Spotted mandarin

Care at a glance

The spotted mandarin from the western Pacific is green with blue-rimmed markings and moves in a hovering, jerky way, as though searching for something in the rock. It has no scales but a thick, slimy skin, which makes it fairly resistant to skin parasites.

Its big sticking point is food: it picks microscopic crustaceans off the live rock all day and often refuses prepared foods. Only add it to a large, long-established reef tank with a big copepod population, or to a system in which you actively culture them.

Good to know

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

Related species

• Coral beauty angelfishCentropyge bispinosa
• Mandarin dragonetSynchiropus splendidus
• Banggai cardinalfishPterapogon kauderni
• Flame angelfishCentropyge loricula
• Firefish gobyNemateleotris magnifica
• Green chromisChromis viridis