Show off your tilefish!

[christinna77]

Mine used to get heavily spooked at night - it’s one of the reasons I had the camera on the tanks. And obviously, my skunk getting spooked by having a much larger tank led to his demise unfortunately.

But! Tilefish will hopefully be in my future again, we have a 3 foot peninsula display coming to the shop at some point and you bet my aim is to have a group of tilefish again.
Any thoughts which ones I should try again? Chlupatyi, Purpureus and Marcosi are all in the thought currently.

How big of a tank did you have? Mine is a 3 foot 75g, but I'm planning to upgrade to a 5 foot next year and transfer the tilefish there. I feel like he could use more space, he loves to swim a lot.

And honestly, that's a hard choice, haha! I love all of them. I'm looking for a Purpureus myself now, but one of the stores just got a Starcki in, and I almost purchased one earlier today lol. I also saw a Chlupatyi at my LFS a while back, but it had a severe swim bladder issue, and I didn't want to go through so much stress trying to nurse it back to life like I did with Sushi, so I had to leave him there. :(

I definitely think Sushi would be much calmer if there was another tilefish cruising the tank with him, especially at night when everyone else is asleep but him. I'm curious - did your tilefish actually sleep at night? Mine comes out every half an hour or so for a swim and then goes back to his burrow, and that happens no matter if it's night or day, although he's definitely out more during the day.

 

[Boreas_SA]

Mine used to get heavily spooked at night - it’s one of the reasons I had the camera on the tanks. And obviously, my skunk getting spooked by having a much larger tank led to his demise unfortunately.

But! Tilefish will hopefully be in my future again, we have a 3 foot peninsula display coming to the shop at some point and you bet my aim is to have a group of tilefish again.
Any thoughts which ones I should try again? Chlupatyi, Purpureus and Marcosi are all in the thought currently.

What about oreni? Or fourmanoiri. Both should definitely be on the list to look out for. Got a fourmanoiri pair in the past from Philipines through rvs, and they lived about 8 years, think they died of old age eventually. Oreni prices from Kenya have come down, have a pair currently and they weren’t super expensive.

 

[i cant think]

What about oreni? Or fourmanoiri. Both should definitely be on the list to look out for. Got a fourmanoiri pair in the past from Philipines through rvs, and they lived about 8 years, think they died of old age eventually. Oreni prices from Kenya have come down, have a pair currently and they weren’t super expensive.

Fourmanoiri is on the list! Oreni I just find boring, I’ve never really found the love for them (you’ve probably seen me ranting about them being overhyped and brown at some point in this thread )

 

[Boreas_SA]

Have you seen oreni in real life? The blue is super bright, even more so under aquarium lights:

 

[i cant think]

Have you seen oreni in real life? The blue is super bright, even more so under aquarium lights:

I’ve seen them quite frequently through working within the trade, I’ll admit the blue is vibrant but I just find them quite boring in comparison to other tiles, mainly due to the browner colour, especially on the adults.

 

[Boreas_SA]

I’ve seen them quite frequently through working within the trade, I’ll admit the blue is vibrant but I just find them quite boring in comparison to other tiles, mainly due to the browner colour, especially on the adults.

Guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder I suppose. They were around $150 each, didn't think too bad (we are lucky that we are close-ish to Kenya with direct flights here).

 

[christinna77]

I think oreni are beautiful too, but my main gripe is that they tend to stick to the lower part of the tank compared to other tilefish, at least that's what I've heard if anyone can confirm?

 

[Boreas_SA]

I think oreni are beautiful too, but my main gripe is that they tend to stick to the lower part of the tank compared to other tilefish, at least that's what I've heard if anyone can confirm?

They do, but so did my fourmanoiri.

 

[i cant think]

I think oreni are beautiful too, but my main gripe is that they tend to stick to the lower part of the tank compared to other tilefish, at least that's what I've heard if anyone can confirm?

They are mainly seen in the lower 3rd of the tank, usually around the darker cave systems. Quite a few species do this but Oreni seem to do it the most.

 

[christinna77]

Just wanted to post an update on my search for a purple tilefish (I'm in Canada, so it's much harder to find them). A store just got back to me today - they found one for a custom order! It should arrive there next week.

I'm planning to rearrange part of my tank, since right now the right side has a big slab of base rock, so I want to replace it with something more hollow so the tilefish can dug more caves there. Hoping they'll be friends :) Super excited!

 

[christinna77]

Do your tilefish also like to pretend they're actually jawfish?! Sushi sometimes loves to hang like this for a few minutes!

 

[christinna77]

My LFS just got a new shipment of H. fourmanoiri (or is it luteus? I've read these two species are considered the same one) and they're looking great! Should I grab one for my lonely skunk to pair up with? Or do I wait for a purple one? I've heard yellow ones can be a bit more pushy than others.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

My LFS just got a new shipment of H. fourmanoiri (or is it luteus? I've read these two species are considered the same one) and they're looking great! Should I grab one for my lonely skunk to pair up with? Or do I wait for a purple one? I've heard yellow ones can be a bit more pushy than others.

Those are luteus. Fourmanoiri are mostly silver, with some yellow on the head.

 

[christinna77]

My LFS just got a new shipment of H. fourmanoiri (or is it luteus? I've read these two species are considered the same one) and they're looking great! Should I grab one for my lonely skunk to pair up with? Or do I wait for a purple one? I've heard yellow ones can be a bit more pushy than others.

Those are luteus. Fourmanoiri are mostly silver, with some yellow on the head.

Yeah, so apparently from what I read it's the same fish, just a different color variation. https://www.researchgate.net/public...dae_based_on_morphological_and_molecular_data

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Yeah, so apparently from what I read it's the same fish, just a different color variation. https://www.researchgate.net/public...dae_based_on_morphological_and_molecular_data

Interesting!

 

[christinna77]

Well, Tamago is home! The LFS I picked him up from yesterday has a bit of a questionable history, but considering how hard it is to find a tilefish in Canada, I decided to bite the bullet. He arrived from the supplier on Thursday, and by Saturday he was already eating at the store, so I brought him home the next day. He was housed with 4-5 other tilefish and was the smallest one by far. The others were huge, I'd say close to 6 inches for sure!

It's been super hard to get any decent videos of him since he's been hiding most of the time in QT, but I got a few shots:



I mostly left him alone, but he is eating and slowly starting to explore his QT tank. And he's VERY yellow. Unlike Sushi, I noticed he stays much closer to the ground. I've only seen him go up to the surface once so far. He actually reminds me more of an Oreni tilefish with this behavior, and seems calmer too.

I'm hoping I can get him through QT without issues, and then continue with my bonding experiment

 

[christinna77]

Not sure if anyone is still following around, but I've got some new pictures and footage of Tamago! He's doing really well and always comes out for feeding now :)

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Still lurking here. Picking up a marcosi (skunk) this Friday, I'll make sure to post pics here

 

[i cant think]

Not sure if anyone is still following around, but I've got some new pictures and footage of Tamago! He's doing really well and always comes out for feeding now :)

If my tank was locked down better I’d grab another one in a heart beat. Probably a purpureus next time just due to the brightness of them.

 

[christinna77]

If my tank was locked down better I’d grab another one in a heart beat. Probably a purpureus next time just due to the brightness of them.

This guy's been actually really chill and hasn't tried anything funny yet. He likes to stay low and eats food closer to the sand bed. Meanwhile, my skunk is always skimming the surface like a dolphin and prefers eating from the water column. I'm amazed how different two tilefish can be, actually!