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The mandarinfish is a popular due to its striking beauty and interesting habits. An extremely small and shy tropical fish, it can be a tricky photographic subject, coming in and out of view, appearing only briefly at dusk to mate and seemingly wishing to avoid any bright light.

Fact Sheet
Family name: Callionymidae
Order name: Perciformes
Common name: Mandarinfish
Scientific name: Synchiropus splendidus

Distinguishing Features
Why mandarinfish? Actually, the name comes from its bizarre and extreme coloration, which resembles the robes of an Imperial Chinese officer (mandarin). The standard colours of the fish are a blue background with wavy orange lines. Although it is dominated by blue, yellow, orange, purple and green are also present on the body of this fish, which seems to have come from the imaginative mind of a child with colouring pens. These fish are also sometimes called psychedelic fish due to their rather bizarre hues which have to be seen to be believed.

They are highly reclusive during the day, but may be seen perched on or hopping between coral branches. They swim with a rapid pulsating of their fins which tends to make them look like they are hovering much like a humming bird.

It is an easy task to distinguish the mandarin fish from their cousin species, mainly by the coloration. Closely related to them is the spotted mandarinfish (Synchiropus picturatus) which has a green background with orange, blue and black spots on it. Another similar-looking species is the picturesque dragonet (synchiropus picturatus) whose body is greenish to light brown, covered with large dark spots ringed with orange and green, and blue-green band markings around its eyes.

Mandarinfish are also distinctive due to their unusual shape since they have a broad and depressed head. Generally, this species is small, reaching only about 6 cm. They have 4 dorsal spines, 8 dorsal soft rays and no a**l spines. To distinguish the males in a couple or population of mandarin fish, you can either look out for the larger size of the males or look for a very elongated first dorsal spine.

Feeding habits
Mandarinfish eating habits represent another similarity to birds, meaning they usually study their food before they eat. They are fussy, careful, slow eaters and therefore are not a strong contender in finding food. They feed mainly on small worms, protozoans and small crustaceans such as isopods, mysids and amphipods. If you have a chance to come face to face with mandarin fish, look closely at one of its most remarkable features: their big outward-set eyes. This pair of eyes is an ideal adaptation for food hunting and feeding in the dim light environments underwater, which offers a wide variety of tiny invertebrates suitable for them.