Synchiropus splendidus (Herre, 1927)

I've been avoiding posting images of captives specimens - the only other, to date, is the Emerald dove Chalcophaps indica, quite a while ago now. However, in the interest of taxonomic completeness, it seems necessary that I include a member of the largest class of vertebrates sooner or later, and thus far, my above-water images of free-roaming members of this group have not done well.

So, without further pre-amble:

In a private aquarium, 2010.

This is the Mandarin Dragonet,

Synchiropus splendidus

(Herre, 1927)

I shall not be going into the ethics of keeping wild-caught fish in aquaria in this post; suffice to say that, until such time that I am confident that I can provide a suitable environment in which any particular species could breed, I will not be keeping wild-caught fish.

Anyway, moving on swiftly from the shame of my past mistakes, and onto the taxonomy:

- Callionymidae        

- Callionymoidei         

- Perciformes                 

- Percomorpha                  

- Acanthopterygii                

- Acanthomorpha                   

- Neoteleostei                           

- Euteleostei                                

- Teleostei                                      

- Halecostomi                                    

- Neopterygii                                        

- Actinopterygii                                       

- Osteichthys                                               

See also Chiromantis xerampelina, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Teleostomi                                                    

- Gnathostomata                                                

- Vertebrata                                                           

- Craniata                                                                 

- Chordata                                                                    

- Deuterostomia                                                              

- Nephrozoa                                                                        

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi, Enallagma cyathigerum, Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni, Cyathosternum prehensile, Sibylla, Stictogryllacris punctata, Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Ranatra, Hagenomyia tristis, Vespula germanica, Synagris proserpina, Astata tropicalis, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines, Acada biseriata, Panorpa germanica Megistocera filipes, Episyrphus balteatus, Helophilus pendulus, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Diasemopsis meigeniii and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Bilateralia                                                                             

- Eumetazoa                                                                               

- Animalia                                                                                       

- Eukaryota                                                                                       

This stunning little fish, in the wild and in captivity, spends much of its time scooting along the faces of the reefs it makes its home, looking for small crustaceans and worms to eat. As you may expect, its bright colours advertise a foul taste and fairly toxic flesh, so it has relatively few natural predators. Unfortunately, as previously alluded to, its bright colours also make it highly appealing to aquarists who - due to its rather specific native diet, have a poor track record in feeding it, and it is quite common for imported specimens to die within the year, although exceptions (such as that above, which was purchased at adult size and lived six years in a small tank) do exist. Many aquarists then assume that, like the distantly related gobies, dragonets are ephemeral creatures, and replace them, leading to unsustainable pressure on wild populations.

There is a side-note of interest to the Mandarin's tale of woe: in Florida, one commercial hatchery now has, and continues to, breed this fish for sale. While this doesn't quite escape the ethics of keeping a finicky eater in a small tank where it may well - and still often does - starve, it should significantly reduce pressure on wild (Indo-Pacific) populations of these beautiful fish. 

So all in all, this tendency to get caught up ethics is why I don't like posting images of captive animals. 


That's all, folks. 



Not so much an identification aid, but for any budding marine aquarists reading this, it's always a good idea to know something about a species before you purchase it. While you can do as I did, and ask the shop-keepers and be given an uninformed and often downright untruthful answer, a good place to look up information is WetWebMedia, which not only includes fact-sheets on all the groups of fish likely to be encountered in a private aquarium, but also has FAQ pages sorted by groups of fish, where you can read accounts of what can go wrong with your fish, and decide whether you can actually prepare for such eventualities.