Scientific Name : Synchiropus Splendidus

Origin : Indo-pacific

Difficulty : Hard

Minimum Tank Size :30g if feeding, 75g if otherwise

Temperament : Peaceful

Temperature : 72 - 82°F

Reef Safe : Yes

Maximum Size : 4 inches

Diet :Carnivore

The mandarin fish is the most beautiful member of the genus Synchiropus. It is also one of the most breath-taking marine fish ever to be found in our oceans.

It looks more like an intricate painting that it does a fish, its entire body is made up of wavy alternating lines of orange, blue and green.

While they are commonly known as the Mandarin Goby and the Mandarin Fish, they're true name is the Mandarin Dragonet.

Due to its natural beauty the mandarin dragonet is heavily collected from throughout the Indo-Pacific.

I've visited wholesalers with tanks upon tanks filled with mandarin fish with the vast majority sure to perish within a month.

Sadly, these fishes do very poorly in captivity.They have special dietary needs that are not met by the vast majority of hobbyists that buy one.

Most pick one up and simply assume they'll get by like the rest of their fish. This could not be further from the truth.

Most hobbyists cannot provide the mandarin dragonet with the proper food and they end up starving to death. I will address this problem later, under "diet".

Mandarin dragonet's are peaceful fish well suited to community tanks.

They are only aggressive towards conspecifics, i.e other mandarin's and dragonets like the psychedelic dragonet and the scooter dragonet's.

If you want a pair of mandarin's, buy a male and female and put them together. The very first dorsal spine on males is very elongated and can be seen clearly. Females lack the elongated spine.

Mandarin dragonets reach a maximum of 4 inches in length. They require a tank no smaller than a 30 gallon, if they are accepting prepared foods.

If they are not eating anything you offer then you need a large established aquarium with a lot of live rock. 75 gallon minimum per mandarin.

Getting a mandarin to take prepared foods is one of the most challenging tasks for a hobbyist.

In the wild they are carnivores that constantly scan live rock for small crustaceans such as copepods and munnid isopods. This is all they eat in the wild, and this is where the problem lies. They just don't eat prepared foods.

Thankfully, there are solutions :-

• The easiest solution. House them in a well established 75 gallon or larger aquarium that is full of copepods. No feeding necessary, the mandarin will simply graze on the existing copepod populations. Smaller tanks cannot have large enough populations of copepods to feed a mandarin dragonet long-term. They'll be wiped out in a matter of weeks.
• Train your mandarin to except prepared foods. For this, you need frozen and live brine shrimp, preferably adults. First, get them feeding on live brine shrimp, simple enough to do. Then, mix in frozen artemia with the live ones. Once they start eating feeding on frozen artemia slowly scale back on the amount of live brine shrimp you feed. Eventually you'll be able to feed them exclusively on frozen brine shrimp. But your work isn't over yet. You need to get them on something nutritious like mysis shrimp, krill and a good pellet. Start mixing in mysis with the frozen brine. Do the same for all the other foods.

Mandarin dragonets have been bred in captivity. They are pelagic spawners, the male and female both rise up in to the water column to release eggs and sperm.

Raising their larvae is a tough job that requires live rotifers, live brine shrimp and phytoplankton cultures.

For an in-depth look at breeding them, i've listed the best marine breeding guide. Breeders guide to marine fishes covers all popular species as well as the mandarin dragonet. Covers larvae collection techniques, water quality and live foods. Basically everything needed to become a successful breeder.