Flame Hawkfish Definitive Care Thread

[Reefanatic24/7]

I love these fish but haven't kept one yet and I want to start a  "Care Guide" of sorts for others, including myself. So! I'd appreciate it if you guys shared past experiences, lessons, and tips (Funny anecdotes are more than welcome 🙂!)  And has anyone successfully bred them before? I couldn't find any info on MBI (Marine Breeder Initiative)🤔

[FISHnChix]

Well have a screen top, even though they hang around rocks they are jumpers.  Mine jumped once and I found it before it was too late.m the second time I wasnt so lucky 😪

[OldManSea]

I have a pair in a 170 liter tank.  I made the pair by purchasing two at the same times do putting them in the tank.   They often sit on top of one another when waiting for food.  I feed meaty things - chopped shrimp, clams and scallops.  They like mysis shrimp and clownfish pellets.  They even eat a bit of nori but that is down the list as a favorite food..  I have had this pair for 2.5 years.  I had another pair about 20 years ago.  The hawkfish expert, whose name I don’t recall off hand (but you can find if you go to Coral magazine’s website and look in the archives for the hawkfish issue - which you should purchase as a back issue) - says that she always keeps all hawkfish species in pairs.  The dominant one becomes the male ( I believe that is correct although with my pair the female is the dominant one - or at least the more gregarious.

 

My flame hawkfish are great pigs, they have very large mouths and will eat until they are round if allowed to.  With flame hawkfish you will never have any snail, no matter how large, or any crab or shrimp.  Your hawkfish will kill and eat them very quickly.  My cleanup crew consists of tuxedo urchins, which hawkfish ignore.  

 

Once paired and mature they are easy to sex, the female will always be plump with eggs.  Mine spawn several times each week.  When spawning after the tank lights are off the pair “runs” up the glass to the surface - the expert says that she has lost individuals of several species when they do not stop the run at the surface and dive onto the floor through some small opening in the cover.

 

Interestingly, while it is easy to collect eggs there are no reports of successful rearing.  This is all the more strange since flame hawkfish, and hawkfish in general are popular and not inexpensive.

 

Flame hawkfish are great pets.  Mine follow me around the tank as I move around it examining all the nooks and crannies.  The female tends to have her face pressed against the glass as close to my face as possible.  The male stays back a bit, generally on a rock outcropping.  If I look from what I am doing toward him, he doesnt move his body, but he rotates his eyes in a different direction pretending to not be watching me.  The movable eyes are their greatest attribute, gives them character and seems to indicate intelligence.