Harlequin Fish Advise

[fahadahmed]

Location: Des Plaines, IL (Chicago)
Occupation: Computer Engineering & Student @ Reef Central
Posts: 245


Harlequin Tusk
I have been asked by my wife and kids time and time over to get harlequin tusk. I do understand that this fish may not be reef safe. I am going to make a 125 Gallon FOWLR tank for him.

What are the Pros and Cons of this fish?

 

[AquaKnight]

Pros: Beautiful fish, No problems eating, generally gets along with other fish, can hold his own against more aggressive tankmates, Coral safe

Cons: Somewhat disease prone, definitely a must for proper QT, Price, loves most invertebrates (mine would bite jumbo 4" live bait shrimp in half!), needs a larger tanks (125 is good!), difficulty in determining whether one is an Indo-Pacific Tusk or Australian Tusk. Indo-Pacific's are supposedly less hardy due to cyanide collection.

One thing I've noticed with Tusks is that the "bad" ones seem to breach the top of the water a lot. Some would sit on the intake and have part of them out of the water for extend period. I attest this to cyanide collection damaging the fish

 

[Gwynhidwy]

Tusks are really very neat fish, very personable with many learning to eat out their owner's hand. They are very good eaters and at least in my experience are both hard and disease resistant once acclimated which usually goes smoothly if they have been handled even decently. As far as I know, they are also coral friendly. They get along well with most fish too.

The only cons in my opinion are the price of the fish and the fact that they will chow down on any mobile invertebrates.

As Aquaknight407 said, you are MUCH better off with the Australian Harlequin Tusk. Most people think they are better looking because they have more blue, including their teeth, and usually brighter orange, and won't have been cyanide caught. Live Aquaria has the Australians quite regularly in their diver's den and also have them in stock in their regular section and they sell them clearly labeled as Australian and Indo Pacific.

 

[Capt. Nemo]

I would highly recommend purchasing a beautiful Australian Harlequin Tusk from Live Aquaria's Diver's Den. I purchased mine from there 3 months ago and I absolutely love the fish. You also cant beat the customer service you get with Live Aquaria.

 

[rachenbrazil]

HT is a wonderfull fish , just remember to put glass cover over the tank as this fish can jump in first 30 min after lights off...
Aussie fishes are the best... indo maybe cool if you buy a specimen that swings normally and quarantine it for 30 days... they usually carries ich with them... not sensitive to them if tank water quality is perfect ...
They do eat shirimps , snails and hermits... but not agressive to other fishes (in my FOWLR , a queen angel (3 inch) pests my 3 inch HT since... so I recomend you to place the HT first if you wish to have more agressive fishes like triggers and angels...
In some large reef tanks you can see this fish swiming as in the Palleta's book Ultimate marine aquariums

 

[fahadahmed]

What is different about Diver's Den in Live Aquaria

 

[sweetrav18]

Divers den fish have been QT'd and are actual pictures of the fish you'll be getting

 

[Gwynhidwy]

I've NEVER seen an unhealthy fish come from the Diver's Den area at Live Aquaria and they always eat right out of the bag, no kidding. I wish they had more fish in there, I'd buy everything there if I could. I haven't been able to find anywhere else with such consistent quality and healthy stock.

 

[fahadahmed]

so, is there a big difference between buying from diver's den and regular live aquaria? sems like they both follow the same QT procudure.

 

[fahadahmed]

So, my fish has arrived from Live Aquaria's Diver's Den. It looks very good and they were eating with in an hour of being in the tank.

 

[fahadahmed]

oh...BTW, I ordered the Harlequin and Majestic on this round. The Harlequin is getting along very well with the inverts including the shrimps.

 

[danorth]

Tusks are great. I kept 2 together for over a year and a half. Sadly my larger one is blind now. According to WWM it isn't that horribly uncommon for this fish. But, don't let that change your mind, get one. They are very pretty.

 

[agreeive?fish]

i think i could deal with a blind fish..you see my wife has an ankle bitter dog that is blind in one eye..cant see out of the other and very close to being deaf...(18 years old) sleeps all day then when it is bed time it sits in its doggy bed and barks and barks and barks..you get it out of its bed and 2 min later its back in it barking again..so if i can put up with this ( i have to because of wife as it was a package deal..to get wife had to take dog) i can definatley target feed a blind fish...oh i had a aussie harliquin until the tank crash of 2007/2008 where i lost 90% of my tank..the fish was wonderful and iam now looking for another one as iam now rebuilding my tanks