Unarmed Perchlet

[edit] Overview

This attractive little fish is ideally suited to the smaller tank or nano-reef. It is easy to feed, fairly disease-resistant and highly likable for its behaviors and character. (Despite its labeling by fishsellers, it is not a hawkfish, but a close relative—a bottom-dwelling anthias.)

[edit] Feeding

Carnivore. Feed at least once daily with meaty frozen and fresh foods, including mysid shrimp and enriched brine shrimp.

[edit] Aquarium Compatibility

The Unarmed Perchlet can be quite secretive, but will spend more time in the open with dither fish species, such as Chromis spp., flasher wrasses or forktail blennies. It is prone to jumping, especially from tanks without adequate shelter and hiding places.

[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

More than one of these likable little perchlets can be kept in a medium to large aquarium. However, males may fight (males are generally larger than females). House it with small, ­passive fish species (blennies, smaller cardinalfishes, small wrasses, dragonets, gobies, dartfishes). Its small size also makes it a potential meal for large fish eaters and a target of benthic bullies (e.g., dottybacks, hawkfishes). Larger specimens may eat nano-gobies and tiny shrimp, but it is generally safe with ornamental invertebrates.

Category: Species