Hamlet Care

[hawkey992]

I'm very interested in adding a Hamlet to my 90 gallon. It seems that these fishes are hard to come by and less common in aquariums but I'm curious if anyone has any experience with these fishes on how to care for them or how to find one.

 

[JHemdal]

Their care is pretty straightforward. Think of them as a small grouper. They reach about 5". Most of them seem to be active mimics of other fish - but only in the eyes of the crustaceans that they eat. So - a "shy hamlet" is actually a mimic of a rock beauty. A shrimp sees it through its eyes and can't tell the difference - but aquarists easily can. So , the model is diifcult for people to identify. Some of the hamlets are mimics of larger damselfish and the blue hamlet is a good mimic of the blue chromis.
At one time, they were are all considered the same species since the ONLY way to tell them apart is by color pattern. Taxonomists then decided to split them into a bunch of different species, but I've never been convinced that the differences in these fish is genetic and not environmental. In any event, expect a hamlet's coloration to fade greatly in captivity - that single point is probably what is making them "rare" in the trade as they certainly are not that rare on reefs.

Jay

 

[hawkey992]

Yea, I read that it can be interesting to keep a hamlet with the fish that it mimics, they sound fun

 

[splateee]

I had an Indigo Blue Hamlet for a long time. They are great. They tend to be a little on the shy side at first and then come out in the open more once they settle in. I would make sure that you do not have any fish that can fit in their mouths. They will eat pretty much all foods. I had him with triggers and eels and there were no problems. We had a lawnmower blenny and one day i saw it stuffed in his mouth. He then died the next day