Flame Scooter Dragonet Care Guide: Tank Size, Diet, Copepods & Tankmates
Flame Scooter Dragonet care made simple: tank size, how to keep it fed with copepods, reef safety, the best tankmates, and what to check before you buy one.
The Flame Scooter Dragonet (Synchiropus sycorax) is a tiny, ruby-red fish that hops across rocks and sand picking at food all day. It is peaceful and reef safe, but it needs a mature tank full of tiny bugs called copepods to thrive.
Quick facts
- Tank size: 30 gallons or more, mature tank only
- Adult size: about 2.5 inches
- Diet: live copepods and amphipods; some learn frozen food
- Reef safe: yes, safe with corals and inverts
- Difficulty: hard, mostly because of feeding
- Temperament: peaceful; males fight other males
What makes it special
Its red body is covered in white and orange blotches, so it looks like a little ember on the rocks. Males have a tall, flag-like first dorsal fin that they raise to show off.
It comes from the Western Pacific, mostly the Philippines. In stores it is also sold as the Ruby Red Dragonet or Flame Scooter.
Tank setup
The tank matters more than the gallons. A scooter needs a steady supply of live food growing in the rocks and sand.
- Tank age: wait until the tank has run for at least 6 months
- Live rock and sand: lots of surface area for copepods to live on
- Refugium: a small side area with macroalgae helps copepods breed
- Water: 72–78°F, salinity 1.023–1.026, pH 8.1–8.4
It rarely jumps, but a lid is still a good idea for any reef tank.
Diet and feeding
This is the hard part. In the wild it pecks at tiny crustaceans hundreds of times a day.
- Add bottled live copepods every few weeks to keep the population strong
- Offer frozen baby brine shrimp or small mysis with a target feeder
- Try live or enriched brine shrimp to help it learn to eat non-live food
Check its belly often. A rounded belly means it is eating well. A pinched, thin belly means it is starving and needs more food fast.
Tankmates
Scooters are slow, careful eaters. Fast or pushy fish will take the food first.
- Good tankmates: clownfish, small gobies, firefish, cardinalfish, and shrimp
- Use caution: six-line wrasses and other fish that also eat copepods
- Avoid: another male dragonet, plus large or aggressive fish
A male and female pair can live together if the tank has enough food for both.
Behavior
Expect a busy little fish that scoots, stops, and pecks across every rock. It stays near the bottom and almost never swims up into open water.
It is shy for the first week or two. Once settled, it will hunt in plain view all day, which makes it fun to watch.
Health tips
- Quarantine: use a small tank with live copepods so it keeps eating
- Slime coat: dragonets have thick slime, so they rarely get ich
- Stable water: do small, regular water changes and test often
Buying tips
- Ask to see it eat: best of all, watch it eat frozen food
- Look for: a full belly, bright color, and steady hopping
- Skip thin fish: a starved scooter is very hard to bring back
Love dragonets? See our Red Scooter Dragonet guide and Spotted Mandarin guide.
FAQ
Is a Flame Scooter good for beginners? Not really. It is easy to house but hard to feed, so it is best for a mature tank with plenty of copepods.
Can I keep it in a nano tank? Only a very mature one with a refugium. Smaller tanks run out of copepods quickly.
Is it the same as a Red Scooter Dragonet? No. They are close cousins, but the Flame Scooter has bolder red and white blotches.
Ready to add one? Browse livestock and gear in the ReefBay shop, then track feedings and water tests in the ReefBay app.
