Show off your tilefish!

[christinna77]

I still need to find a healthy skunk tile, and hopefully a blueface as well. Gonna put both in the 900g with the oreni and the purple

I saw a beautiful Oreni at my LFS over the weekend, but I've been holding out for either a Randall's or another Yellow tilefish. I was especially fond of my yellow one that unfortunately passed away. He'd hover lower in the water column, similar to an Oreni, and wasn't nearly as twitchy or jumpy as the purples and skunks.

I know NYAquatic has one, but I'm not sure about the quality of their fish, especially since I'd have to cross the border to pick one up

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I saw a beautiful Oreni at my LFS over the weekend, but I've been holding out for either a Randall's or another Yellow tilefish. I was especially fond of my yellow one that unfortunately passed away. He'd hover lower in the water column, similar to an Oreni, and wasn't nearly as twitchy or jumpy as the purples and skunks.

I know NYAquatic has one, but I'm not sure about the quality of their fish, especially since I'd have to cross the border to pick one up

I've ordered from them a few times. Hit or miss. Some stuff came really nice, other stuff came in rough shape and was dead in 24 hrs.

As a whole, I'm no longer ordering any fish online, and will make the drive for anything I wish to purchase. Thankfully I have 6 or so stores within 3 hours (roundtrip) of me that carry a pretty wide selection of fish.

 

[christinna77]

I've ordered from them a few times. Hit or miss. Some stuff came really nice, other stuff came in rough shape and was dead in 24 hrs.

As a whole, I'm no longer ordering any fish online, and will make the drive for anything I wish to purchase. Thankfully I have 6 or so stores within 3 hours (roundtrip) of me that carry a pretty wide selection of fish.

Wow, I wish! That's a great selection. I really only have two stores close by, and I had to ban myself from buying fish from one of them. I got three batches from them and every single one had either ich or flukes. I ended up having some pretty heartbreaking losses because of that.

So now I'm basically left with one store and they don't do custom orders, so I just have to hope I get lucky with whatever they bring in. Or custom order online and hope they survive the shipping, which is really hard on tilefish to begin with.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Wow, I wish! That's a great selection. I really only have two stores close by, and I had to ban myself from buying fish from one of them. I got three batches from them and every single one had either ich or flukes. I ended up having some pretty heartbreaking losses because of that.

So now I'm basically left with one store and they don't do custom orders, so I just have to hope I get lucky with whatever they bring in. Or custom order online and hope they survive the shipping, which is really hard on tilefish to begin with.

Fwiw I quarantine everything, including the tilefish with cupramine and prazi pro. No problems with either med. I ramp the cupramine up to therapeutic range over 5 days or so.

 

[christinna77]

Wow, I wish! That's a great selection. I really only have two stores close by, and I had to ban myself from buying fish from one of them. I got three batches from them and every single one had either ich or flukes. I ended up having some pretty heartbreaking losses because of that.

So now I'm basically left with one store and they don't do custom orders, so I just have to hope I get lucky with whatever they bring in. Or custom order online and hope they survive the shipping, which is really hard on tilefish to begin with.

Fwiw I quarantine everything, including the tilefish with cupramine and prazi pro. No problems with either med. I ramp the cupramine up to therapeutic range over 5 days or so.

Yeah, I run mine through copper power, prazi/GC. They did pretty well in hypo too, but I did have to go a bit slower to hit the therapeutic levels.

 

[christinna77]

So I've become really interested (or obsessed?!) in seeing the different behaviors of tilefish, especially in the wild, since there's so little footage! Anyway, I started putting together a small archive: https://archive.tilefi.sh/

It includes photos and videos I've been able to find so far. Media that is freely licensed or videos that allow embedding can be viewed directly on the site. For copyrighted media or items without clear licensing information, it has a small reference thumbnail that links back to the original source.

The archive covers both Hoplolatilus and Malacanthus genera and you can filter entries by species, aquarium or wild observation, etc.

I hope you find it useful too! If you know of anything that should be included or have your own images/videos you'd like added, feel free to submit it via the About section

 

[christinna77]

I just wanted to post a quick update to this thread. I'll also be updating my article on tilefish after making several observations myself and reading about similar experiences from another member here.

I keep seeing tilefish described as extremely peaceful fish that can be kept in groups and would never bully anything. But the more experience I have with them, the more I realize this is absolutely not always true.

While tilefish are easily bullied by other fish, they can and absolutely will become the bullies themselves, especially toward similarly shaped fish and even their own kind.

Here are a few things I've personally observed, along with some experiences shared by others:

• Purple tilefish bullying another purple tilefish: One of my purple tilefish started bullying its tankmate when the other was already dealing with an infection. I believe it sensed the other fish was weak and took advantage of it.
• Purple tilefish picking at an injured tankmate: Another member reported their purple tilefish picking at another purple tilefish's popeye, making the injury worse.
• Skunk tilefish chasing a Terelabrus wrasse: I've occasionally seen my skunk tilefish bump into or chase away my Terelabrus wrasse, which has a somewhat similar body shape and stripes. No actual fighting, but definitely displays of dominance.
• Skunk tilefish viciously bullying razor gobies: This has been probably the worst case I've personally witnessed. My skunk tilefish was relentlessly nipping at my razor gobies, to the point where I had to put him in timeout.
• Skunk tilefish chasing a purple tilefish: I've also seen my skunk tilefish occasionally bump into and chase away a much smaller purple tilefish. Again, nothing too serious, but definitely asserting dominance there.
• Possible aggression toward a yellowtail tamarin wrasse: This one is unconfirmed, but I suspect my skunk tilefish may have harassed/startled my yellowtail tamarin wrasse at night last year. The wrasse was doing well and had finally started eating frozen, only to be found dead the next morning. My suspicion is that the tilefish caused it to panic and possibly run into the glass.

That said, I've never noticed any aggression or dominance issues toward fish with very different body shapes, such as butterflies, tangs, pipefish.

I'm not saying tilefish are aggressive fish, because they're definitely not. But I do think their general reputation as completely peaceful harmless fish is a bit misleading. They're very capable of asserting dominance, becoming territorial and even seriously bullying other fish under certain circumstances.

Here's a video of my skunk tilefish viciously bullying my razor gobies:



Not quite the little angels we once thought they were!