What can I do with that female mandarin?
 

wow, she's big...she is REALLY BIG now. She used to be with a male and was laying eggs often but the male was killed by a yellow tang (sold that bastard since) and now she is alone for about 8 months and she has been collecting eggs since then!

I was kind of hoping that she would lay them alone some how, but does that happen??? out of desparation to see her like that I bought a male and he's in quarantine for another 2 weeks...

What will happen eventualy if she does not accept the new male? will she die?

here is a video of the POOR THING! For now she eats very well and seem quite healthy, although she is fighting with her reflection...

so here is the video..have you ever seen anything like her? It is best to watch the video at 720p.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP2JT...yer_detailpage

I wish I knew. My female mandarin is in the same situation (although not anywhere as profound as yours). First noticed this around 2 or 3 months ago. It does not seem to affect her ability to do anything. She has a male in the tank with her so I don't think it has anything to do with the presence or absence of a male..

I am really hoping she will accept that new male. I can't beleive she will go much longer looking like that. She look right about to burst and she is showing no sign of distress like yours.

Are yours spawning together?

They were at one point, when they were new to the tank. I can't say I have seen them spawn in a while now, however. I am not sure if they are missing a trigger (moon cycle?) to help them get in the mood..

WOW, she is a beauty!!! I have never seen a mandrin this swollen, thats just awesome!
Cheers Ronnie

Its gonna POP! LOL she is huge tho, my blue female did that when she was alone while I set up a seperate tank to try and raise the fry. But not nearly that big!

Mine never spawned under anything but the very dim moonlights. I think they need that to spawn.

Mine spawn just before lights out.....I don't have moonlights

That's good to know that they are spawning even under normal light.

Holy crap, that's awesome...

I hope my mandarins have babies soon too... My 2 absolute favorite things in the tank, they have been swimming together with the males fins around the female since I added him into the tank 2 months ago.

I had a mated pair and when the male died I replaced it with another and they get along just fine and still spawn on occasion. I wouldn't worry too much.

Ok thanks. I really like that female and I have her for nearly 2 years now.

I don't know how long they live.

wow I have never seen that .... amazing

Update
 

Well, today I put the new male in the tank and she immidiatly attacked it a few times. The poor male was displaying to her even during the attack and did not do anything. After a few pass of attack and seing that he was not reacting at all to her attack she stopped and ignored the male after that. hmmm...does not look so good for now...

I thought that when I first introduced the female to my first male there was a bit of fighting like that but I can't remember.

What do you think? is there hope if they are not fighting any longer? The male keep following her everywhere but she does not pay attention to him.

My 2 mandarins really don't like each other at all and only get together just before lights out.
The female was half the size of the male but the first in the tank so when I added the male she attacked him furiously, he got fed up and beat the crap out of her and peace has sort of reigned ever since :lol:

Do yours spawn together?

I know in the wild that mandarins are solitary and after the sunset they all gather together and spawn. That's the only time they tolerate each other in the wild.

Today they sort of ignore each other. The male never ever showed any sign of agression toward the female and she is not attacking him any longer so I guess that's good. I can see them often near each other without any sign of aggression. Will they spawn? that's the big question.

I've had a pair spawn before.
It was more due to the light cycle in that sytem than anything IME.

T8 actinics at the time...
very dim, deep blue lighting.

Since I switched to VHO or T5, I have never witnessed spawning behaviour again...even with the same pair.

I had no problem getting my old pair to spawn under my small moonlight and it is the same female, so lighting here is not a problem because I have my moonlight on for an hour and half.

The light cycle is the same and so if it was suitable for spawning before, I suppose it will still be. But that's a new male, so not sure she will like him or not.

It must be a rare occurance to see mandarin spawning under full light?

Mine used to spawn after the MH's went out but before the vho's turned off when I had them. Now I only have the MH's so they start their dance just before the MH's shut off and finish in the dark.....

Don't you find that amazing that they know when the light is about to turn off before it does? They seem to have an internal clock :)

Wow, she is massive! But very beautiful.

I hope things work out, as that fish is a keeper.

Yes she is huge. Yesterday her and the new male did the spawning under the moonlight so she did accept that male! But she did not release any eggs though...so are those eggs stuck in there?

I saw them rise at the surface a few times thummy to thummy but still no eggs were released?? why?

Give the guy a break! It's his first time!! hahaha

just wondering, are you sure they are eggs that making her that huge?

Usually eggs are dropped or reabsorbed by the female if a male is not around.

I have never seen a mandarin like that, is she eating fine?

Ken - BWA

Well ... personally I worry a little that your female (and mine for that matter) are egg bound. I see this problem in my FW fish from time to time and with these small fish it's either something that eventually fixes itself ... or it doesn't. I don't think there's anything we humans can do to help.

I think she is bunged up with all those white worms...

Yes she is perfectly healthy and eating well.

I am pretty sure it's the eggs that are making her so big. she is not fat and I doubt that she has internal parasite because that much would surely make her very sick. It's not the first time I see a pic of a female full of eggs either :)

Yes unfortunately that is a very good possibility. :(

I hope that the stimulation of mating with the male will eventually push things out.

I have heard of it in fresh water fish but not in marine fish yet. I cannot even find one reference of this on google for marine fish. Maybe that's because they so rarely breed in aquarium?

she rarely eats white worms as all the other fish get to them before she can have any. She only eat pods in the liverock so far.

I'm pretty sure that is how I lost my female orchid dottyback

poor thing :(
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ttyback003.jpg

I'm a newb to saltwater, but I know with goldfish you can "handspawn" them you know by gently pressing on the belly to extract the eggs, would this possibly work for her if she's in pain or distress? just wondering :P

The problem would be to catch her in between the liverock and probably by the time she would be weak enough for me to manage to catch her, it would probably be to late and she would have an infection.

I read that with fresh water fish epsom salt is the only thing that can help (and sometime massage like you are describing) but my magnesium level is already quite high, so not sure that this is working with saltwater fish.

To be honest with you, I would be a bit scared of pushing on her belly the way she looks right now. I have read horror story about a female fish splitting open from having too many eggs and not being able to release them :(

see if the male helps first, if she's eating ok, it may not be a parasite.

for constipation, frozen peas work too.

frozen pea? how do you get a mandarin to eat frozen pea??

She is not doing any better...I have seen her spawn each night for the past 2 or 3 nights but nothing is released so I guess she is egg bound :(

dunno how this is going to end but that does not look good for her.

How are you checking for eggs? Or are you just judging by the size of her that she isn't releasing eggs?

Both actually. It is easy to see when they release eggs as you can see the mass of eggs rising to the surface and they usually do some sort of jerking back down fast when the eggs are released. I just see them rising to the surface slowly thummy to thummy and then they go back slowly and do it again and again.

And she is not getting any smaller.

I hope I am wrong but it does not seem to be working.

That doesn't mean to say that she is trying to release eggs. I (and likely you) have seen mandarins (and other fish) do lots of "false" rises where eggs are not released. Mandarins are non-monogamous so it's not like the pair has to get used to each other, but the male may not yet be proven and may not be stimulating the female properly to release the eggs.

Maybe, I don't know what to think any more. She did not release any eggs that's for sure. I know they are kind of transparent but it is still visible when it happen.