distinguishing gender in mandarins

[michaelg]

Can someone help me out here.

I have a mandarin, and it has a dorsal fin that is a bit pointy.  I wouldn't say it is real long though.  I have read that this fin can be used to distinguish males and females.  Are the females lacking in the front most fin? or do both have the fin and the males is just longer?  I would love to get a mate, but don't want terror for the one I've had for almost 2 years now.

[xeon]

I think the distinguishing fin is the "anterior" dorsal fin... i.e. the second one from the head.  Supposedly the front "pointy" part of this fin is taller in the males.  IMO, I think most of the Mandarin's I've seen in stores and tanks are males.  

 

I remember seeing and reading a thread on RC some time ago where a guy had taken several pics of his Mandarin pair.  If the search is working and you can find the pics, it might give you a good visual.  Other than that I have never seen or found anything profound on sexing them aside from the dorsal fin size method.