Picturesque Dragonet Synchiropus picturatus

The beautiful Picturesque Dragonet is native to reefs in the west Pacific Ocean from the Philippines through to northern Australia. It grows to some 7cm long and feeds on tiny crustaceans on the ocean floor.

Like the related Mandarin Dragonet, this colourful fish 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.

Their colourful skin is covered with unpalatable slime instead of scales which, together with the bright colours, makes them unattractive to most predators and resistant to parasitic infection. They (together with the Mandarin Dragonet) are one of very few vertebrates with blue pigment colour rather than structural reflected blue light.