Mandarin Goby - The most beautiful marine aquarium fish in the world

Mandarin Goby, a marine aquarium fish with a super beautiful, super impressive appearance, gentle temperament but very picky eater, difficult to adapt and difficult to care for.

Mandarin Goby , one of the most beautiful marine aquarium fish in the world with an extremely gorgeous appearance, colorful colors, and graceful swimming style. However, this fish is not suitable for beginners or those with little experience because it is very "difficult to please", picky about food,

To learn more about the mandarin fish, follow the content shared by nice fish in the article below!

Mandarin Goby Information :

Origin of Mandarin Goby

Mandarin fish, the most beautiful sea fish in the world.

Mandarinfish, also known as Mandarin Goby, scientific name Synchiropus splendidus, is a species of fish native to the Western Pacific Ocean. They were first described in 1927 by American ichthyologist Albert W. Herre. The word "splendidus" in Latin means "splendid", which is true to the eye-catching appearance of this fish.

Mandarinfish are naturally distributed in the following specific areas:

• Vietnam
• Indonesia
• Taiwan
• Philippines
• Papua New Guinea
• Australia

They live mainly in lagoons, coral reefs, shallow coastal reefs with a depth of only 1 - 18 meters, where the water is shallow, warm, with many caves and crevices for this fish to hide.

Mandarin Goby Appearance

The colorful appearance of a mandarin fish.

Mandarinfish is known as one of the most beautiful marine aquarium fish in the world thanks to its impressive appearance and color. Let's learn more about the physical characteristics of this fish.

• Size : 6 - 8 cm in adult fish
• Shape : Elongated, short head, big, round eyes, small mouth, facing downwards, like a miniature sea dragon.
• Color : The body is covered with extremely bright fluorescent blue bands combined with orange-red stripes and yellow and light green patches on the face and belly. The color of this fish comes from a special skin cell structure called "guanophores" that gives it a metallic luminescent effect.
• Pectoral fins : Large, pelvic fins are like "legs" that help them "crawl" on the sea floor.
• Dorsal fin : High, soft, beautifully expanded, has the same color and pattern as the fish body, with a fluorescent blue border.
• Caudal fin: Fan-shaped, orange in color with fluorescent blue stripes and borders.

Mandarin Goby Behavior

Mandarin fish like to feed on the bottom.

Let's find out if mandarin fish have any interesting habits!

Friendly but limited

Normally. Mandarinfish are quite gentle, friendly, and live peacefully with other marine aquarium fish. However, male Mandarinfish may have territorial disputes if kept with many other males of the same species in a small tank.

Active during the day

Mandarin fish are mainly active during the day, especially around dusk when they become very active.

Respond quickly to danger

When accidentally encountering danger or something unusual, mandarin fish will immediately hide in crevices of rocks or coral reefs. And thanks to its special color, this fish can also easily "blend" with the surrounding environment.

Picky eater

In captivity, Mandarin Goby are very picky eaters, many even refuse dry food or even frozen food. They only like fresh food and even like to look for food hidden under the bottom of rocks, corals or in small crevices.

Reproduction by mating and egg laying

When Mandarin fish reach reproductive age, they will pair up in a 1 male - 1 female pattern and this can be maintained for a long time. The breeding time usually takes place at dusk, when the light is low and they are less disturbed.

Mating behavior occurs as follows :

• Male and female fish swim parallel to each other, they dance, undulate and slowly rise near the surface of the water.
• When reaching a certain height, the female fish will lay eggs, the male fish will release sperm onto the eggs by external fertilization.
• Fertilized eggs will float freely, after about 12 - 16 hours the eggs hatch into small larvae.
• This larva is difficult to raise because it requires a suitable food source.

How to care for Mandarin Goby

Mandarinfish prefer environments with plenty of hiding places.

Mandarin fish is a marine ornamental fish that is quite picky and difficult to adapt to food as well as the living environment in the aquarium. Therefore, if you want to raise this fish successfully, follow the instructions below:

Preparing the tank for Mandarin Goby

To help mandarin fish quickly get used to the artificial captive environment, you should prepare a fish tank that meets the following requirements:

• Tank capacity: Minimum 80 liters/fish, ideal 120 liters or more.
• Tank decoration: The tank should have live rocks to help develop natural microorganisms, provide food for fish, need to arrange many caves and crevices for fish to hide, the tank floor should use fine coral sand.
• Water filtration system: Use overflow filter or external filter with capacity suitable for tank capacity.
• Water circulation system: Choose a type that creates a gentle flow, combined with a skimmer to remove excess organic waste in the tank.

Ideal water parameters for raising mandarin fish

To help Mandarin Goby fish quickly get used to, adapt and grow well in the aquarium, the most important thing is that the water quality in the aquarium must reach the ideal value, specifically as follows:

• Temperature : 24 - 28 degrees Celsius.
• Salinity : 1.023 - 1.025
• pH : 8.1 - 8.4
• Ammonia, Nitrite : 0 ppm

What do Mandarin Goby eat?

Mandarin fish are famous for being beautiful marine aquarium fish but are very difficult to please, especially when it comes to food, because they are quite picky eaters. Here are the types of food they can eat:

Food in nature :

• Copepods - microscopic crustaceans
• Types of sea creatures that live in rocks
• Small shrimp, sea worms and plankton eggs.

➙A mandarin fish can eat more than 1000 small microorganisms every day!

Food in captivity :

• Copepods live, the most important food.
• Live Artemia, should use newly hatched type.
• Frozen foods such as mysid shrimp, shrimp eggs, frozen minced clam meat, need time to get used to slowly.

Revealing effective ways to provide food for Mandarin Goby fish :

• Incubate the tank for 2 - 4 weeks with rock and copepods to provide the fish with an abundant source of natural food.
• Phytoplankton algae should be added periodically to support copepods.
• Feeding fish 2 - 3 times per day is the best frequency.

Common diseases in mandarin fish and how to treat them

Mandarin fish are susceptible to disease if their living environment is unstable, they are stressed or when they are newly introduced into the tank. Here are some common diseases in this fish species, let's learn more to know how to handle them when needed!

Disease prevention in mandarin fish :

• Quarantine newly purchased fish for 2 - 3 weeks before releasing them into the tank.
• Maintain stable water quality
• Add vitamins and garlic to food to boost fish immunity.
• Observe fish daily for any abnormalities and treat as soon as possible.

Mandarin Goby Price

Currently, in the Vietnamese market, the price of mandarin fish will vary based on origin, color, size, usually ranging from 20 USD/fish, equivalent to 400,000 VND/fish. Some individuals with rare colors and beautiful patterns can be sold for several million VND.

However, if you want to know the most accurate price as well as the accompanying warranty, please contact reputable aquarium stores directly!

Beautiful Mandarin Goby Pictures

We invite you to admire the most beautiful and brilliant pictures of mandarin fish with impressive colors, patterns and graceful swimming in the water.

A Mandarinfish with the most vibrant colors and patterns.

A pair of mandarin fish swim side by side.

Mandarinfish love to live in coral reefs.

Two mandarin fish are "dancing" in the fish tank.

The stunning beauty of Mandarin Goby fish.

So, above, nicefish.net has shared all the information related to Mandarin Goby . This is a difficult fish, requiring patience and experience. But indeed, with such splendid beauty, they are well worth the time and effort, right?

If you want to learn about many other marine and freshwater aquarium fish, please visit our Blog section now!