Mandarin Identification FAQs
Related FAQs: Psychedelic "Gobies"/Dragonets/Mandarins
& their Relatives 1, Mandarins, Mandarins
3, Mandarin Behavior,
Mandarin Systems, Mandarin Selection, Mandarin Feeding, Mandarin Disease/Health, Mandarin Reproduction,
Related Articles: Psychedelic
"Gobies"/Dragonets/Mandarins, real Gobies & their Relatives,
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Is this a normal scooter blenny? What's in a
name? Scooter Blenny - 11/26/07 Hello, all. <Hi there,
Jason.> I have been told by many that this is not a normal
scooter blenny. <Depends on what you/they consider normal -
which species, etc.> I always thought it was.
<Understandable. Unfortunately, the term "Scooter
Blenny" is not species-specific. That's the problem with
common names. The little beauty you have is also known as a Scooter
Dragonet, Ocellated Dragonet, Sailfin Dragonet, etc. Taxonomically
speaking, it's known as Synchiropus ocellatus, which, according
to Fishbase.org and ITIS, is a synonym for Neosynchiropus
ocellatus. Although much variation in color/pattern can be seen,
all fall under the same species. Please see this link, and click on
the photo to the right for additional images:
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php
ID=7981&genusname=Synchiropus&speciesname=ocellatus.> I
took this picture when the little guy was in flare up mode and
really caught a lot of his detail. <I see - nice timing, great
photo! It really is a little beauty!> He has many purple/blue
sparkles and markings on his body and I guess that's what makes
him different. Is this true or are they wrong? <You are all
correct in that it is indeed considered a Scooter blenny, but now
you can be more specific about which species! Either way, it's
a beautiful little fish!> Thank you.
Jason
<You're very welcome -Lynn> |
Deeelightful!
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Mystery Dragonet 5/5/07 Hi I was wondering
if you could help me identify this little Dragonet I bought a few
days ago. He is about 3cm long and has a pale pink base color with
green spots on his body and a couple of maroon spots on his dorsal
surface, when his dorsal fin is raised it is black and yellowish
green striped. I have sent the best picture I could get as he is
quite small and does tend to hang about the rocks to the rear of
the tank! I will of course get a better picture of him at some
point in the future and send it to you as he is quite an oddity.
<A better photograph would be very helpful> I know you
shouldn't buy a fish that you don't really know very much
about but he was in my local fish shop for a couple of weeks and he
looked hungry! So I bought him as I have a decent live sand bed and
live rocks and I also have a Starry Dragonet who is growing and
eating well as I feed them a variety of frozen foods including
Mysis, Krill and Copepods, also live Artemia and also there are
little copepods in the tank for them both. <Hopefully your tank
is large enough to sustain them both. These fish typically starve
to death in captivity. You will need to replenishing the pod
population in your tank on a regular basis. With some persistence
and a lot of luck you may be able to train the new dragonet to
accept some frozen foods. > I watch to make sure they get enough
to eat although there isn't much competition for food as there
is only one Ocellaris Clownfish who is a chilled out sort of
character! I figured if my Starry is happy then I'm sure this
one will be! And they get along well too because they have very
different markings. I have looked on the net but the only one that
comes close is Synchiropus circularis but it doesn't look
colorful enough to me. <If you have not already looked on
www.fishbase.org I would suggest you try doing a search on the
genus Synchiropus and see what you come up with. Cheers, Faye
<Best of luck with your new dragonet, Leslie> |
Mystery Dragonet follow up 5/5/07 Hi all!
<Hi Faye> I emailed a few days ago regarding a Dragonet that
I bought. <Yes I remember your email.> I have managed to get
a slightly better picture of it, <Great, thanks for doing
that!> he's really cute! <Yes indeed he is and very
pretty as well! He certainly does look like a member of the
Synchiropus genus. Do have a look at the various species within the
genus Synchiropus on www.fishbase.org.> Thanks and feel free to
use the pictures for whatever if they're clear enough, it would
be a shame to not show other people this little dude! <OK thanks
I will pass the photos on to Bob. Leslie> <<Where are
they? B> |
Mystery Dragonet follow up #2 - 05/16/07 I have
checked out fishbase and the only one that comes close is a
Circled Dragonet but I'm not sure. I have tried various and
many searches on google using all Latin and common names but to
no avail, there are plenty of copepods etc in my tank I check on
a regular basis at night with a torch! And I also replace/top up
my live sand regularly too. I said I didn't know much about
this little Dragonet in particular but I do however know about
Dragonets in general as I read as much as I could about them
before I bought the Starry Dragonet I already had which has grown
quite a lot since I bought him. <Well, sounds like he is doing
very well then, eating and growing are both good signs.> I
also plan on moving soon and will be purchasing a much larger
tank which will have an abundance of live sand and rock, so
they'll be even happier. <That sounds like an excellent
plan.> I'll try to get a picture of him with his dorsal
fin up he looks really good when he does that. <Yes those
dorsal fins are amazing, thanks!> Thanks anyway, Faye <Your
welcome! Sorry I couldn't be more help with the ID,
Leslie>
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Help identifying fish. Ocellated or
Scooter Dragonet (Synchiropus ocellatus)
2/16/07 <Hello Jessica and Randy! Mich here.>
Thanks for the great website. <Welcome!> I've
run across a fish that I'm unable to identify and though you
may be able to help. I was looking at the LFS and found
a fish that is about 1.5" and listed as a scooter
blenny. When looking more closely, it definitely
didn't look like a scooter blenny to me and I have had one in
the past. It sat perched on its pelvic
fin. Furthermore, it readily ate brine shrimp and then
some frozen krill - very unusual for a dragonet if that is what it
is. <Yes, I think you are correct with the
Dragonet> After talking to the guys at the LFS, I
ended up taking the fish home with me and putting it into QT while
I tried to figure out what type of fish it is.
<Yikes! Always better to research
first. But good that you are researching period.>
Both guys I talked to said they didn't think it was a scooter
blenny, but they hadn't ordered it and it was the closest they
could come up with. <Not a Blenny.> They also tried looking
through the books they had and couldn't find
anything. I gave them a little bit for it and the guy
said I could bring it back if I couldn't find our what it was
or wasn't able to keep it. <Very impressive store
policy! Nice to hear.> Anyways, here are
some pictures: http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a240/techigirl78/top.jpg
and http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a240/techigirl78/side.jpg
. Sorry they are blurry. The head of the fish
also has some very small, short hair like appendages on the skin,
but can be seen when examining it close up. I
wouldn't usually bring something home I don't know much
about, <Good to hear!> but this seemed like an exception
since it wasn't ordered and LFS was at a loss. Any
thoughts? Is it a dragonet, goby, sculpin, or something
else? Any help would be greatly appreciated. <A
dragonet (Synchiropus spp.), I believe an Ocellated or Scooter
Dragonet (Synchiropus ocellatus). Ocellated, meaning
having one or more eyelike marking, which in this case can be seen
as the dark spot on the tail of the fish in your photos.>
Thanks! Jessica and Randy P.S. I contacted you over a year ago
about a coris venusta. Just wanted to report he is still
doing great and one of my favorite fish. <Oh! Thank
you for this update! Good news is always
nice.> Thanks again!
<Welcome again! -Mich> |
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Male vs. female mandarin I.D. 1/5/07 <Hi, Cathy. Graham
here.> Is it possible for you to tell me if I am correct in
identifying these two mandarins as a female and a male. <Yep. Where
are the descriptions? Pix?> I have had the male for over a year and
created a new attached (40 gal) seahorse tank to house a second (75gal
reef) with the hopes to have them mate. <An undertaking,
to be sure.> I believe my new arrival is a female but want to make
sure. <The male and female Mandarin gobies are obvious
in their differences. The male has a largely exaggerated anterior
dorsal fin appendage that far outdoes the female's. her's is
rather short and subdued. Sometimes, making this process harder though,
is that males are more often collected for their color, and size...>
They are not aggressive to each other but certainly not interested in
each other either. <Well, give it time. Mating is opportunistic for
the Mandarin goby, and if they tolerate each other without conflict,
consider your quest halfway there.> Thanks for any info you can
make. Cathy <You're welcome Cathy! Thanks for visiting! -Graham
T.>
Scooter Blenny 12-01-05 Dear Bob (and/or
crew): <Hello, Travis with you today.> I'm hoping you can
assist me with a couple of questions. <I am hoping I can be of
assistance also.> First, I have a 37g cube tank with a 15g sump,
shallow (<2" cosmetic) sand bed, and 50# LR. It is a
relatively young tank (<1yr), and has been an easy tank to start
up - stable chemistry since just past the first week. All tests are
currently optimal. <Sounds great.> I've been slowly
stocking it with corals and fish, and it has a six-line wrasse and
a royal Gramma so far, along with a couple of cleaner shrimp and a
lot of snails (various sp.). With that data out of the way,
on to the questions: 1) We've fallen in love with a scooter
blenny at our LFS. I did some reading (here and elsewhere) that
states these fish are really dragonets, and so need more of
everything than this system provides. <This is very
true.> I asked the seller, and he replied that these were not
the same species, and wrote down "Petroscirtes
temmincki". <Sorry, I am not familiar with that name.
I am familiar with the husbandry of "Scooters" though and
they are a very demanding fish. They have the same requirements as
a mandarin.> <<Is the taxonomic name of a scooter,
a.k.a. the Striped Slimefish.. mmm.. delicious! But, does it
look like this animal? Marina>> |
Photo found via
Google, no photo credits shown. MH
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I can't find much information online about
these, and that I can find seems to be non-authoritative.
<<I got this via Google
Petroscirtes temmincki. Some of these references do
appear to be authoritative, though not written by scientists
(science can't catch it all, that's where hobbyists come
in). Marina>> Is there any way to tell which
species it is? <<Take a look here: Synchiropus ocellatus & here
- do any of these look like the fish? MH>> I don't
have a picture, but the fish is a small brown (black) and white
striped fish. When it gets 'excited' its face turns blue,
and it flashes its top fin like a flag (very pretty pattern on that
fin). <Sounds like a male.> When searching for that Latin
name, some of the pictures look like different things entirely, so
I can't be sure. LFS assures me that this little guy will be
fine -- it isn't a dragonet. What's your opinion?
<Ignore your LFS and go with your gut and educated mind.> 2)
One of our corals (sold as "pipe organ", "Turbinaria
sp.") seems unhappy -- once a week or so it will retract all
(or most) polyps and stay that way for a day or two. It looks as
good as ever when it re-emerges, and has good colour and extension.
Is this normal behavior? <It can be very normal.> Are
there special care requirements for this coral? <You will want
to make sure you keep your water pristine and run carbon as many
polyp corals are sensitive to toxins. The toxins could be causing
the polyps to close.> I'm grateful for any advice you can
offer. <Always glad to help.> Matt
<Travis> |
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