''Synchiropus splendidus'', the mandarinfish or mandarin dragonet, is a small, brightly colored member of the
dragonet
Dragonets are small, percomorph, marine fish of the diverse family Callionymidae (from the Greek ''kallis'', "beautiful" and ', "name") found mainly in the tropical waters of the western Indo-Pacific. They are benthic organisms, spending mos ...
family, which is popular in the saltwater
aquarium
An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...
trade. The mandarinfish is native to the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, ranging approximately from the
Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...
south to
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It can usually be found in some of the warmer waters.
Taxonomy and etymology
The mandarinfish was first described as ''Callionymus splendidus'' in 1927 by Albert William
Herre, an American
ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
working in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. It was later placed in genus ''Synchiropus''. The generic name ''Synchiropus'' is from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
''
syn-'', meaning "together", and ''-chiropus'' meaning "hand-foot". The specific epithet ''splendidus'' is from the Latin for 'bright' or 'glittering.'
The common name of the mandarinfish comes from its extremely vivid colouration, evoking the robes of an Imperial Chinese
mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
.
Other common names include mandarin goby, green mandarin, striped mandarinfish, striped dragonet, green dragonet and sometimes psychedelic mandarinfish.
The similarly named mandarin fish (''
Siniperca chuatsi
''Siniperca chuatsi'', the mandarin fish (,), is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish from the family Sinipercidae, the Oriental perches. It is the type species of the genus ''Siniperca'' (Chinese perches).
Description
''Siniperca chautsi'' ...
''), properly known as the Chinese perch, is distantly related.
The mandarinfish belongs to the
perciform
Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order (biology), order or superorder of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of a ...
family Callionymidae, the dragonets, which counts 10 genera and more than 182 species. Genus ''Synchiropus'' counts 51 species, divided into 10
subgenera
In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.
In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...
. The mandarinfish is in subgenus ''Synchiropus'' (''Pterosynchiropus'') along with the ''S. occidentalis'' and
''S. picturatus''.
Description
![Synchiropus splendidus 1 Luc Viatour](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Synchiropus_splendidus_1_Luc_Viatour.jpg)
''S. splendidus'' is one of only two vertebrate species known to have blue colouring because of cellular pigment, the other being the closely related
psychedelic mandarin (''S. picturatus''). The name "cyanophore" was proposed for the blue
chromatophore
Chromatophores are cells that produce color, of which many types are Biological pigment, pigment-containing cells, or groups of cells, found in a wide range of animals including amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans and cephalopods. Mammals and ...
s, or pigment-containing and light-reflecting cells. In all other known cases, the colour blue is
structural
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such ...
, as it comes from thin-film
interference
Interference is the act of interfering, invading, or poaching. Interference may also refer to:
Communications
* Interference (communication), anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a message
* Adjacent-channel interference, caused by extr ...
from piles of flat, thin and reflecting
purine
Purine is a heterocyclic compound, heterocyclic aromatic organic compound that consists of two rings (pyrimidine and imidazole) fused together. It is water-soluble. Purine also gives its name to the wider class of molecules, purines, which includ ...
crystals. The mandarinfish has a body shape similar to a goby, though this is the only resemblance between the two. The vivid coloration sports a bright blue background, with swirly orange stripes and a blue-greenish face with bold blue stripes. The large pelvic fins are used for 'walking' on the seafloor and are often mistakenly seen as the pectoral fins. The real pectorals are located almost at the center and are nearly transparent, with a tinge of fin, the anal fins and on part of the tail, the rest of which is striped in vibrant orange and blue. The dorsal fin, which is exceptionally tall in males, has a striking orange-and blue design as well. The eyes are usually red with black pupils. Different varieties sport different markings and colors. The green mandarin is the fish that has been described. The red mandarin is the same species, but its pelvic fins and what would be orange is red. In some rare cases, the entire dragonet is red with black stripes. The spotted mandarin is light gray-green with black, pink and blue spots.
Mandarinfish are reef dwellers, preferring sheltered lagoons and inshore reefs. While they are slow-moving and fairly common within their range, they are not easily seen due to their bottom-feeding habit and their small size (reaching only about 6 cm). They feed primarily on small
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s and other
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s.
Diet
Based on the gut analyses of seven wild fish Sadovy ''et al.'' (2001) determined that the mandarinfish has a mixed diet that consists of
harpacticoid copepods,
polychaete worms
Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are m ...
, small
gastropods
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. Ther ...
,
gammaridean amphipods,
fish eggs
Roe ( ) or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooking, coo ...
and
ostracod
Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...
s.
In the wild, feeding is continuous during daytime; the fish peck selectively at small prey trapped on coral substrate in a home range of many square meters.
Relationship to humans
Despite their popularity in the aquarium trade, mandarinfish are considered difficult to keep, as their feeding habits are very specific. Some fish never adapt to aquarium life, refusing to eat anything but live
amphipod
Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...
s and
copepod
Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...
s (as in the wild); though individuals that do acclimatize to aquarium food are considered to be quite hardy and highly resistant to diseases such as
marine ich
''Cryptocaryon irritans'' is a species of ciliates that parasitizes marine fish, causing marine white spot disease or marine ich (pronounced ''ick''). It is one of the most common causes of disease in marine aquaria.
Taxonomy
''Cryptocaryon i ...
. They are less likely to contract marine ich because they do not have the typical skin type that is affected by this disease. Mandarinfish also have a layer of debatably smelly and bitter slime instead of scales, which blocks out disease and probably also discourages predators, implying their bright coloration is
aposematic
Aposematism is the advertising by an animal to potential predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defences which make the prey difficult to kill and eat, such as toxicity, venom, foul taste or ...
.
The mandarinfish appeared on a 39-
kip
Kip, KIP or kips may refer to:
Athletics
* Kip (artistic gymnastics), a basic skill on the women's uneven bars
* Kip (trampolining), a coaching skill used in trampolining
* Kip-up, an acrobatic manoeuvre used in martial arts and gymnastics
People ...
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...
from
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
issued in 1987, and a 40-cent postage stamp of the
Federated States of Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise a ...
issued on 26 August 1993.
References
*
*
Zeng, Shao, L., Ricketts, A., & Moorhead, J. (2018). The importance of copepods as live feed for larval rearing of the green mandarin fish Synchiropus splendidus. Aquaculture, 491, 65–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2018.03.011
External links
Mandarinfish Species Profile :: AquariumDomainFishBase reference*
Caresheet at the Aquarium Wiki
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q77062
splendidus
Fish described in 1927
Fish of the Pacific Ocean
Fish of East Asia
Fish of Taiwan
Fish of Japan
Fish of Malaysia
Fish of Australia
Fish of New Guinea
Fish of Palau
Fish of Oceania
Taxa named by Albert William Herre