Spotted Mandarin

The Spotted Mandarin, or Target Mandarin, is a psychedelic wonder of the reef. Its body is a maze of green, orange, and turquoise "target" spots outlined in deep blue and black. Unlike most fish, mandarins do not have scales but instead have a thick, foul-tasting mucus coat that protects them from parasites and predators. They are slow-moving "hovercrafts" that spend every waking second hunting for live copepods among the rockwork. They are notoriously difficult to feed because they typically refuse prepared foods, making them suitable only for very mature reef tanks with a massive and self-sustaining population of pods.