Synchiropus moyeri

Synchiropus moyeri, commonly known as Moyer's dragonet, is a small colorful dragonet. They belong 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. moyeri is usually mottled red, beige and white and a very close cousin of S. stellatus. The best way to identify moyeri is that the dorsal fin has small filaments not seen in some of the others and has two spots in it compared to the 3-5 spots of S. stellatus.

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!