to his body....

- Elmo

[Papa Doug]

Yea, he does have spots on the rear. Thanks Minh.

Good thing I have been keeping fish for 30 yrs. DOH!! First time I have kept one, except for a small one years ago, that got into a power filter intake. I never even bothered looking up what type it really was, {as it never mattered}. Someone just called it a spotted mandarin, so I did also.

I bought it during my flatworms war. It was very healthy looking and I have tons of food in the tank for it. That was well over a year ago. It nows eats frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp and even the odd spirolina flake, besides its normal live food.

Good thing you corrected me Ninong, as I am going to try find it a mate. Just need to study how to sex them. Pretty soon all the fish in my tank will be mated, as long as the chromis all mate up. Perhaps not the leopard wrasse though, as its to hard to find healthy ones. Esp. here. Not sure how to mate them. I notice Gary M. on RC has 4 in his 225. Also would need to add more sandbed if I was to add more.

[Ninong]

Doug,

If your first Mandarin was purchased for flat worm control, then it most probably was a Spotted Mandarin (S. picturatus) as that is the one that is reputed to sometimes eat flatworms.

I'm not sure how to sex S. splendidus other than the usual observations that mature males are much larger than females, etc. Just be sure you don't stick two males together as they will try to kill each other.

You don't actually need more sand bed to keep Mandarins. Their principle food source is copepods, which will be found in large numbers regardless of the type of substrate.


Good luck,

[Papa Doug]

This mandarin was added for flatworm control. The other, was many years ago. Guess thats why this one is not to interested in flatworms.

I read several threads on sexing them, but seems to be a hard thing to do. Yes, I would not want mine to be injured by another.

The extra sandbed would be for mating my leopard wrasse. It was just a thought, which is unlikely to happen in the near future. To hard to find healthy leopards here. I traded at a friends lfs, for mine, and only because it was there for awile and healthy.

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally Posted by Doug Lowey

.....
I read several threads on sexing them, but seems to be a hard thing to do. Yes, I would not want mine to be injured by another.
.......

Like you I love to have mating fishes in my tank. It is very easy to sex Green Mandarin. The male have a long 1st spike on dorsal fin. It is as long or longer than twice the height of the fin. Most of the time the dorsal fin is hold flat, so you cannot see it right away, but with a few minutes observation, you can tell if the Mandarin have a 1st spike or not.
The pit fall here is that some male madarin had the spike broken off with capture or in fighting. The best way to get a pair is to get the female first. I recommend get the female first because it you got a male without the spike, it will regrowth in a month or so. If you have a female, jut get a male that is bigger than she is and you will be fine. If you have a male first, then you just need to get one without a spike and hope that it is a female. 100% larger male and smaller female will pair sucessfully. Larger female often have dificulty accept a smaller male. If you have two male in a tank, you will know in a day or two. One will continue to chase the other. If this is the case, you just remove one. It is best to remove them at night. They just sit on the sand, almost look like death. It is easy to remove them from the tank.
Larger female often chase smaller male. Sometime a new pair will fight slightly for a day or two, but not to the extend that we see with two male, one will die if not remove from the tank.
I have had several pairs. Only fail once when the female is much bigger than the male.
Good luck.
Minh

[kevinpo]

Nice pictures Doug! It's quite easy to sex S. splendidus. The male has a noticeable elongated first dorsal spine. I have a mated pair that spawn regularly. They do a mating dance when just the actinic lights are on.

Regards,
Kevin

[Papa Doug]

Thanks guys, mine does have the very long first spike. I may try to find a small female for him.