Harlequin Tuskfish- Yay or Ney for Reef Tank?

[boacvh]

Ya i didn't do one for my current tank but will for the new one. Although its not gonna be really interesting for most as I'm kinda set in how I've done things for the last 35+ years and don't have anything fancy like controllers, dosers, etc... I still do everything manually. But I like having full control over everything myself because it eliminates tank crashes if something goes wrong with some controller, doser, ato etc.. breaking down.

FWIW, since I am on the beginner side, I personally find precisely those kind of threads are the most interesting ones. 35+ years sharing their experience! would definitely follow that thread

 

[Coralsdaily]

I have over 50 fish in my reef and never had to treat the tank for any disease. I do not want to take any risk with a fish that has been treated. That is why I follow this protocol.

You should set up another tank to house all the "reject" fish though... those poor things

 

[OrionN]

Yay for sure. I never keep a large reef without a Harlequin Tusk

 

[Steve F]

Please don’t feel sorry for my fish that are returned to my lfs. They have customers waiting for them as they are all eating well, thick, and ready to go into their tanks without qt. I should have added they are Presold and never go back into the stores tanks. This is also a very rare occurrence. Remember people will pay a premium for this service, and I’m sure you know of dealers who qt for their customers and then ship them when they have gone through protocols.

 

[OrionN]

Why

I have over 50 fish in my reef and never had to treat the tank for any disease. I do not want to take any risk with a fish that has been treated. That is why I follow this protocol.

would a fish that was treated and cure is a risk? Any fish can carry a disease asymptomatically. However successfully treatment should eradicated that disease from the fish.
it does not make sense for you to do the thing that you do.

 

[Jase4224]

Great article! My all time favourite fish that I fell in love with when I found it in a book as a child. In my experience these are generally peaceful and outgoing fish. I’ve owned 3 in total starting 12 years ago.. I have only lost one fish to a Tuskfish and that was a dottyback that tried to pick on the much larger Tuskfish and didn’t end well. This was my first tusk and lost it when it jumped out of my tank, probably in a dispute with my maroon clown as they didn’t like each other. I replaced it with a second Tuskfish to which my maroon immediately took a disliking to (no surprise) but eventually settled. Took all the fish I owned back to the store as I had to pull that tank down.

Fast forward to today and I have my third Tuskfish ‘Mr T’ and it’s a beautiful fish and very peaceful except for feeding time. I introduced this fish alongside two small clowns and a tiny <1.5” Royal gramma. I was a little concerned about the gramma getting eaten because the Tuskfish was nearly 7” and I did not yet know the disposition on this individual and my LFS is over an hour away an posts me my new fish that I order.
Turns out my tusk is super peaceful and stunning, not shy at all and is the first to great you at the glass. Favourite fish of all time and worth not having inverts to have this fish.

Also mine is quite big but still has thick bars so I don’t think the theory about Aussie Tuskfish having thinner bars is correct as mine is 100% Aussie, Like myself lol

Also I have this fish in a 180gal which I consider the MINIMUM tank size for this fish.

 

[OrionN]

@Jase4224
I think your Tusk have pretty thin orange bars. Look at bar #5 right in the middle. Compare right at the mid line of that bar and the white area in front of it. I would say the width of the ornage bar is about 1/3 of the width of the white area in front of it.
Now look at the 5.5 inch Pacific Tusk below:
At the same area, 5th bar right at the middle of that bar, the orange bard width is about 1/2 the width of the white area in front of it.
That is how you judge the proportion of the width of the color bars.
From the with of the bars, and the black color of the 2nd and 3rd bars, I can tell from picture with almost 100% certain of the origin of the Harlequin Tusk as long as he already mature enough to loose his dorsal fin eye spots.
This Pacific Tusk below is a particularly colorful fish, but it is a Pacific Tusk never the less, not an Australian Tusk.

 

[Jase4224]

@Jase4224
I think your Tusk have pretty thin orange bars. Look at bar #5 right in the middle. Compare right at the mid line of that bar and the white area in front of it. I would say the width of the ornage bar is about 1/3 of the width of the white area in front of it.
Now look at the 5.5 inch Pacific Tusk below:
At the same area, 5th bar right at the middle of that bar, the orange bard width is about 1/2 the width of the white area in front of it.
That is how you judge the proportion of the width of the color bars.
From the with of the bars, and the black color of the 2nd and 3rd bars, I can tell from picture with almost 100% certain of the origin of the Harlequin Tusk as long as he already mature enough to loose his dorsal fin eye spots.
This Pacific Tusk below is a particularly colorful fish, but it is a Pacific Tusk never the less, not an Australian Tusk.

Going back to your original post #3 and having another look I think you are correct, mine looks intermediate but there’s definitely a difference.