The Hawkfish Lover Thread!

[Wasabiroot]

Hawk fish are on my short list of fish to keep. Unfortunately with a bangaii and royal gramma, they might be something I save for my future frag system. That personality!!

 

[laverda]

Here's a good question for somebody. Since my flame hawks partner died years ago I've been wanting to get him paired up with a nice young Sheila. Any experience or tips with pairing up hawkish?

I just got one smaller than the one I had. They paired up pretty quickly and spawned recently. I may have just gotten lucky. They are pretty much the same size now

You can see the female is starting to get gavid in the photo below.

 

[revenant]

so cool

 

[Reefbuds]

Oh wow thats awsome! I want to say you got lucky but I really want it to be that easy for me as well. Maybe they aren't like clownfish and pair up relatively easy. You have got to keep us updated on the progress with the pregnancy. @laverda

 

[acanman]

Long nose hawk is my favorite saltwater reef fish. Absolutely love em, and currently looking for one for my new set up if anyone sees any vendors that may have em in stock

 

[laverda]

Oh wow thats awsome! I want to say you got lucky but I really want it to be that easy for me as well. Maybe they aren't like clownfish and pair up relatively easy. You have got to keep us updated on the progress with the pregnancy. @laverda

I really need to learn more about their breeding behavior. One of the pair disappeared for a week or so. I thought I had lost one. My guess is one may have been tending eggs.

 

[Reefbuds]

Really cool, wonder if anyone has successfully bred hawkish before?

 

[laverda]

This got me to do a bit of research. According to Wikipedia and other sites my speculation was wrong.
"Spawning occurs at night, at or near the water's surface. Hawkfishes are pelagic spawners; they release many tiny buoyant eggs which drift with the ocean currents until hatching. Hatching is thought to happen after about three weeks; the distance travelled in this time may explain their exceptionally wide distribution. They have not been successfully bred in the aquarium, with the exception of the longnose hawkfish.

Hawkfishes are noted for their protogynous hermaphrodism; functional females will change into males if the dominant supermale dies. Hawkfishes are generally not sexually dichromatic, meaning the sexes cannot be distinguished by coloration alone."
Makes me wonder why one was missing for a week or so.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I love hawkfish.
Lol

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Longnose

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Caribean orange spotted

 

[Wasabiroot]

I just got one smaller than the one I had. They paired up pretty quickly and spawned recently. I may have just gotten lucky. They are pretty much the same size now

You can see the female is starting to get gavid in the photo below.

Nice! Two weirdos are better than one

 

[Brit’s Fish]

This is our guy, Rocco. He’s a Pixy Hawk who is in his own 32.5G Fluval Flex because he can’t play nice with others. He’s cost me about $800 in tank mates, including the ones who were there before him which was a total heartbreaker. luckily, we have other tanks & were able to move everyone before he took all of them out. My husband absolutely loves him, so sending him back to the LFS was not an option.
We love his personality despite his need to be the King of his castle. My husband swears he likes to watch TikToks with him and he plays “chase my finger” with him every day. He is really tough until your hand is actually in the tank, then he hides.
His favorite pastimes are hunting glass shrimp & watching us all day while we’re working. His tank is right behind our desks in our office. He gets very excited to see me every morning since I am the “food giver”. LOL
We joke that because of his personality, he’s the 2nd line of defense in our shop after our “very fierce” dog. Sometimes he stretches his little mouth out or yawns and you can see his little fangs. His little predator eyes that are able to look straight forward are so dang cool and you never know where he’s watching you from in his little reef. We definitely got a mean one but I hear that some are model citizens. Gotta love these guys!

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Annndddd I now must have a hawk of some flavor.

thanks a lot guys! Lol

 

[Wasabiroot]

That hawk fish is legit like "u wot m8"

 

[Brit’s Fish]

That hawk fish is legit like "u wot m8"

If you’re taking about Rocco, he is not messing around. His life’s motto is “Mess around and find out.” Lol

 

[fisheriesdoc]

Bought Elvis just before the pandemic. Used to joke about who would make it out of quarantine first, me or him, but he ended up beating me by a year.

 

[Reefbuds]

The more hawkish stories I hear the more I realize I got lucky. My flame hawk is totally chill and laid back compared to these guys!

 

[Zionas]

Cute!

 

[BeltedCoyote]

I think I’ll be adding a long nose hawk to my tank. Something about their goofy look lol