My experience with a flashing tilefish

[i cant think]

So, when I first saw this fish in the LFS (3 or so weeks before the week I reserved it) I always shrugged it off because I thought it was a common tilefish (Discoloured blue head tilefish). I then saw it flashing and realised it wasn’t what I thought it was, so I reserved it and I’m glad I did! This guy is a beauty even when he isn’t flashing. I reserved it the week I caught it flashing to do more research on the flashing tilefish. I found little to nothing about this fish, everything I found was on how it flashes or why it flashes. I had done a week of research (Atleast 3-4 hours every day). I gave up and looked at the care of other Uncommon-rare tilefish. I then took the care of those guys and thought it would be best to do that to this guy. I bought it home and float acclimated it for 30 minutes (The salinity was the same from the LFS and in my tank). The issue in the tank was a tang and a jade wrasse, surprisingly nobody cares about the new fish and only bickered between eachother. The fish then went down into a cave for about 3 days (I have and do keep wrasse so to me it was normal). I then got worried after the 4th day but later in that day, he started to poke his head out of the cave and take it slowly. About an hour after this he came right out and swam for a bit to eat. It was so shocking but I was also VERY happy he finally came out to eat (I had no idea if he was eating in that cave). The fish that were supposed to be aggressive were the calmest I’ve ever seen them be! He had no stress put on him and didn’t flash at all within the first 3 days (He still hasn’t flashed in this tank and I’m taking that as a VERY good sign). About 6 days in the tank, he was out and about all day long, cruising on one side of the tank and nobody looked at him as if he was a new fish. He’s been in there since November 26th 21 and is from what I can tell, thriving. He took to frozen foods instantly (I have yet to even try pellets with my fish as usually only the clownfish and Genicanthus melanospilos go after them). I hope this information helps to bring more of a success rate out in this fish!
I also want to add, mine is now constantly a beautiful shade of electric blue 24/7, the tail is a slightly dull yellow (Still adds colour to the tank!) and his eye has a bright yellow stripe down it. If I can get my hands on one I would love a purple tilefish to go with this guy and contrast with his blue. I will add how mine pokes his head out of the water when I go up to the tank (He thinks he’s being fed) so I do recommend being careful when working in the DT with this fish and having a tight mesh lid that his head won’t fit through.

Also, forgot to mention but in the photos you can see the scribbled lines under his eyes, they are bright blue and yellow (Reminds me of a dandy beach almost). He also has a beautiful but not 100% obvious line just below his dorsal fin, that’s a yellowish colour.

 

[i cant think]

So, when I first saw this fish in the LFS (3 or so weeks before the week I reserved it) I always shrugged it off because I thought it was a common tilefish (Discoloured blue head tilefish). I then saw it flashing and realised it wasn’t what I thought it was, so I reserved it and I’m glad I did! This guy is a beauty even when he isn’t flashing. I reserved it the week I caught it flashing to do more research on the flashing tilefish. I found little to nothing about this fish, everything I found was on how it flashes or why it flashes. I had done a week of research (Atleast 3-4 hours every day). I gave up and looked at the care of other Uncommon-rare tilefish. I then took the care of those guys and thought it would be best to do that to this guy. I bought it home and float acclimated it for 30 minutes (The salinity was the same from the LFS and in my tank). The issue in the tank was a tang and a jade wrasse, surprisingly nobody cares about the new fish and only bickered between eachother. The fish then went down into a cave for about 3 days (I have and do keep wrasse so to me it was normal). I then got worried after the 4th day but later in that day, he started to poke his head out of the cave and take it slowly. About an hour after this he came right out and swam for a bit to eat. It was so shocking but I was also VERY happy he finally came out to eat (I had no idea if he was eating in that cave). The fish that were supposed to be aggressive were the calmest I’ve ever seen them be! He had no stress put on him and didn’t flash at all within the first 3 days (He still hasn’t flashed in this tank and I’m taking that as a VERY good sign). About 6 days in the tank, he was out and about all day long, cruising on one side of the tank and nobody looked at him as if he was a new fish. He’s been in there since November 26th 21 and is from what I can tell, thriving. He took to frozen foods instantly (I have yet to even try pellets with my fish as usually only the clownfish and Genicanthus melanospilos go after them). I hope this information helps to bring more of a success rate out in this fish!
I also want to add, mine is now constantly a beautiful shade of electric blue 24/7, the tail is a slightly dull yellow (Still adds colour to the tank!) and his eye has a bright yellow stripe down it. If I can get my hands on one I would love a purple tilefish to go with this guy and contrast with his blue. I will add how mine pokes his head out of the water when I go up to the tank (He thinks he’s being fed) so I do recommend being careful when working in the DT with this fish and having a tight mesh lid that his head won’t fit through.

Also, forgot to mention but in the photos you can see the scribbled lines under his eyes, they are bright blue and yellow (Reminds me of a dandy beach almost). He also has a beautiful but not 100% obvious line just below his dorsal fin, that’s a yellowish colour.

I will say, I dropped the surface line down a bit more so it’s now about 1” from the rim of the tank. Ive also caught a small flash of colour recently, I still don’t look at it as a bad sign (It was a quick change from his regular colour to a beautiful snowy white sheen). I would say this is normal because I have only seen it early in the morning for now. When people say “They don’t flash in captivity” I think they do however, I don’t think they do it the way people see in videos (Blue to Purple to Green to White to Yellow ect…) I think it’s often a subtle change from white to its regular colour. In the week I had to read about these fish, it said they stay a dull grey colour long term. I think that they stay a certain colour depending on the lighting and environment they’re in, but it’s been too short of a time period since I’ve kept him to tell. By far a character in the reef and I have a feeling, the best reef fish for tanks with a lid on. I would love groups of this fish to see if that causes a change in how often they flash.

 

[i cant think]

So, he flashed today due to stress however the stress wasn’t directed towards him. The tang was going after the foxface and the tilefish got slightly stressed but has recovered. He flashes orange mainly when stressed but also sometimes when doing a WC and the water Parameters change slightly. He goes green when the water colour is tinted green, he goes electric blue when the water is clear and he goes purple/deep blue when the water is shaded. When he feeds, he goes white and blue however he goes white when he goes after the food and grabs it then goes blue when he’s up in the water column and not going for it.
The pecking order in the tank is changing around now the wrasses are getting bigger and the foxface is trying to keep peace. The Angel, CBB, Radiant wrasse and tilefish get along just fine But the rest are dealing with the pecking order. He has jumped this morning but that was my fault, I accidentally hit the door to the cabinet under the tank. The main few fish he shys away from are:
- Jade wrasse
- Black Margin Fairy Wrasse
- Twinspot Bristletooth Tang
He doesn’t get as scared around the others however he does try to avoid the other fairies and foxface. The Angel and Radiant are the only fish he isn’t scared of and hangs around much more.

 

[Kayanarka]

That sounds like a really cool fish. It would be awesome to see a video of him changing/flashing.

 

[i cant think]

So, he flashed today due to stress however the stress wasn’t directed towards him. The tang was going after the foxface and the tilefish got slightly stressed but has recovered. He flashes orange mainly when stressed but also sometimes when doing a WC and the water Parameters change slightly. He goes green when the water colour is tinted green, he goes electric blue when the water is clear and he goes purple/deep blue when the water is shaded. When he feeds, he goes white and blue however he goes white when he goes after the food and grabs it then goes blue when he’s up in the water column and not going for it.
The pecking order in the tank is changing around now the wrasses are getting bigger and the foxface is trying to keep peace. The Angel, CBB, Radiant wrasse and tilefish get along just fine But the rest are dealing with the pecking order. He has jumped this morning but that was my fault, I accidentally hit the door to the cabinet under the tank. The main few fish he shys away from are:
- Jade wrasse
- Black Margin Fairy Wrasse
- Twinspot Bristletooth Tang
He doesn’t get as scared around the others however he does try to avoid the other fairies and foxface. The Angel and Radiant are the only fish he isn’t scared of and hangs around much more.

He’s starting to come out much more, it was just a week or so of having to get reused to the other guys. Here’s a couple photos I got today.

He’s a wonder to have, I really wish I can get some more information about these fish and help people realise they aren’t actually hard fish to own and are instead much more like the Radiant Wrasses.

Here’s some copied information I said from another thread.

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) also during a water change he will change to green.
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 . The odd assert of dominance doesn’t send him into flashing however he will hide.

He hid 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.

 

[shakacuz]

wow this is interesting. i haven’t heard of this fish before!

 

[i cant think]

wow this is interesting. i haven’t heard of this fish before!

It’s a rather uncommon fish, I love both how timid he is and how much of a spotlight fish he is.

 

[i cant think]

So, I’ve mentioned what colours he goes, how long I’ve had him, how easy he is, how he will jump every so often, now, what do I feed? Since I have 2 tanks I feed:
2 Cubes of Frozen Mysis
3 Cubes of Frozen Brine
Some algae every so often

He eats Mysis and Brine however, algae I haven’t seen him eat yet. He eats basically anything, he has eaten pellets but I haven’t fed them in a while and he often only eats the ones that float down past his cave (He probably would eat some that are at the top if he was out already).
If you want to know anything else I’d love to help
Enjoy a photo I got earlier when the sun hit his fins at the right angle.

 

[i cant think]

That sounds like a really cool fish. It would be awesome to see a video of him changing/flashing.

I’m working on it, not easy to time it right when he’s going to flash.
I found an old video of him flashing!!


It’s not a great video when it was uploaded due to the blur.

 

[Kayanarka]

He’s starting to come out much more, it was just a week or so of having to get reused to the other guys. Here’s a couple photos I got today.

He’s a wonder to have, I really wish I can get some more information about these fish and help people realise they aren’t actually hard fish to own and are instead much more like the Radiant Wrasses.

Here’s some copied information I said from another thread.

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) also during a water change he will change to green.
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 . The odd assert of dominance doesn’t send him into flashing however he will hide.

He hid 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.

You are making me want one. Where did you get him?

 

[i cant think]

You are making me want one. Where did you get him?

My LFS had one in, I bought him after a week of reservation. I think if you ask the LFS to get one in, they can probably get one. I don’t recommend shipping one since they’re not great shippers. If you can get one from an online retailer that does have rather good ways of shipping their sensitive fish, that is always an option
I would say try research this fish more but, unfortunately this specific species doesn’t have much information on it other than why they flash. If possible I would recommend trying to get a second tilefish (Even if it was a different species) since two tilefish tend to help eachother settle down compared to just a single specimen. It’s on my wish list to grab either a second flashing tile OR a marcosi tile yo put with this specimen.

 

[i cant think]

I think Reef pro gets them in from time to time if you’re in the US so it may be worth trying their website. Blue zoo may also get them in every so often

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Very cool!

 

[i cant think]

I think I need to change over from slightly aggressive wrasse to tilefish. The temptation to ask my LFS to grab hold of a Marcosi or grab that purple tilefish they own is killing me. I’m debating on replacing my Jade with a tilefish instead of the second iridis or leopard/tamarin wrasse.

 

[vahegan]

I had one for a few months, quite a few years ago. Fantastic fish. I lost him due to jumping, unfortunately Have been looking for one ever since, but never could find one on sale.

 

[i cant think]

I had one for a few months, quite a few years ago. Fantastic fish. I lost him due to jumping, unfortunately Have been looking for one ever since, but never could find one on sale.

If you’re in the states I recommend:
Reef Pro, these seem to be getting quite good reviews, I know a couple people have gained Kuiters wrasses from these guys and they’ve checked in with how the fish is doing the next day.
Blue Zoo also get some good reviews from people who get their fish.
If you’re in the UK (You could do this in the US too) I recommend:
Trying to get on a bunch of waiting lists to see if your most local LFS’s can get Atleast one of these fish in.
As I stated previously, if possible it’s always better to get two tilefish (Even if they aren’t the same species) since these fish are social in the wild and prefer to be in pairs/trios. Larger numbers of tilefish will also work. It doesn’t matter if the tilefish aren’t all the same species, even if one’s a Flashing tilefish (H. chlupatyi) and the other is a Marcosi tilefish (H. marcosi) it will still work since they will be similar body shapes and probably huddle together.

 

[vahegan]

If you’re in the states I recommend:
Reef Pro, these seem to be getting quite good reviews, I know a couple people have gained Kuiters wrasses from these guys and they’ve checked in with how the fish is doing the next day.
Blue Zoo also get some good reviews from people who get their fish.
If you’re in the UK (You could do this in the US too) I recommend:
Trying to get on a bunch of waiting lists to see if your most local LFS’s can get Atleast one of these fish in.
As I stated previously, if possible it’s always better to get two tilefish (Even if they aren’t the same species) since these fish are social in the wild and prefer to be in pairs/trios. Larger numbers of tilefish will also work. It doesn’t matter if the tilefish aren’t all the same species, even if one’s a Flashing tilefish (H. chlupatyi) and the other is a Marcosi tilefish (H. marcosi) it will still work since they will be similar body shapes and probably huddle together.

Thanks for the tips, I can't think. I am on the other side of the globe, in a teeny-tiny country called Armenia, and we do not have many importers here. I tried importing at one time, although on the freshwater side, but the market is small and it didn't make much sense for me continuing. Then, my friend was an importer, and he was doing marine fishes too - that's how I got my Chulupatyi tilefish. When I lost it, we were trying to get some in with every order my friend did, but they were never fulfilled. I guess they are either seasonal, or difficult to catch: you can frequently find them on the export companies price lists, but mostly not in stock... My friend also left that business a few years ago, and thus the chances of me getting hold of these fish are very low now.

 

[i cant think]

Thanks for the tips, I can't think. I am on the other side of the globe, in a teeny-tiny country called Armenia, and we do not have many importers here. I tried importing at one time, although on the freshwater side, but the market is small and it didn't make much sense for me continuing. Then, my friend was an importer, and he was doing marine fishes too - that's how I got my Chulupatyi tilefish. When I lost it, we were trying to get some in with every order my friend did, but they were never fulfilled. I guess they are either seasonal, or difficult to catch: you can frequently find them on the export companies price lists, but mostly not in stock... My friend also left that business a few years ago, and thus the chances of me getting hold of these fish are very low now.

They’re a seasonal fish and my LFS were unsure if they got the last one of that season or not. So I didn’t take it to chance and reserved it that week and picked it up the next Friday.

 

[i cant think]

My main hopes on making this thread is that it helps people who want to own a tilefish but don’t get greeted with a “It jumps” or “It wont live long”.

Also now I’ve mentioned jumping I have figured out a pattern of him jumping. He won’t JUST jump when scared, he does jump to get food or when he’s truly hungry and knows someone else is in the room. He only jumps when someone else is in the room and he can see them. I have got several 45-50 minute long videos of my tank and not one of them shows this fish jumping or trying to jump.

 

[Adamantium]

Thanks for the details! Info about these guys is pretty sparse.