Holy Grail Fish

[Flame2hawk]

Waited a long time for these guys. Finally, the captive bred Conspics became available. One is 2 years old and the other is 16 months old.

I just picked mine up from poma labs. How is your pair doing?

 

[N.Sreefer]

Some day if I win the lottery I want a wrought iron butterfly fish and an abes angelfish.

Wrought Iron Butterflyfish

The Wrought Iron Butterflyfish(Chaetodon daedalma) is an extremely rare fish that we have adopted as our mascot. This fish is almost never seen in the hobby, due to its remote location, and is rarely imported into the United States. The Wrought Iron Butterfly has an almost metallic look to it...

amongthereef.com

 

[i cant think]

Is this a holy grail? Hoplolatilus chlupatyi (Flashing tilefish). Eating and thriving in my tank for now (Hes been in there for 4-5 days now).

My true holy grail fish I don’t own (Yet) are:
- Achilles tang,
- Marcosi tilefish,
- A second Flashing Tilefish,
- Oreni tilefish,
- Any colder/deeper water fish.

 

[HK180]

My holy grail are: copperband butterflyfish (now 9 months old), leopard wrasse (now 1 year old), rhomboid leopard wrasse, and ventralis anthias. I don't think that I'll try ventralis, but would love a harem of royal gramma--great color and activity!

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

It’s a male mal wrasse

I'm on the fence right now if my Male mal gets to stay in the tank.. the sand thrashing good fun and covering all of my corals with sand is getting very old, very fast.

This pic makes me pause...

 

[sfin52]

I'm on the fence right now if my Male mal gets to stay in the tank.. the sand thrashing good fun and covering all of my corals with sand is getting very old, very fast.

This pic makes me pause...

I've never noticed coral covered in sand from my mel. Maybe mine is more gentle. He does make a small poof but thats about it.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I've never noticed coral covered in sand from my mel. Maybe mine is more gentle. He does make a small poof but thats about it.

Any time, Anyone is in the same room as the 180, he goes APE. Biting at the glass, tail swatting the sand ever few seconds. It'll do it for 10 minutes straight. It's knocked multiple glued on acans, off the rocks.

 

[sfin52]

Any time, Anyone is in the same room as the 180, he goes APE. Biting at the glass, tail swatting the sand ever few seconds. It'll do it for 10 minutes straight. It's knocked multiple glued on acans, off the rocks.

Thats insane.

 

[i cant think]

Is this a holy grail? Hoplolatilus chlupatyi (Flashing tilefish). Eating and thriving in my tank for now (Hes been in there for 4-5 days now).

My true holy grail fish I don’t own (Yet) are:
- Achilles tang,
- Marcosi tilefish,
- A second Flashing Tilefish,
- Oreni tilefish,
- Any colder/deeper water fish.

He’s still thriving!! Flashes at any reason he can find too!!

The colours he will change are:
Orange - Often to Camouflage into the rockwork in the caves that get light/Ricordea
Purple/Deep Blue - Often when he’s swimming under a shaded bit of water such as a cave or when my hand is over the tank
Green - Often when the water is tinted green OR to camouflage in with the man made rock that gets a tiny bit of light and a fish swims over him (He normally makes just his dorsal stripe turn green when a fish swims over him in a cave)
Electric Blue - He tends to have this as his resting colour, and zooms around when feeding, he tends to flash between this, Deep Blue and White during feeding time.
White - He tends to flash this when feeding and changes between this, Electric Blue and Deep Blue.
Yellow - I haven’t seen him flash this in a while, he doesn’t have one colour for stress however I think last time he went yellow it was camoflauge reasons.

When stressed -
He does flash when stressed however it has to be something like a VERY high parameter or something that throws him under a bunch of stress. The odd assert of dominance doesn’t send him into flashing however he will hide. He hide when the tang went right at the foxface (It was pretty bad but everyone is alright) to show dominance.
He does not just have one colour that he will flash when stressed. Instead he will change into all of them at a VERY fast pace.

I have owned this specimen for almost two months, I have gotten to learn so much more about the family Malacanthidae, specifically the genus Hoplolatilus with personality. Apparently they all behave the same way except the Orenis. Orenis don’t seem to have quite as much of that jumping sensation as the others in this genus. And yes this specimen has tried to jump but he was bounced back into the water by the mesh lid.

 

[Tcook]

He’s still thriving!! Flashes at any reason he can find too!!

The colours he will change are:
Orange - Often to Camouflage into the rockwork in the caves that get light/Ricordea
Purple/Deep Blue - Often when he’s swimming under a shaded bit of water such as a cave or when my hand is over the tank
Green - Often when the water is tinted green OR to camouflage in with the man made rock that gets a tiny bit of light and a fish swims over him (He normally makes just his dorsal stripe turn green when a fish swims over him in a cave)
Electric Blue - He tends to have this as his resting colour, and zooms around when feeding, he tends to flash between this, Deep Blue and White during feeding time.
White - He tends to flash this when feeding and changes between this, Electric Blue and Deep Blue.
Yellow - I haven’t seen him flash this in a while, he doesn’t have one colour for stress however I think last time he went yellow it was camoflauge reasons.

When stressed -
He does flash when stressed however it has to be something like a VERY high parameter or something that throws him under a bunch of stress. The odd assert of dominance doesn’t send him into flashing however he will hide. He hide when the tang went right at the foxface (It was pretty bad but everyone is alright) to show dominance.
He does not just have one colour that he will flash when stressed. Instead he will change into all of them at a VERY fast pace.

I have owned this specimen for almost two months, I have gotten to learn so much more about the family Malacanthidae, specifically the genus Hoplolatilus with personality. Apparently they all behave the same way except the Orenis. Orenis don’t seem to have quite as much of that jumping sensation as the others in this genus. And yes this specimen has tried to jump but he was bounced back into the water by the mesh lid.

That is a nice fish. I just received a purple tile today and within 1 hour he is swimming all over QT and eating like a beast.

 

[i cant think]

That is a nice fish. I just received a purple tile today and within 1 hour he is swimming all over QT and eating like a beast.

That’s a beautiful specimen!!! My LFS has one and I was so tempted but passed up several times. He only recently made it out of QT so I passed.

 

[Tcook]

That’s a beautiful specimen!!! My LFS has one and I was so tempted but passed up several times. He only recently made it out of QT so I passed.

He hangs out with the cherub angel. He almost eats out of my hand already. I might pick up another one. Love to see a group mixed in with my lyretails in the DT

 

[i cant think]

He hangs out with the cherub angel. He almost eats out of my hand already. I might pick up another one. Love to see a group mixed in with my lyretails in the DT

I hope you do, these fish are vastly unknown to the hobby. It would be great if we could help get more information out about these fish and their care. I’m debating on another flashing tile or a Marcosi tile next (My dream tank is planned around Atleast 4 flashing tilefish haha).

 

[Asuazo25]

We don't get as much traffic over in the Predator Forum as I would like, here are 2 holy grail predators in one tank. This is what you are missing.

love it!!!! .... lost my yellow drawf 2 months ago still bumped about it

 

[Flame2hawk]

That is a nice fish. I just received a purple tile today and within 1 hour he is swimming all over QT and eating like a beast.

Ive seen some occasionally and am now tempted…. Does it need at least 3 inches of mixed substrate for burrowing?

 

[i cant think]

Ive seen some occasionally and am now tempted…. Does it need at least 3 inches of mixed substrate for burrowing?

I find mine doesn’t really use the sand too much, he more makes a small ditch in a cave and turns it into tunnels. It’s not like a true burrowing fish.

 

[Tchung23]

First fish I fell I love with as a kid at my lfs was a mandarin goby.

It was the main reason I started a marine tank 30 years later. Always told they would be too hard to keep cause they only ate pods. Then came captive bred ones!! Now I have one in my 47 g amd he’s big and fat and healthy. I still watch him eat everyday and it totally brings me back to when I was 13!!

It may not be the rarest fish but still my all time favourite!

 

[OrionN]

I have 3 levels of dream fish. 1) doable but not just yet... A. femininus.

2) readily available but impossible to keep (obligate corallivore). C. ornatissiumus

3) very difficult to get, and more than a small compact car. G. personatus

I like this classification:
My level 1 is a Magma Wrasse. This list was long but I was very fortunate and only a few species still on it. Mostly angels and wrasses and an outstading Crocea clam. The clam selection used to be huge and beautiful. I am not sure why we don't have beautiful Crocea available any more. Former level 1 of mine

Level 2, I really don't have one. I was able to obtain and keep a lot of fish and animals in this category. Mandarin, Magnifica anemone, Gigantea anemones... ... ...
For many years it was a Gigantea Anemone. Below is the first ever Gigantea I was able to get to thrive in my tank.

Level 3 Holy Grail fish for me is a Peppermint angel

 

[i cant think]

I have 3 levels of dream fish. 1) doable but not just yet... A. femininus.

2) readily available but impossible to keep (obligate corallivore). C. ornatissiumus

3) very difficult to get, and more than a small compact car. G. personatus

My three levels of animals I’d love…
1) Another tilefish, either a maxima or crocea clam, most of the leopard and Anampses wrasses, Red Rooster Waspfish. They’re only a few of the many on this list. The Hectors goby - Koumansetta hectori - was one of the many on this list (Actually, all of my gobies were in level 1).

2) All of the Corallivorous butterflies, a lot of the dragonets, and a lot more. Here’s one of the fish that used to be on this list.

3) A lot of the rarer Genicanthus angels (Soecifically female personatus), peppermint Angels, Cirrhilabrus sanguinensis, and others.

 

[Tcook]

I like this classification:
My level 1 is a Magma Wrasse. This list was long but I was very fortunate and only a few species still on it. Mostly angels and wrasses and an outstading Crocea clam. The clam selection used to be huge and beautiful. I am not sure why we don't have beautiful Crocea available any more. Former level 1 of mine

Level 2, I really don't have one. I was able to obtain and keep a lot of fish and animals in this category. Mandarin, Magnifica anemone, Gigantea anemones... ... ...
For many years it was a Gigantea Anemone. Below is the first ever Gigantea I was able to get to thrive in my tank.

Level 3 Holy Grail fish for me is a Peppermint angel

TSM had a magma last year. I didn't know much about it back then. Otherwise I would have scooped it up