Synchiropus bartelsi

Synchiropus bartelsi, commonly known as Bartel's dragonet, is a small colorful dragonet. S. bartelsi belongs to a group of closely related fish called 'scooter dragonets'. Determination of this group is mostly done based on the dorsal fin shape and pattern of mature males. S. bartelsi is very similar to S. morrisoni. Their body is usually a little less bright coloured, the dorsal fin is lower in height compared to morrisoni and the anal fin rays are unbranched.

These fish are very popular and for a good reason. They're colourful, have an interesting behaviour, stay small, are reefsafe and are really hardy. The only thing to keep in mind is that these fish, like their close relatives the seahorses, need constant feeding. These fish don't have the stomach to feed a large meal once or twice a day. They need to be able to feed on small zooplankton the entire day. This is why we advice to only add these fish to a mature aquarium with a self-sustaining population of zooplankton, or make sure you supply them zooplankton all day. It's adviced to add phytoplankton to the aquarium once a day to feed the zooplankton. This way there will be more zooplankton for the dragonets.

These fish can be kept alone or in a pair (males and females can easily be differentiated by size of the dorsal fin). In a large aquarium even a group is possible, just make sure there are enough places to shelter for all of them, because they will make small territories!