Mandarin Fish Dive
In Mapia Resort as well as in Onong Resort we plan a Mandarin Fish Dive twice a week, as you can see on the schedules.
The
Mandarin Fish is the most beautiful member of the genus Synchiropus.
It is also one of the most breath-taking marine fish ever to be found
in our oceans.
It looks more like an intricate painting that it does a fish, its entire body is made up of wavy alternating lines of orange, blue and green. While they are commonly known as the Mandarin Goby and the Mandarin Fish, they're true name is the Mandarin Dragonet. It is similar to the Scooter Blenny (Synchiropus Occelatus) in this respect.
Mandarin Dragonet Due to its natural beauty the mandarin dragonet is heavily collected from throughout the Indo-Pacific.
Dusk is the moment when one of the most fascinating events in the marine world occurs; the mating of Mandarinfish.
The Mandarinfish is a popular photographic subject due to its striking beauty and interesting habits. It is an extremely small and shy fish and it can be a tricky photographic subject, coming in and out of view, appearing only briefly at dusk to mate and seemingly wishing to avoid any bright light.
Just before the sun sets, 3 to 5 females will make their way to a particular region of the reef and gather where males visit and display courtship behaviour, hoping to attract the females.
The visiting males may tour around various sites in one evening spreading their sperm among a number of different females. Lucky guys!
A
successful male will then be joined by a female that will rest on his
pelvic fin. The male and female mandarinfish will align themselves belly-to-belly
and together, slowly rise about 1 metre above the reef. Once they are
at the peak of their ascent, they will release sperm and a cloud of
eggs (usually up to 200 eggs).
The fish then disappear in a flash. The fertilized eggs are from that point at the mercy of the current and normally take around 18-24 hours to hatch into 1 mm long larvae. For a period of up to 2 weeks, they will remain plankton with no parental involvement before finally settling on the reef and choosing an appropriate habitat where they will live for the next 10 to 15 years.
