subject: Mandarin Fish [print this page] Among all the seas creatures, few can claim to be as splendid as the mandarin fish. This little diminutive species is washed with a mix of blue, red, orange and green throughout its body and fins. Some have likened it to a work of art rather than a random pattern. While it is popularly known as the mandarin goby, it is not a goby fish as all despite its namesake. It is actually a type of dragonet.
Its scientific name is Synchiropus Splendidus and it is an extremely common fish in the marine aquarium industry. They are collected by the hundreds per shipment from the wild. They inhabit warm tropical seas across the indo pacific ocean. Unfortunately, these beauties fare very poorly in the aquarium. This is because they have specialized dietary needs that cannot be met by quite a few hobbyists.
In the wild they will graze throughout the day ontiny crustaceans, worms, amphipods and the like. They do not seem to take too well to prepared foods such as fish flakes, pellets and even frozen foods like frozen artemia or frozen mysis shrimp. They are also very slow eaters so even if they do accept prepared foods, they cannot compete with faster inhabitants within the aquarium.
The best way to care for the mandarin fish is ensure the aquarium has been running for at least a year with pleanty of liverock. Such an aquarium is sure to be full of their natural prey, which is copepods. However, in smaller aquariums, they can wipeout the copepod population very quickly. Because of this, it is recommended to have no more than a single mandarin fish per one hundred gallons. Such a scenario is ideal for the long term health of this species.
Prices for the mandarin fish are on the low side, mainly because they are so abundant. Which is a shame because the vast majority that are collected simply die in captivity. Thankfully, ORA farms has recently released tank-bred specimens on the market. It is my hope that these tank bred mandarin fish sell very well as the industry needs more species to be tank bred instead of collecting from the wild.
