mandarin-breeding

[icyuodd]

ok all the signs point to little guys soon to come. the mandarin are always together, the females putting on weight. shes also very aggresive and doesnt want ME near the tank.

i know not many people are lucky enough to have mandarin breed it thier tank, and for a 30 gal. this is somewhat of a rareity.

is it something i should doccument? and if so is anybody interested in guiding me through it? the task is alittle more than i think i could handle on my own. as experianced as i'd like to think i am, im sure i'd leave out all sorts of im portant info.

im thinkin along the lines of an online study partener.

im open to any and all suggestions.

tanks!(pun intended) leigh

[lgreen]

if this is the case, that they infact may breed, you need to start doing research on preparing/obtaining/growing live fry food.

 

feeding the little guys can be tricky, so u really need to spend a good amount of time looking at that.

 

perhaps it would be a good idea to look and talk to people on the breeder forum on reefcentral.com

[lgreen]

you may also need to set up a small tank to move fry to, so that they are easier to get food to, and no big pumps or filters to suck them or chop them up.

[icyuodd]

thanks, point taken. im almost 90% sure they are going to breed. the male always swims with his front sail up (2 weeks now) and the female has gotten very aggressive (she does a frantic head bob everytime i near the tank.)the 2 have started eating,sleeping ,swimming side by side (2 weeks)before they slept close to each other, but not ontop of each other like they do now.

i've had the female for 5 months. her belly was hollow when i got her, she fattened right up(very petite fish) the last 2 days shes grown a lump in her belly. i had the male 6 weeks before he started to raise his sail.

heading to reefcentral now, thanks again.

[lgreen]

keep in mind too, that even if they do breed, nothing may happen.

 

especially since this is probably the first time this has happened for both of them, they may shoot blanks the first few times they try to breed.

 

Just keep them well fed though, and they should give u some baby mandy's before to long.

 

sounds good though. you are luck to see this happening in a 30 gallon!

[bobioden]

Here is a thread on breeing Mandarins on RC.

 

Breeding Mandarins

 

HTH

 

 

Bob

[shepz]

you need to get a culture of copepods going... the fry will only eat live foods. so try copepod naupali

[icyuodd]

copepods are no problem. i checked out that thread a couple days back (thanks bobioden) i cant seem to find any pics of eggs/ egg catchers (mandarin eggs float) any help would be appreciated.

thanks

leigh