Mandarinfish
Amazing fact
Mandarinfish have no scales; a thick coating of strong-smelling mucus covers their bodies.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Mandarinfish have no scales; a thick coating of strong-smelling mucus covers their bodies.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Mandarinfish
- Scientific name
- Synchiropus splendidus
- Japanese name
- ニシキテグリ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Perciformes
- Family
- Callionymidae
- Genus
- Synchiropus
It lives in the seas from the Ryukyu Islands south of Okinawa to Taiwan, the Philippines, New Guinea and the coasts of Australia.
How the Mandarinfish lives
During the day, they move along coral branches or hide in the crevices where they live. On the seabed, they eat small crustaceans such as amphipods and small worms. They often use their large, fan-shaped pelvic fins to walk along the seabed. On reefs, they are usually found in groups or pairs.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Range
- Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Philippine Islands, Palau Islands, Caroline Islands, Java Sea, New Guinea, and elsewhere
Where the Mandarinfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ニシキテグリ
- 简体中文
- 花斑翼连鳍
- 繁體中文
- 花斑連鰭䲗
- 한국어
- 만다린피시
- Español
- Pez mandarín
- Français
- Poisson mandarin
- Deutsch
- Mandarinfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Mandarim-real
- Italiano
- Pesce mandarino
- العربية
- سمك مندرين
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ikan mandarin
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá trạng nguyên
- Русский
- Мандаринка
- Türkçe
- Mandalina balığı
- ไทย
- ปลาแมนดาริน
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ニシキテグリChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Synchiropus splendidusChecked: 2026-11-06
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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