Mandarin dragonet

Care at a glance

The mandarin dragonet is one of the most beautiful fish in the marine hobby: a small, slow-moving animal with a pattern of orange, green and blue that looks painted on. It hovers over the reef all day on its pectoral fins, picking constantly at the rock.

That feeding behaviour is precisely the problem. It lives on copepods and grazes all day long, and a tank has to produce enough of them to keep that up. That calls for a large, long-established system with plenty of live rock and preferably a refugium. A new tank almost certainly means a slowly starving fish. Captive-bred specimens that accept frozen food are the safer choice.

Good to know

• Needs a mature, stable tank
• Hard to wean onto dry food

Related species

• Banggai cardinalfishPterapogon kauderni
• Spotted mandarinSynchiropus picturatus
• Coral beauty angelfishCentropyge bispinosa
• Firefish gobyNemateleotris magnifica
• Flame angelfishCentropyge loricula
• Six-line wrassePseudocheilinus hexataenia