Breeding Hawkfish?

[dark_lotis]

Sorry for the out of place post but it won't let me search so i was wandering if anyone can point me in the right direction. I was wanting some info on breeding the falco or pixie hawk fish. I would be very thankful for any help.

 

[billsreef]

I'll think this will do better as a thread of it's own instead of buried in a thread on another subject

 

[mwp]

HMM....what do we know about Hawkfish.

1. Hermaphroditic (sweet). In theory, two small ones could form a pair. Possibly even able to switch back and forth between sexes "at will"

2. There's a big article on them in Coral Magazine, sometime in '06. A lot of what I personally know comes from reading that through several times.

3. Pelagic spawners, which means small eggs most likely. Means tough to raise. Also means tank height may play a factor in successful spawnings.

4. Longnose Hawks I think have the most reports / anedotal info on their breeding, and apparently even may have some dichromatic traits between the sexes. When I saw 2 "tiny" longnose hawks at a LFS, we're talking less than 2", it took all the willpower I had not to plunk the $100 right then and there!

5. As far as I'm aware, no one's raised them. Not sure anyone's even TRIED to raise them.

My top picks for suitable candiates would be the Flame Hawk, Longnose Hawk, and the kinda unrelated "Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish" that's running around...in fact that last one IS on my "TO DO" list 'cause I'm pretty sure I can just cram them into one of my tanks somewhere...just need to find more than one a shot locally, and not at $100 a pop, or toss them in an order the next time I order something online.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

Matt,

Long nose and flame did spawn in my tanks regularly - now I have two new pairs and so far only the long nose does. The female of the long nose died before and I replaced her with a very small one, of course the assumption was the older male would have been transforming to a female. But nope - he stayed male and acts as a male with the new smaller one. Belly shape before spawning was always a clear sign to determine the sex.

I believe you underestimate the pygmy hawk P. inermis. They are quite aggressive towards congeners and not that easy to keep as they are very very slow eaters. I could not determine any sex and lost them all over a periode of 16 month. Their secretive life style will also make a potential courtship observation very very difficult. I would try with the long nose as they seem to be the most easiest to motivate for reproduction.

 

[Luis A M]

Peter,
I think all sequential hermaphrodites other than clowns are protogynous,female to male,speaking of aquarium fish.
Paired long noses stay close together.I couldn´t see any different colour marks,though.

 

[David M]

FWIW I kept a large mature pair of Arc-eye hawkfish for well over a year, maybe two. Dedicated 29 gallon tank, well fed, dense coral skeleton environment... nothing. Never once saw any sign of spawning behavior though they were clearly a m/f pair. Finally gave up and sold them. I just happened to come across the pair on a fluke so my original thinking was to practice with them and move on to flames

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

David,

size does matter - I don't think they will spawn in such a small tank. My long nose and flame are in my 320 g

 

[David M]

That may well be it Peter, I just wasn't willing to provide them more space. They were pretty aggressive and I can only assume would be worse if spawning, so not my idea of a "community" reef fish. Next trip to LA I might pick up some long nose just to experiment with pairing and such.