Longnose Hawkfish

[edit] Overview

This checkerboard-patterned hawkfish is a durable and captivating aquarium resident. It has an elongate snout that is used to extract shrimp from reef crevices, but it also feeds on planktonic crustaceans and even small fishes. In typical hawkfish hunting mode, this fish perches on rocks or corals (often on sea fans in the wild) and swiftly ambushes prey that comes into its striking range.

[edit] Feeding

Carnivore. Feed meaty foods, including mysid shrimp and enriched brine shrimp, at least once a day.

[edit] Aquarium Compatibility

Longnose Hawkfish of the same sex will often fight if placed together. Fighting often consists of jaw-locking and can result in injury (combatants should be separated). They can be kept in male-female pairs. It will eat ornamental shrimps and small fishes. It grasps prey that are too large in its jaws and busts them to pieces by bashing them against hard structure. It has a propensity to pester more elongate fishes (dartfish, worm gobies).

[edit] Breeding/Propagation

Egg scatterers that produce pelagic eggs, often in midwater mating rituals. Both eggs and larvae that drift with plankton in the water column and settle back onto a reef at about the time of metamorphosis. These are among the most challenging types of marine fishes to propagate in captivity.

[edit] Notes

This species most often perishes as a result of leaping from open tanks or from small holes in the aquarium top. Be sure the tank is well-covered.

Category: Species