A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Synchiropus splendidus
Distinctive shape and intense coloration. Small size, can grow up to 6 cm long. Males are larger than females. They also have 4 dorsal spines, 8 dorsal soft rays, and no anal spines, with the first dorsal spine longer in males than in females. Mandarin fish live up to 10-15 years. They are slow moving and shy, stopping every few seconds after moving. Divers must be patient to photograph them. Mandarin fish eat mostly small crustaceans, worms, and protozoans. Mandarin fish are members of the dragonets family, in the order Perciformes.
Tropical marine waters (temperatures 24-26 degrees celsius), especially shallow lagoons and coral reefs. Mandarin fish are bottom dwelling and live among foliose and dead coral in depths 1-18 m (3~60 feet).
Spotted this lovely mandarinfish in dense coral outside (approximate depth of 5 meters) of Chandelier Cave in Palau. The water temperature was 29 degrees celsius)
2 Comments
Thank you, and yes this one was wild. Apparently they are picky eaters and refuse man made food, so I could imagine how hard it must be to keep one in an aquarium.
Love these fish. They are very hard to keep in captivity, but I see this one is wild? Beautiful coloration.