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The Green Mandarin Goby (Synchiropus splendidus), more accurately classified as a dragonet rather than a true goby, is widely considered one of the most stunningly beautiful fish in the entire marine hobby. It features an intensely vibrant, scaleless body covered in a psychedelic labyrinth of winding electric-blue, neon-green, bright orange, and deep red stripes. Moving with an elegant, hummingbird-like hovering motion using its transparent pectoral fins, it spends its day continuously hunting across rockwork. It is a highly coveted centerpiece species that demands a specialized, fully mature ecosystem to satisfy its strict feeding requirements.
Tank Requirements
Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons for a single specimen, though 55 to 75 gallons or larger is highly recommended to sustain a natural, self-reproducing live food source over the long term.
Aquarium Decor: Massive configurations of mature live rock (at least 50 to 75 pounds) to provide maximum surface area for micro-fauna propagation. A thriving refugium packed with macroalgae is almost mandatory to continuously supply the display tank with live food.
Temperature: 72°F – 78°F (22°C – 26°C).
Salinity (Specific Gravity): 1.020 – 1.025.
pH Range: 8.1 – 8.4.
Care and Feeding
Diet: Strict Carnivore and Micro-predator; it feeds almost exclusively on live copepods and amphipods. Because it possesses a short, primitive digestive tract and hunts constantly during daylight hours, a single mandarin can consume thousands of copepods daily. It will quickly starve to death in young, small, or overly clean setups. Unless you purchase a verified captive-bred specimen trained on prepared foods, you must manually seed the tank with live copepod cultures regularly if your natural population drops.
Reef Safe Rating: Reef safe; it is completely harmless toward small polyp stony (SPS) corals, large polyp stony (LPS) corals, soft corals, polyps, and macroalgae, making it an ideal model citizen for reef systems.
Temperament: Peaceful; entirely docile and oblivious toward unrelated water-column tank mates. However, males can become highly aggressive and fight to the death against other male dragonets or similarly shaped species, so they should be kept singly or as a verified male-female pair.
The Green Mandarin Goby (Synchiropus splendidus), more accurately classified as a dragonet rather than a true goby, is widely considered one of the most stunningly beautiful fish in the entire marine hobby. It features an intensely vibrant, scaleless body covered in a psychedelic labyrinth of winding electric-blue, neon-green, bright orange, and deep red stripes. Moving with an elegant, hummingbird-like hovering motion using its transparent pectoral fins, it spends its day continuously hunting across rockwork. It is a highly coveted centerpiece species that demands a specialized, fully mature ecosystem to satisfy its strict feeding requirements.
Tank Requirements
Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons for a single specimen, though 55 to 75 gallons or larger is highly recommended to sustain a natural, self-reproducing live food source over the long term.
Aquarium Decor: Massive configurations of mature live rock (at least 50 to 75 pounds) to provide maximum surface area for micro-fauna propagation. A thriving refugium packed with macroalgae is almost mandatory to continuously supply the display tank with live food.
Temperature: 72°F – 78°F (22°C – 26°C).
Salinity (Specific Gravity): 1.020 – 1.025.
pH Range: 8.1 – 8.4.
Care and Feeding
Diet: Strict Carnivore and Micro-predator; it feeds almost exclusively on live copepods and amphipods. Because it possesses a short, primitive digestive tract and hunts constantly during daylight hours, a single mandarin can consume thousands of copepods daily. It will quickly starve to death in young, small, or overly clean setups. Unless you purchase a verified captive-bred specimen trained on prepared foods, you must manually seed the tank with live copepod cultures regularly if your natural population drops.
Reef Safe Rating: Reef safe; it is completely harmless toward small polyp stony (SPS) corals, large polyp stony (LPS) corals, soft corals, polyps, and macroalgae, making it an ideal model citizen for reef systems.
Temperament: Peaceful; entirely docile and oblivious toward unrelated water-column tank mates. However, males can become highly aggressive and fight to the death against other male dragonets or similarly shaped species, so they should be kept singly or as a verified male-female pair.