Want to keep bannerfish. Advice needed.

[Eng Keat]

Hi frens,

I intend to keep only mushroom and polyps in my 90g tank.
It had always been my dream to keep either the schooling or
longfin banner fish. :wink:

1) Will the fish pick on the mushroom or polyps? (in your experience)

2) Is 2 pairs too many to keep? (considering the tank size 3x2.5x2)

Thanks
Eng Keat

 

[Eng Keat]

hi,

to add to the above question,

3) how do you tell that the two bannerfish is a pair (as in male n female)

Thanks
:wink:

 

[Len]

Bannerfish will not pick on mushrooms or polyps. Although some people say that Heniochus acuminatus is not as safe as H.diphreutes, my experience tells me they behave the same. Both are reefsafe IMO. But as with some fish like dwarf angels, individual personalities will differ so I can't assure you that all your inverts will be safe.

For a tank your size, I wouldn't recommend more then two specimens, and actually recommend just one. These guys are open water swimmers and will need plenty of room to move around. If the two are not paired, the dominant specimen may bully the other one. There is no outward physical characteristics to sex them and to tell if they are paired or not other then that they both get along. In the wild, they form large schools as you know, usually during mating season. However, in captivity their behavior often times change (like most fish do) due to confinement of space.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't know if they're sexually dimorphic, but some links for you
http://www.fishbase.org (look up the Heniochus)
http://www.reefs.org/library (also use the Advanced Aquarist database)
http://www.wetwebmedia.com (look up Heniochus)

What measurements are those that you're using? Are they feet (U.S. standard)? If so, in my opinion it is a system far too small for Heniochus, mostly for lack of horizontal swimming space. These are very active fish, and I'd be afraid of them "banging" about in such short confines, myself. I think there are other butterflies that would fare better in such a setup.