a lil help please

[shane054]

anyone know where i can see a clear pic of the difference of a male target mandarin vs. a female? I know the males have a longer fin but i have seen several that are just too close to call. The reason I ask is that i purchased what i believe to be a female for my male target dragonet and he keeps chasing "her". There has been no biting as far as i have seen just chasing around. Any help with the subject would be great. Thanks, Shane

 

[Serk]

This page has several good pictures of both sexes (They're regular Psychedelic Mandarin's, not the Target variety, but the body shape it basically the same):

http://www.underwaterphotos.com/article3.htm

If the front dorsal fin has a spike at all, it's probably a male... The females front dorsal fin lacks the spike. I've seen males that had a tiny little nub of a spike at the front of that fin, but if there's any spike there at all, it's probably a male IMHO...

(Disclaimer - I'm not a marine biologist, just a hobbyist who's been fascinated by Mandarins for a long long time...)

 

[Reefmike]

I can tell you this from personal experience. I had what I thought to be a F target for quite a while. One day I saw a beautiful definitely M at the LFS so I bought it and took it home. Guess what.... turns out the one I'd had for a while was a M too. There was NO chasing happening. Those two went straight after each other. I could stick my hand in between them and they would try to go around my hand to get at each other.

I do currently have a pair of Targets and there has not been one bit of aggression between them.

On the M the 1st ray of the dorsal is usually around twice the length of the 2nd ray. It can be hard to see except when the dorsal is held erect. At that time there will be no problem seeing it unless it has been broken/bitten off. The F has no extended ray at all so even a M with a broken 1st ray should be easy to spot.

HTH, Mike