I'm going to try something new here. Each week I'm going to post about a different marine fish, some of them will be really odd fish and others will be more common fish that almost everyone has had. I hope that people will join in to add comments or ask questions about the fish!
This weeks fish focus is on the Purple Sand Tilefish - Hoplolatilus purpureus
In the wild they come from the Western Central Pacific: Philippines and the Solomon Islands. They grow to approximately 5" in length.
Occassionally I see these brilliant fish offered for sale at the LFS. I've often wondered what it would be like to keep them in a tank and what their requirements are. After doing some research I found out that they aren't really suitable for aquarium life because they tend to be extremely shy and skittish fish. The vast majority of them die within a couple weeks of capture from stress, injury and jumping out of the tank. From the information that I can find say they are best kept by advanced/experienced aquarists because of the challenge of keeping them alive. They do best in tanks with deep sand beds as they dive into the substrate when scared. This could cause some serious damage to the fishes mouth if they are kept in bare bottom aquariums.
The Purple Sand Tilefish is a carnivore that will easily adapt to eating in captivity.
Does anyone know if more then one can be kept together in the same tank?
Have you kept one in the past? IF so, are they aggressive towards other fish, territorial?
Would you like to keep one at some point?
Can they be kept in a reef tank? Will they pick on corals or inverts?
