Dragon fish or Mandarin

El dragon fish or mandarin It is a small specimen, it does not measure more than 8 cm, whose body is elongated and cylindrical. its coloring is very striking highlighting various green, orange, and yellow stripes, with bright blue or green as the background color. An oily film that covers your body makes it more resistant to characteristic skin conditions.

Mandarin introduces the bulging eyes and small mouth slightly projected forward. It has two dorsal fins and ventral fins adapted to facilitate its movement on the substrate. It has four dorsal spines and yet it does not have anal spines.

Thanks to the extraordinary coloration of the dragon fish and its unique behavior, it has become one of the species most valued by most aquarium enthusiasts, despite being a fish that requires some special care, especially to maintain its striking coloration.

It originally inhabits the Pacific Ocean and lives associated with coral reefs, among which it finds shelter, at depths between 1 and 18 meters, where the temperature ranges between 24 and 26ºC. Hence, special care must be taken in aquariums. If we can get the fish to acclimatize, its life expectancy in captivity is around 6 years.

Dragon fish must be given the usual care in reef aquariums and attention must be paid to the temperature and nitrogenous compounds. They do not tolerate temperatures above 27 degrees well or high concentrations of nitrate.

The main challenge in captivity of the dragon fish is the adaptation of this species, which is basically carnivorous, to dead food. You can reach this goal using live brine shrimp, and go little by little mixing it with dead. It should also be noted do not mix mandarin fish with other competing fish that reach the food at a higher speed. We must make sure that the food reaches you wherever it is.