What is a Fish That You Love but No One Talks About

[i cant think]

The Japanese golden hawkfish:

I just wanted to say, that photo is of the Tahitian Golden Hawkfish and not the Japanese.
These can be nasty, in my time in the LFS we had a huge one of these guys and he would happily bite you when feeding, however they are beautiful and worth the money. Just be careful as they will boss around even a Sohal tang.

 

[A Young Reefer]

I just wanted to say, that photo is of the Tahitian Golden Hawkfish and not the Japanese.
These can be nasty, in my time in the LFS we had a huge one of these guys and he would happily bite you when feeding, however they are beautiful and worth the money. Just be careful as they will boss around even a Sohal tang.

yes you are right I confused the two, the Japanese imo are not as good looking as tahitian. For the behavior, I am not surprised hawkfish are known to be little buggers.
I will edit my post to avoid any confusion thank you!

 

[i cant think]

yes you are right I confused the two, the Japanese imo are not as good looking as tahitian. For the behavior, I am not surprised hawkfish are known to be little buggers.

I agree with the Japanese not looking as nice, and the behaviour is certainly to be expected considering the family they’re in.

Personally, my favourite hawkfish is the LyreTail or SwallowTail Hawk, Cyprinocirrhites polyactis. It’s up there on my wish list of fish for sure. P.S. Not my photo however this is extremely close to looks in person as I have had this species in a 7’ tank with several other hawks when working in the LFS.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Lubbock's fairy wrasse! Totally underrated

 

[Rmckoy]

Any butterflyfish ….
not much mentioned about them anymore

don’t even see them often in any lfs around here

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

Any butterflyfish ….
not much mentioned about them anymore

don’t even see them often in any lfs around here

What happened to butterfly fish? When I was in the hobby back in the 90s they were all over the place in every LFS you walked into. I've been back into the hobby for a year now and I rarely see them nor hear about them.

 

[i cant think]

What happened to butterfly fish? When I was in the hobby back in the 90s they were all over the place in every LFS you walked into. I've been back into the hobby for a year now and I rarely see them nor hear about them.

They’re still around it’s just that people are aware of their difficulty now and so they don’t appear often.

This is my now 3 year old CBB being crazy as always

Lubbock's fairy wrasse! Totally underrated

Agreed. They’re extremely underrated, even the Cebu Variant is a beauty.
These are my two - Cebu is the bottom photo and the Indonesian variant is the top photo.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

They’re still around it’s just that people are aware of their difficulty now and so they don’t appear often.

This is my now 3 year old CBB being crazy as always

Agreed. They’re extremely underrated, even the Cebu Variant is a beauty.
These are my two - Cebu is the bottom photo and the Indonesian variant is the top photo.

Also I did end up finding a lubbock's and my brother is quarantining it for me right now!

 

[A Young Reefer]

They’re still around it’s just that people are aware of their difficulty now and so they don’t appear often.

This is my now 3 year old CBB being crazy as always

Agreed. They’re extremely underrated, even the Cebu Variant is a beauty.
These are my two - Cebu is the bottom photo and the Indonesian variant is the top photo.

My CBB is not doing so hot rn. It won’t even touch apitasia.

 

[i cant think]

Also I did end up finding a lubbock's and my brother is quarantining it for me right now!

That’s great to hear! Do you know the variant?

My CBB is not doing so hot rn. It won’t even touch apitasia.

Hopefully it turns around for you, do you know what it may eat? anything like snails and sponges?

 

[A Young Reefer]

That’s great to hear! Do you know the variant?



Hopefully it turns around for you, do you know what it may eat? anything like snails and sponges?

my clam is all what I saw it eating, trying to source frozen clams around here but having no luck with that.

 

[besskurz]

Green bird nose wrasse.
Not even sure if it's allowed to keep them at home. I never saw it in any fish stores - but im not a good parameter as well.

Guess where I saw him?

 

[i cant think]

Green bird nose wrasse.
Not even sure if it's allowed to keep them at home. I never saw it in any fish stores - but im not a good parameter as well.

Guess where I saw him?

I cant see the video however I’m assuming it’s Gomphosus varius that you’re on about. If so then yes we can keep them in captivity however they’re known for being nasty and preying on small elongated fish such as gobies.

 

[A Young Reefer]

Green bird nose wrasse.
Not even sure if it's allowed to keep them at home. I never saw it in any fish stores - but im not a good parameter as well.

Guess where I saw him?

I saw them a couple of times at my lfs, not living in the states though.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

What happened to butterfly fish? When I was in the hobby back in the 90s they were all over the place in every LFS you walked into. I've been back into the hobby for a year now and I rarely see them nor hear about them.

The idea that they don't belong in reef tanks took over a while ago and no one bought them anymore. While the vast majority of butterflies are not reef safe to a degree, that doesn't mean any and all corals will be decimated if they fall in their sightline. I've done a lot of experimenting to find how butterflies really do in reefs, and I have my own delineanations of which types of butterflies go well with most corals, some corals, and almost no corals. It has to do with mouth shape.

I've had a longnose butterfly in my reef for quite a while now, and the only thing he's ever picked at were dying brain corals and once-in-a-while the mantle of a giant clam. They're very smart fish, and he actually prefers to eat from my fingers because it's easier than catching food out of the water with chopsticks on your face.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

Green bird nose wrasse.
Not even sure if it's allowed to keep them at home. I never saw it in any fish stores - but im not a good parameter as well.

Guess where I saw him?

One of my favorite wrasses. They just get very large, are very active, and eat small animals that fit in their surprisingly large mouth, including shrimp and small fish, so most don't consider them reef safe.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

These are the largest of the Combtooth Blennies, maxing out at just under 2ft (20 inches). These are known for swimming in open water (similarly to snake eels which they seem to imitate to some degree) however they remain on Sandy bottoms where they inhabit other fishes burrows.
Xiphasia species are sometimes caught in traps which has proven to science that previously believed they were confined to being bottom dwellers that in fact they do swim and tend to hang around ‘floating’ objects.
The way these guys go into burrows is tail first and often divers diving round Australia just see the head of this fish projecting from the sand.

If you’re interested, the scientific name of this specific Combtooth blenny is Xiphasia setifer. There are no reports of this species in captivity to my knowledge however if it was imported I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a hard one to get hold of. This is a fish I wish was in the hobby and if it ever is, I highly doubt I won’t try to get hold of it. This is one of the few Blennies that I dream of doing more research on and actually having experience with it both in captivity and in the wild.

Only place I've seen offer to sell these was MarinefishEZ, which I'm pretty sure is a scam website so...

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The idea that they don't belong in reef tanks took over a while ago and no one bought them anymore. While the vast majority of butterflies are not reef safe to a degree, that doesn't mean any and all corals will be decimated if they fall in their sightline. I've done a lot of experimenting to find how butterflies really do in reefs, and I have my own delineanations of which types of butterflies go well with most corals, some corals, and almost no corals. It has to do with mouth shape.

I've had a longnose butterfly in my reef for quite a while now, and the only thing he's ever picked at were dying brain corals and once-in-a-while the mantle of a giant clam. They're very smart fish, and he actually prefers to eat from my fingers because it's easier than catching food out of the water with chopsticks on your face.

Wow had no clue that butterflies could be that dangerous toward coral. I might have had one when I was a kid? but we never had coral.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Lubbock's fairy wrasse! Totally underrated

Haven't heard of that wrasse but I love the colors on it!

 

[Steve and his Animals]

Wow had no clue that butterflies could be that dangerous toward coral. I might have had one when I was a kid? but we never had coral.

That's just the thing, everyone overblows how butterflies eat any and all coral and if you put them in a reef you're basically throwing all your coral in the trash. I'm saying that's clearly not the case. Just look at everything in my reef in that video. You have to know butterflies from each other so you can plan your coral stocking accordingly.