Dragonet breaths smoke

[rickswika]

This little guy, a Green Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus), often blows wispy streams of particles from his gills, like he’s breathing smoke. Does anyone know what that’s all about? He does it fairly often. He hovers around hunting critters off the rocks, using his pectoral fins to maneuver, and looking like a little humming bird. It almost looks like he has a tongue the way he laps up the bugs. I’m not sure if he is crushing the bugs and blowing the guts out his gills to make the smoke or what. Does anyone know what this is?

I’ve had him for over a month and he seems healthy and happy enough, but never seems to eat any of the food I feed the other fish. I see him feeing off critters from the tank, but want to make sure he gets enough nourishment. The vendor recommend ‘live black worms’, but can’t find them at my local vendor. Any suggestions what to feed this cool fish.

[yardboy]

First of all, congratulations on a fantastic picture. Really captured the personality of a mandarin. I'm sad for mine. Had him a year, then decided to put another powerhead on the tank and he got sucked up in it the next day. Such a stupid move on my part.
One day I'll have another.
Mandarins generally eat only live food that they catch in the tank. Typically copepods and zooplankton. Some have gotten them eating a variety of other stuff, but I'm not sure how they did it or if it is nutritionally fulfilling for the fish.
Good luck with him. They are a very beautiful species. And you are a great photographer.

[Patman]

Great picture...can't wait for my tank to be up and running another year or so, then I think I'll try my hand at keeping one.

Pat

[Jeremy1973]

That is a superb colorful pic!

[rickswika]

Thanks for the kudos on the pic.

My tank has only been going about 8 months, but when the lights go out, I see a lot of little critters crawling all over over the rocks. The Mandarin should have pleanty to eat. I often wear a pair of magnifying binocular glasses and watch what's going on closeup. You can even see critters moving in the sand. I highly recommend getting a pair if you haven't already got one. The close ups are amazing and in 3D.

I haven't lost any livestock yet, except for an arrow crab, that was, a bit too crabby, and got ploughed by a tang he kept nipping at.


Yardboy, did your Mandarin also blow streams of 'smoke' from its gills? I was trying to catch a pic of that but he wouldn't cooperate. I'll get one eventually. He seems to be coming out in the open a lot more now that he is used to the tank.

[MERCEDES]

The "smoke" is sand and detritus that he picks up going after the pods that he eats. Kind of like sleeper head gobies that sift thru the sand for critters and filter out what they don't eat. They are cool fish, we have a mated pair with monster beer bellies. And to think I was worried they wouldn't have enough food in our 220g tank I actually set up a 55g to grow out pods just in case. It is nice to see others(patman) being responsible and waiting for their tanks to mature so they don't starve their mandarin. It was hard waiting and even harder giving up having any wrasses and gobies that might compete for food with the mandarins. I would love to see the picture when you catch him blowing "smoke" it will definitely be a cool one. You do take really nice pictures