Mandarin Dragonet Synchiropus splendidus

The beautiful Mandarin Dragonet is native to reefs in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan through to Australia. It is only some 6cm long and feeds on tiny crustaceans on the ocean floor.

The most colourful of the dragonets, the Mandarin is even more impressive when it opens its extra dorsal fin, which is tucked away in an opening in its upper back, to look like a colourful sail.

Although they look like gobies or blennies, they are unrelated. Their colourful skin is covered with unpalatable slime instead of scales which, together with the bright colours, makes them unattractive to most predators. They are one of very few vertebrates with blue pigment colour rather than structural reflected blue light.