They were talking about Plectranthias inermis, the coolest little AnthiasHawkPerchletBass ever. It's in a genus that makes it sound like an Anthias, and it's also in a family (Serranidae) that makes it more of a Sea Bass (same as the Anthias) but for all intents and purposes behavior wise, it's a Hawkfish. It does actually have a swim bladder, which is a major difference from actual Hawkfish, but it still spends most of its time perched somewhere waiting for food to swim (or walk) by below it when it drops down onto the hapless prey (with surprising speed) and has lunch. These fish go by several common names. Usually it gets called the Highfin Perchlet, but you'll also see it get called the Geometric Hawkfish, Highfin Checker Hawk, Blotched Perchlet, Chequered Perchlet, Red Checker Hawk and Pygmy Hawkfish.
Hiding during mealtimes is probably the only real challenge with Highfin Perchlets. They're generally very good eaters if they can see the food. Here we feed them a mix of Gamma Frozen foods like Mysis, Brine Plus Garlic, Brine Plus Omega 3, Brine Plus Spirulina, Chopped Mussel and Chopped Prawn. They can pretty easily be trained to take Nutramar Complete Pellets once they are used to you being a source of food. Some people will use live gut loaded brine shrimp when the Perchlet is first added to the aquarium so that some live food is swimming around for a while after you leave the tank side. If your fish are too shy to feed, just start by feeding them with the room lights off, which should hide you pretty effectively from their vision. Click here to learn more
Hiding during mealtimes is probably the only real challenge with Highfin Perchlets. They're generally very good eaters if they can see the food. Here we feed them a mix of Gamma Frozen foods like Mysis, Brine Plus Garlic, Brine Plus Omega 3, Brine Plus Spirulina, Chopped Mussel and Chopped Prawn. They can pretty easily be trained to take Nutramar Complete Pellets once they are used to you being a source of food. Some people will use live gut loaded brine shrimp when the Perchlet is first added to the aquarium so that some live food is swimming around for a while after you leave the tank side. If your fish are too shy to feed, just start by feeding them with the room lights off, which should hide you pretty effectively from their vision. Click here to learn more
