Mandarin Fish - Facts On The Beautiful Mandarin Dragonet
90Mandarin dragonet
Mandarin Fish Facts
Scientific Name : Synchiropus Splendidus
Origin : Indo-Pacific Ocean
Temperament : Peaceful
Temperature : 72F - 82F
Maximum Size : 4 Inches
Diet : Carnivore
Difficulty : Hard
Reef Safe : Yes
Tank Size : 75 Gallons Minimum
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. It is similar to the Scooter Blenny (Synchiropus Occelatus) in this respect.
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
Mandarin Fish
Tank Size
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.
Temperament
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 fish feeding
Best Foods
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Diet
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 dragonet mating
Breeding
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.
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They sure are :)
Copepods and isopods is NOT all the eat in nature. They eat all sort of things from copepods, isopods, amphipods, small worms like bristle worms, gasteropods (snails) and fish eggs. Basicaly they eat any small they can find and I have seen both of mine eat couple of frozen bloodworms in one sip so they can gobble up much larger food if they want. I got mine to eat fish roe and live white worms first, then frozen bloodworms. I just got a new one, a small female and she started to eat frozen bloodworms and fish roe after only 2 days.
This is not as hard as people say it is and the biggest problem is having them with other fast eating fish. Mandarin need a dedicated tank where they can eat in peace and take their time. I got mine in a 20 gallons tank and he's huge and fat. Mine prefer to eat larger food that I offer rather than spend all day hunting for copepods so I have copepods and isopods all over my glass and they eat them once in a while.
BTW, feeding them on brine shrimp only is a very bad decision as unriched brine shripms are very low in nutrition value. It is best to enrich brine with Selcon or else they will lack the important fatty acid. This otherwise is a sure way to starvation for a mandarin.
i've had my mandarin for 2 years know, he feeds on anything i put in the tank, but of course i hat to get him to feed on these other foods. i feed mine on enriched brine shrimp, blood and bristel worms, pellet food (small pellets as possaible)fish eggs and gasteropods. he will happily eat any of those things. he's real big i think at 5 and half inches, thats right they can grow bigger than 4 inches. there a wonderful fish to own and a joy to have in your aquarium, once you can get them onto other foods that is. try breaking other foods into there diet by mixing them, start with a live food then mix in frozen, over a period of time they should then start to eat less live, and more frozen then you should start to think about adding a pellet food of somekind. i perhaps was just lucky with mine, it started to eat frozen food after being in my tank after 2 days. i know my friend has one but that will only eat live foods and my friends had theres for about a year, so it is important to try and get the mandarin onto frozen food as quick as possiable. other wise it could work out to be a costly game. my mandarin did not really start to grow bigger until i upgraded my aquarium. i started of with a nano cube but thought that it was to small, so i put some cash away and brought a 330 gallon aquarium which is 1250 litres. of course i had other fish for example coral beauty, yellow tang, maroon clownfish, royal gramma etc..
wow brad23 you got a fish tank! i bet it looks so cool with all those fish and i bet you have a reef set up. could you tell me how much your tank cost, i'm looking for a tank round about that size.
thanks for the comment, it cost about 1,300 pounds if that helped but i did get filter, pump,heater with that
oh by the way the 330 gallan is us gallon just thought i'd let you know.
oh thanks for that i will take that in mind thanks
hi i've had my mandarin for about a year know, and i just picked up a feelmale one last week. i would like to try and breed them has anyone have any advice for me, i would be thankful. i have a spare tank, but i dont know what to feed the fry on. will the parents become aggresive how long does it take for the fry to hatch, all advice would be great.
Hi Deb95. Generally speaking, breeding any marine fish is going to be a labor intensive ordeal and i would recommend against it if you have only a passing interest. If you're serious however, i'd like to invite you to pay www.marinebreeder.org a visit. You will find everything you need to know about breeding this species and the live foods required for such an endeavor. Good luck :)
thanks piratefx i will look into that website thanks again for the advice.
These are the most beautiful fish, like you said. They kind of remind me of mud-skippers, with much more color of course. Very interesting hub. I had heard of this marine fish, but I don't believe I have ever seen one until now. Especially one in action. Nice videos.
Thanks for dropping by Tamarind :)
Hi thanks for the info on the mandarins..... great!
I have just got my mandarin today , a female :)
i have been preparing for her for some time. I have enriched brineshrimp on the go... also i have been rearing some copepods to bump up my population in my aquarium, also i added a small population to my sump to breed in the cheato algaes and live rock rubble in there and that is just in addition to my 50kilos of LR in my tank. i hope she doesnt become one of the many failures i read about all so often. The shop i brought her from had her feeding on dried food as well as pods etc... so hopefully i can continue with their sucess. They are truly the most beautiful elegant little fishes in the marine world
Hi Meganoufc. From what you've mentioned, i think you're on the right track :) I don't see how she will perish with your immaculate preparation. All the best!
Thankyou :)
Amazingly i fed my other fish about fifteen mins ago and she (minnie) came out and took some flake :-O Amazing!!!
I think she is going to settle in well , i am very pleased.
Do you have a blog or some sort of thread on a forum so i could take a look at your tank etc?
regards megan
Hi Megan,
It looks like Minnie's a real healthy one :) As for me, i've been out of the loop for quite a while. My last tank was a simple 15g nano - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhsGITypcvE
Unfortunately, due to a delay by a tank manufacturer, i have no tank at the moment, just a bunch of fish in quarantine waiting for their new home.
i going to stock my tank so i can get 1 but i just got some copepods and they seem really small and a bad food source. I used to have amphipods but they died and those seem better. please help. (and yes i know that i have to let the copiepods/amphipods set up a coliney before introduceing a manderian).
thx
Hi Nik, aside from pods, you could try and train them to eat prepared food in a seperate tank. If you can get them on something nutritious like mysis or some frozen mixed food, that would really help in the long run. But like you mentioned, gotta wait for your pod population to grow. All the best.
Does anyone know if the Mandarin will eat flat worms?
Hi Chris, there are some reports of them consuming flatworms, but they certainly aren't a fix for flatworms. Whether they will thrive in the long run on this diet seems unlikely.
I have had a mandarin for 3-4 months now in only a 12gal tank with tons of live rock in it and it is getting along fine and even growing. It would be good to note that most MG's sold now are tank bred and will eat alot of small pellet food tho this is not what i feed mine. i dontfeed it at all. i did get some reef pods and it seems to do just fine scavaging the LR.
@B-Rad - Most mandarins on the market are definitely not tank bred. ORA tank bred mandarins don't even make up 1% of mandarins brought in. The vast majority are still very much wild caught.
My 29gal.reef/fish has 30 lbs.live prime sand,and 50 lbs.PRIME rock.Covered in coraline zoas,polyps mushrooms,leathers,etc etc...All soft coarls thoes worms and copeapods cover my powerheads,and bottoms of my lr.I am almost to my fish load,which includes coral b,two clowns red scooter,valintini puffer,and my fish cardinal
I basicially just wanted to know if my tank sounds like a good home?I run all natural,no skimmer NO chemicals.
youtube 29gal.reef/fish tank by jimalawson It has at least 8 more lbs reef roc since the vid Please let me no:0]
hello again, just wanted to say hi again and that my mandarin has been doing really really well and is really fat!!! very happy :D amazing fish :D I am looking for a male at the moment and maybe in time hope to get a breeding project going. I've seena few on MOFIB they are awesome.. have you ever read this http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f
speak again soon
yooo thanks 4 tha info it helped me on my paper
Megan - Glad to hear your Mandarin's doing great :) All the best on pairing it with a male. Its sometimes hard to identify a male as they don't always expand their dorsal fin to reveal the spike. It takes some patience :) The thread you pointed me to deals with none other than the Legendary Matt Wittenrich. He's the author of "The Complete Illustrated Breeders Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes". Currently the most comprehensive book on marine breeding.
Got-swagg23 - No Problem :)
ayo how do you tell the girl from boy?? it ant that easy 2 tell with fish no wat i mean..
Males have a long spike on its top dorsal fin. It has to extend the fin for you to see it.
yes great great guy!! Would be up for trying it myself. unfortunetly its hard to find healthy specimines. I saw one at my lfs today that was incredibly skinny :( such a shame. I almost wanted to rescue it but it was female and i think my mandy wouldnt be best pleased!
What is it's predetor
@ewynfguh - Any fish with a mouth large enough to swallow it.
I love fishes. Thanks for posting this hub.
Thanks for droppiing by Terrel.
Very cute Mandarin fishes. They have beautiful colors.
@Marim - Yep, very pretty fishes.
looking for any information on mandarin fish i have a 6x2x2 ft marine set up and looking to keep mandarin fish and posibly breed them, I am new to marine fish as previously having fresh water species for years and being successfull with with them any information and help would be great.
@Dash - Mofib.org forums. They can answer all your questions regarding breeding mandarins. HTH.
theses fish are so colorful and pretty
verry nice
what age do they product babies
Just inquiring.... Where could I get more information on their diet and nutrition? This is great, but I am trying to get a couple kids to write a page-or-2 long essay. Actually, more than just their diet would help.
Thanks
These fish are veerrryy beautiful.... I was wondering... What do the eggs look like? How many do the male and female breed at once when they go up to the top of the water? What other sites do you know of that have more information on their eating and nutrition habits? -for that, I mean when they are in the wild.- And do you have to have at least the volume of a 75 gallon tank for each fish that you have? I understand that they do need plenty of room for eating, and they need to have slow eaters around them. But how much room would you need if you had several fish? And where can I get live shrimp?
By the way, I think that it is awesome you don't have to have a user's account to comment & question.
This site seems very cool, but where did you find your information? And do you know of any other sites that I can find ANY information on? Thanks, alex
"Do we take it or leave it?" (squeaky male voice)
"I don't know, Senor. Where is la mama?" (Antonio Banderas voice.)
"Guys, it's a gold pooper. We're taking it!" (joyful deep voice of female cat.)
Complementary of Puss!
(In Boots.)
Voices:
1. Squeaky male voice: Humpty Dumpty
2. Antonio Banderas: Puss
3. Deep female voice of cat: Soft Paws
lol mandarin fishes are awesome man...
Cool site. I will definitly use this in the future.
Hey guys-
@ maggie: Mandarin Fish produce at the ages of 2-3. From what I read, they also have to have a hormonal shot before they can mate.
Hope this helps,
Ryan
cool site- nice fish- they r pretty awsome-
Hello I have a 37gal. tank that has been up for almost 7 months. We have 35lbs of live rock, 1 flame angel fish, 1 6 line wrasse, 1 clown fish, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 pajama cardinal, and 1 tuxedo urchin. I would really like to get a green mandarin but, do I have to house them in a 75 gal tank or would 1 be okay in the tank I have???
@Momma469 - Hi Momma, if you can get it to feed, it may have a decent chance. But getting it to eat is sometimes quite difficult. Even if it does, they are very slow eaters that simply cannot compete with its tank mates. Having said that, i'm sure that are some reefers out there that have pulled it off before. All the best.
@Momma469 - Hi Momma, if you can get it to feed, it may have a decent chance. But getting it to eat is sometimes quite difficult. Even if it does, they are very slow eaters that simply cannot compete with its tank mates. Having said that, i'm sure that are some reefers out there that have pulled it off before. All the best.
So sad to read about keeping Mandarin fish in tanks. I have just seen them in their natural environment in Muluku Islands living happily they are so beautiful!
Anyone that has seen a mandarin fish while diving, and then keeps one in captivity - has no soul. None.
I have a Green spotted right now in my take i would like to add the Mandarin Dragonet also, i need to know if they will be aggressive towards each other??? thanks
Hi my family has a 40 to 50 litre tank and there are 3 of us getting a fish i want to get a Mandarin Dragonet and im just wondering could i get one and if so what is the price range
Danil3D,
I found you comments very helpful. Just obtained a Mandarin a couple of weeks ago. He is in a 34 gallon well established tank. His stomach was sucked to his spine at the lfs. They had put him in with 200 other fish when he came in, and was left with them for a week. Most of them were gone when I saw him a week later. I asked them to feed him, and he took a couple of mysis shrimp. Course he was starving. So I took him. I have given him blood worms, mysis shrimp, tubifex worms, and at least once a day I shut down the pumps and rinse some chaeto in the tank to release what ever is in there. He gets an hour to forage that way. Also, he has a favorite cave, so first thing in the morning I squirt what ever into his cave. I can see him foraging in there after, and I am sure he is eating. The Picasso Clowns don't go in there. So he has free range. Other wise I use a scattered feeding techinque so that he can forage for stuff. With a surplus of food, the Clowns get full, and then leave stuff for him to forage for. They don't target feed like most fish. You are so right, they forage. Also, he could not compete with a Wrasse, for example. It is important to have a protein skimmer with this method. Anyway, he is full figured now, and appears very content. I am so proud of myself. It has made me a better aquarist to do this, and I love it. Thanks again.
Tonia - Dragonets are fairly laid back even towards members of the same genus. However, two males may display some aggression towards each other regardless of species.
Karter - Mandarins are cheap, something like 10-15 for one? Getting it to feed will be a problem especially since they are very slow eaters. Unless you can ensure it gets fed a good amount each day, i wouldn't recommend one. Of course, if you have a nice established system, it would help with the natural creatures that will count as food.
Russel - Thanks for your insights and experience!
Wow, I have an app on my Android phone called Aqua Pets. I have 6 mandarin fish in my tank. I thought they were a made up fish because they were so colorful. I found your site, and was surprised to find they were real and even more beautiful. Thanks
deneisha 21 months ago
i love mandarin fishes! they are so pretty!