Can i keep a psychedelic mandarinfish with a spotted mandarinfish?

[flintcore]

I've got a psychedelic mandarinfish and I'm thinking of adding a spotted mandarin to the mix. Can they be housed together or will it cause issues.

[felinxo]

yes you can, provided you've got a male and female, but let's get real, you're still working on that copepod culture, right?

[flintcore]

Why do you need to breed them, can't you just buy copepods from your local fish store?

[felinxo]

Some local fish stores sell copepods, though they're not that common. Buying them online's an option too, but it gets pricey compared to setting up your own culture. Get a small container, toss in an airstone, and stick it on a sunny windowsill. Feed it phyto every couple of days, and you'll have a thriving pod colony in three weeks, easy to harvest every few days.

If you've already got a small pump and airstone lying around, just grab a plastic container from the cupboard, order a culture and some phyto online, and you're golden. It's a cheap way to go, trust me.

[nixora]

You can source them online, or pick some up from your LFS, it'll set you back around £8 a week, roughly.

[flintcore]

Size of the container does matter, but you can get away with a small one, grab a plastic one, doesn't have to be massive, just enough for your copepods to thrive, an airstone and a window sill will do the trick.

[felinxo]

To make a copepod culture worthwhile, I'd say go for something around ten inches by five, or bigger if you can manage. You know, there's probably an old container lurking in the back of your cupboard, just waiting to be used - or even an old goldfish bowl, like brixo's setup. Some folks use old 2-litre drinks bottles, and that seems to work just fine too.

[flintcore]

I've been noticing something weird with my mandarin, when the blues are on in the morning it's always showing off, I mean it's really putting on a display, and I'm not sure what's going on with the sticky up bits, there's two little ones stuck to the main one and I'm totally stumped, can't sex it at all.

[felinxo]

I've got a psychedelic mandarinfish and I'm thinking of adding a spotted mandarin to the mix. Can they be housed together or will it cause issues.

emmmm, dusk's the time mandys usually put on a show, looking for a mate.

Males tend to have that fancy long dorsal fin, females don't.

Here, have a look at this pic, it's a good example - http/images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...D1%26ie%3DUTF-8

[flintcore]

I'm pretty sure mine's a male, it's got this long fin on top but I'm not sure what's going on with the other thing stuck to the side, maybe it's just a bit of mucus or something that's fallen off and attached itself.