Top 10 Most Colorful Animals In The World

4. Mandarin Fish

The mandarin fish is a saltwater fish native to the Pacific ocean. They can be termed as most brilliantly colored fish in the world. The attractive mandarin fish display brilliant hue of blue, green, orange and yellow. The striking blue coloration in wave pattern makes mandarin fish a very unique species in the Pacific ocean. The attractive coloration of mandarin fish is due to the cellular pigment.

The board unusual head shape is the other distinguishing feature of mandarin fish. They also make attractive movement in the water, just like hovering of hummingbird.

The mandarinfish was first described as Callionymus splendidus in 1927 by Albert William Herre, an American ichthyologist working in the Philippines. It was later placed in genus Synchiropus. The generic name Synchiropus is from Ancient Greek syn-, meaning “together”, and -chiropus meaning “hand-foot”. The specific epithet splendidus is from the Latin for splendid. The common name of the mandarinfish comes from its extremely vivid colouration, evoking the robes of an Imperial Chinese mandarin. Other common names include mandarin goby, green mandarin, striped mandarinfish, striped dragonet, green dragonet and sometimes psychedelic mandarinfish. The similarly named mandarin fish, properly known as the Chinese perch, is distantly related.

The mandarinfish belongs to the perciform family Callionymidae, the dragonets, which counts 10 genera and more than 182 species. Genus Synchiropus counts 51 species, divided into 10 subgenera. The mandarinfish is in subgenus Synchiropus (Pterosynchiropus) along with the S. occidentalis and S. picturatus.