Flame hawkfish aggressive

[Dudefish82]

Hi all,

I've bought a new baby flame hawkfish about 1" long. Its starting to swoop and attack my established leopard wrasse whom I had for about an year about 4".
Will this stop or do I have to remove the flame hawk? Tank is 40 gallon.
Thanks all

 

[Gumbies R Us]

#reefsquad

 

[Fish Styx]

Hi all,

I've bought a new baby flame hawkfish about 1" long. Its starting to swoop and attack my established leopard wrasse whom I had for about an year about 4".
Will this stop or do I have to remove the flame hawk? Tank is 40 gallon.
Thanks all

Good morning. I'm sorry to hear that you've got this going on. Hawkfish can be extremely territorial, a behavior that becomes magnified when housed in a smaller enclosure. Leopards are fairly passive (I keep them myself), so given that it is already this aggressive as a juvenile I would expect it to not only continue, but to get worse.

 

[Rocks reef]

I agree. Given the size of the tank, with an already established 4" fish. The territorial aggression will only increase as the Hawkfish will want the whole tank to itself.

 

[littlefoxx]

My hawkfish was a rehome to me because it was so aggressive and killed a ton of fish in both the store and the previous owner’s tank. He is in my 300 gallon fowlr and with a lot of bigger and meaner fish, and he has calmed down after being checked a few times. I think if yours is already mean its probably best to rehome before it gets that bad

 

[Dudefish82]

Thanks all, i think I'll rehome him. I assumed flame hawks are much more mellow than the other hawk fish species

 

[littlefoxx]

Thanks all, i think I'll rehome him. I assumed flame hawks are much more mellow than the other hawk fish species

They are super cute and deceiving for sure! Fun little fish but mean as heck!

 

[Waters]

Strange....I had the opposite experience with those. I have had one in pretty much every tank I have ever set up and never had any aggression at all.

 

[AgentKooper]

How long have you had it? Is he getting enough to eat? I've had one in my 50g tank (which I'm a little worried is overstocked) for four months and he's been a model citizen. The only time there's any drama is occasionally when he gets to close to my clownfish's hammer coral, and they send him on his way.

 

[James Franco]

Mine was the opposite. I added a flame hawk to my 62g with several other perching fish (citron goby and starry blenny), the first couple days the starry was not happy about it. The flame hawk hid or was chased. After a couple of days everyone settled down and have been fine for a couple months now.