Lyretail Hawkfish

[edit] Overview

This oddball of the hawkfish family spends much of its time in the wild feeding on plankton in the water column, acting more like an anthias than a member of a family known for perching rather than swimming. Its prominent eyes are a deep blue or green, depending on your angle of view.

[edit] Feeding

Carnivore. Feed meaty foods, such as mysid shrimp and enriched adult brine shrimp, at least twice a day.

[edit] Aquarium Compatibility

Although not as aggressive as most other ­hawkfishes, it will often chastise smaller tankmates. It might also behave aggressively toward more passive fishes that are introduced after it is an established resident with its territory staked out. Keeping more than one C. polyactis in anything smaller than a large aquarium is risky. Males will fight, although a single male will tolerate female conspecifics.

[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 will spend most of its time in repose, unless the system pump provides a considerable amount of water movement, in which case it will often swim against the current up in the water column.

Category: Species