Miniatus Grouper

[lion king]

How do you like this guy, he'll be going in my semi aggressive 210g

 

[vetteguy53081]

They are gorgeous and very Hardy BUT . .. also get large and will eat any fish that can fit in its' mouth. They grow hast and should have at least a 150g tank to start with.

 

[Thomashtom]

He will double in size fast!!!!

 

[Spieg]

Beautiful fish but as said, they get big and are eating machines. Nothing "Semi-aggressive" about a Miniatus., when they want to eat something they are relentless.

 

[Jib]

What a great fish, very cool. Once you get him in his big tank you should update us.

 

[lion king]

Here' the set up he is going in. It has a 40g refuge. The tank is lightly stocked with 7 fish, the smallest being a 6" majestic angel and a 6" scopas tang. He's about 6,5" now, I've seen these guys around for 30 years and very rarely saw one much more than 12", really only a few

that were in monster tanks. As far as feeding, that's what the Asian market is for, he fills a spot that my 13" black volitan left behind.

 

[HB AL]

My favorite grouper. Beautiful fish. Thank tank is big enough, they don’t grow as big as some other types of groupers get, nice addition.

 

[1guydude]

Pass... as mentioned. Nothing (semi) aggresive about this fish. It will eat and or kill any other fish... my poor cinnamon clown sat at the top of the water coloum in my 120g 4x2x2... beautiful mean fish.
D

 

[lion king]

Terms like predator, aggressive, semi aggressive are all terms many times used differently than I use them. I call my 210g a semi aggressive tank because no one is beating up on anyone, and the miniatus would be semi aggressive in those terms, there is no one he can eat or anyone he would care to beat up. The miniatus is considered aggressive because he will eat anything that can fit in his mouth, but they usually don't beat up on anyone like say a blueline trigger or emporer angel.

 

[nereefpat]

Beautiful fish.

Tangs, angels, butterflies make great tankmates for those 'smaller' groupers, in my experience.

 

[sp1187]

beautiful fish.
you can use their aggression against them if you ever need to remove it.
an 1/8oz jig on an ultra lite rod and reel work well.

 

[Ed Hutchings]

I had one for years. They are not aggressive towards other fish their size or larger. At least mine wasn't. Now anything you put in there that remotely resembled food to them was gone in an instant.

Like other groupers (I had a few over the years) they will reorganize your tank. They will move substrate to the point of rock structure moving. So keep that in mind.

 

[lion king]

I have had a bit of trouble with this guy, my friend that has alot of experience with groupers, has assured me they can be shy for as long as a few months. He is quite sketchy and I did have to follow up gc treatment with prazi pro, He seems to getting a bit more back to normal, and I did add a friend that may have brought him out of his shell a bit. Yhis should complete the line up for the 210g.

Miniatus grouper
Indian black trigger
Picasso trigget
Yellow belly dogface puffer
Flagfin angel
Majestic angel
Orange shoulder tang
Scopas tang
One spot foxface

 

[Jeffcb]

Very cool.

 

[lion king]

Here's a couple of shots of the tank after the intro. The miniatus has been so painfully shy I almost got rid of him, he was in observation for 2 months. Strangest thing, of all the fish, the scopas tang has been the biggest butt head. The picasso gave the Indian black a little grief the 1st night, but today he's fine. The scopas still tormenting both today. Neither seem to bothered by it much, I just thought it strange coming from the scopas. I think it's a nicd array of color.

 

[burningmime]

What a beautiful fish!

I know that in the wild, eels and groupers will hunt together. Is there any chance of seeing that behaviour in a tank?

 

[1guydude]

Awsome! Beautiful fish. Im glad hes working out.
D

 

[lion king]

What a beautiful fish!

I know that in the wild, eels and groupers will hunt together. Is there any chance of seeing that behaviour in a tank?

Great notion, I bet they would. An eel/grouper tank would be awesome.

 

[lion king]

Couple of weeks in the dt and I think I'll keep him. He's starting to come into his own, I think these guys need other fish around, he really wasn't doing well in observation. He's out about 1/2 the time and even when he's in the rocks, he's visible. I'd like to see him eat more aggressively but he is eating. I was seriously thinking of getting rid of him, so this fish does need patience.

You really don't see them that often, and even though a large fish that needs a sorta large tank, I see many other larger fish that need very large tanks so much more often. This may be why, 3 other miniatus locally just recently all died. Like many fish this one must have just become more widely available, I also saw some on DD, while most online retailers have been out of stock the whole time I'd been looking. My friend at an lfs got one from Quality Marine, he said it died of Ick, but it happened way too fast, i think it must have been velvet. Another friend at a different lfs said they got 2 in and sold them both to different people, then they both died, i don't know how. And I did have my trouble with this one: sketchy miniatus grouper | REEF2REEF Saltwater and Reef Aquarium Forum

 

[lion king]

Now we're talking; lotta color, lotta movement