Spotted Mandarin

Maintenance difficulty:
   The Spotted Mandarin, Psychedelic Mandarin, or Psychedelic Fish is easy to keep if you have the right aquarium set-up. See "Maintenance" below for a full description.

Maintenance/Foods:
   Psychedelic fish are omnivores. They will usually eat live brine, bloodworms, and tubifex but this diet is usually not sufficient to keep them over the long term. In the wild they eat small crustaceans (and other benthic organisms).
   The latest on some of the newsgroups is that each one needs anywhere from 75 to 150 pounds of live rock to survive. We have kept one in a 125 gallon reef that is doing fine and all he eats is whatever he finds on the rocks. With most fish variety is the key.
   Feed them anything they will eat and try lots of different things. Live brine, worms, formula I, and formula II, flakes, etc. The mandarin seems to only go for live food however. A mature aquarium with live rock really helps provide the natural food they need.

Habitat: Natural geographic location:
   Spotted Mandarin, Psychedelic Mandarin, or Psychedelic fish are found in the Philippines and Melanesia. Usually found at depths of 0 to 20 meters.

Social Behaviors:
   Male and females can only be kept singly or in pairs. This means only one male and/or one female per aquarium. This includes closely related species like the Mandarinfish.

Sex: Sexual differences:
  The males are somewhat larger than the females, have longer fins, and the first ray of the dorsal fin is about twice as long as the female's. The fish pictured above is probably a male since the dorsal fin is elongated.

Breeding/Reproduction:
   We have found no information at this time (10/01/99).

Light: Recommended light levels:
   No special requirements.

Temperature:
   No special requirements. Normal temperatures for marine fish is between 74 and 79 degrees fahrenheit.

Length/Diameter of fish:
   Spotted Mandarin, Psychedelic Mandarin, or Psychedelic Fish adults can grow to 5.0 cm (2.0 inches).

Minimum Tank Length/Size:
   A minimum 60 gallon aquarium is recommended since a minimum of 75 pounds of live rock is needed in order to sustain them.

Water Movement: Weak, Moderate, Strong
   No special requirements.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom
   Usually spends most of its' time on rockwork or live rock near the bottom.

Availability:
   This fish is occasionally available and is somewhat more expensive than the closely related Mandarin fish.