Species name: Synchiropus Splendidus
Common names: Green Mandarinfish
Family: Callionymidae (Dragonets)
Order: Perciformes (perch-likes)
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
Maximum length: 2.5 in.
Minimum tank size: 75 gallons
Hardiness: Medium to difficult
Aggressiveness: Peaceful, but can be territorial toward similar species. Their poisonous mucus allows for them to be kept with larger fish who won’t eat them. Two males will fight, so they should only be kept singly or in male/female pairs.
Reef Compatibility: Excellent
Diet: Carnivore. The biggest problem with mandarinfish is to provide adequate food. They will hunt constantly looking for copepods, amphipods and other small prey on live rock and live sand. Due to the relatively small size of their mouth they must be fed only small food items. Can be fed live brine shrimp, live black worms. Many will refuse to take anything but live foods.
Additional information:
The mandarinfish is from the Western Pacific ranging approximately from the Ryukyu Islands south to Australia where it spend its life in sheltered lagoons and inshore reef flat at depths of 3 to 60 feet. It is a beautiful fish that inhabits the lower regions of the tank, often burrowing into the substrate. They are very active and enjoyable to watch.
It has orange wavy lines with some orange, green, purple and yellow on a blue body. Males tends to be larger and can be identify by the long dorsal spine that rises up on the back. Female has no such spike.
Mandarin fish lack scales and instead have a thick, mucus coating on their bodies whish protect them from parasitic diseases such as Ick.
The ideal aquarium will well-established, have a temperature of 72 to 84° F, specific gravity between 1.023-1.026. A good pound of live rock per gallon combined with numbers of microorganisms to feed is a must to keep this fish. They are very hardy under the right conditions when starting with a healthy specimen which is feeding.
Finally, when purchasing new mandarinfish pay careful attention to their bellies. Sunken bellies is an indication that they have not been feeding for some time. If possible, chose a one that eat frozen brine shrimp.
