Place your mouse over each
Care Code picture to see care text.
Dragonets-Mandarins:
Notes From Penny:
One of the most spectacular
fish kept in the hobby, it can also be one of the most
difficult. These fish spend 99% of their time
hunting for live foods like copepods. Only "reef"
tanks set up for more than 8 months (utilizing a sump
system) should house these beauties or they have a good
chance of starving. Tanks with attached refugiums
are the best! I am quite successful in getting
mine to eat frozen Mysis & Cyclopeez. If they do,
they are as hardy as any other fish. BUT only if
proven eating these foods should one consider putting
them in any other type/newer system!
Can be kept in a single male/female pair as they are one
of the few marine fish that the sexes can be fairly easy
to identify. The mating dance is a sight to be
seen! Usually occurring at dusk. Pairs have
mated regularly here at AquaCorals...& I'm still waiting
for babies. ;)
Care
Codes
Mandarin,
Green Synchiropus splendidus
Male -
notice tall thin "mast" that females do not have.
Mandarin,
Red Synchiropus cf. splendidus
Male
- notice tall thin "mast" that females do not have.
Mandarin,
Spotted/Target Synchiropus picturatus
Why
they don't call this one a "Green Mandarin" & the
above "Green" Mandarin a "Blue Mandarin"...is beyond
me! Would save a ton of confusion, but...so
the industry goes...