Flame hawkfish - tell me your stories

[skp]

I've had one that didn't bother cleaner shrimp until the shrimp started to get bold and come out of the rockwork at feeding time and swim for the food. The hawkfish grabbed it in it's mouth (it was a red fire shrimp almost as big as the fish itself) and swam around with it for a bit until it dropped it on the sand to die. It never bothered anemone shrimp, bumble bee shrimp and pistol shrimps.

So I thought that it was just a territorial thing and not a predatorial thing... My current flamehawk, which I thought would be the same, ate a long nose shrimp almost as long as it (took about an hour to swallow it whole), it ate a bumble bee shrimp and ate a small pom pom crab in the first few days after I introduced it. My larger pom pom crab is fine and hangs out right in front of it.

I think the safest thing is to have no shrimp.

 

[triksrevival]

I got mine on divers den. They ate immediately in QT.

 

[Genera]

Ouch, it burns!

 

[FortyFour]

Glad I found this thread. May have found my next addition.

 

[FDAWG]

Double post

 

[Spartanman22]

I've had mine for 4-5 months. He was with a larger cleaner shrimp for the majority of the time until it randomly died. I just added 3 peppermints yesterday so we'll see how he does with those since they are smaller.

All in all they are very interesting and unique fish. Very active and personable and great eaters. Mine will eat pellet throughout the day (autofeeder) and chows down on frozen mysis and brine shrimp.

The only fish my flame is aggressive with is a black leopard wrasse. This is likely due to it being a small tank (25 gallons). The aggression is minimal however. He has been fine with clowns, chalk basslets, threadfin cardinals, coris wrasse, and golden dwarf moray.

 

[brett559]

I've had mine for a few weeks and I really like him. My favorite is when he perches near my royal gramma. The RG will do his huge open mouth thing, and the hawk just sits there. The RG actually will push him away (not bite him) with his gaping mouth. Really fun fish.

 

[jmicky41]

The coolest fish in the sea.

A good cover is a must - they are jumpers.

 

[zooman72]

My first one died after a few months, but it never ate well (went through full and proper quarantine of course) and was not very colorful nor active.

My second one is currently doing very well (had him for a few months now) - very active, bright and eats everything, so I am hopeful for long-term success...

Awesome fish, and one of my favorites, but surprisingly not as bold as my falco hawk in one of my other aquariums.