Fish Focus - Purple Sand Tilefish

[Cougra]

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?

[music man]

What kind of light did you use to get those brilliant colors?

Beautiful fish! I hope someone with some hands on chimes in here.

Just for curiosity.

[Woodstock]

Interesting Michelle. I have never seen that fish for sale at my LFS... but if I do, I'll know what it is now!

[prow]

Originally Posted by Cougra

Does anyone know if more then one can be kept together in the same tank?

yeah you can. they like to hang out in pairs. do better in fact in pairs.

Have you kept one in the past?

yup.

IF so, are they aggressive towards other fish, territorial?

no not at all. the purple ones are very timid. they will be aggressive towards their own kind if not added togather though.

Would you like to keep one at some point?

no not again. i have one now. he will die soon, starvation. got him by mistake. they sent me the wrong fish. they are just to timid for me.

Can they be kept in a reef tank?

yes best to put in a reef.

Will they pick on corals or inverts?

nope not at all.

i personally like the bluejaw tilefish. unlike the purple they are not so skiddish. the purple ones are afraid of their own shadow. if they see it they hide for the rest of the day. they (the purple ones) dont not have a good survival rate, most die due to starvation. not that they are hard to feed just so timid one look from another fish sends hiding. they get too scared to feed. if keep with very timid fish they still usually end up starving. the bluwjaws/bluehead tilefish always stay out in the open and eat pretty much everything. they are usually one of the most aggressive eaters in the tank. dont know whats up with purple ones.

tilefish will jump. purple ones not so much they dart and hide. the bluehead will jump out unless the tank has some eggcreating or a screen or something. even though the purple ones dont jump as much as the bluejaws i would still take precautions with them.

[boozeman]

great idea for a thread cougra
nice fish...I bet a school of them in a large tank would look awesome

[Cougra]

What kind of light did you use to get those brilliant colors?

These photos were taken at the LFS. They were in two different tanks but both thanks only had dual florescent lighting, one actinic and one 6700K daylight bulb.

The fish themselves have some very nice camera friendly colouration so it's not hard to get good photos of them.

Prow:
Thanks for your input, it's always great to hear from people who have actually kept them rather then just reading what the books/general sites have to say about them. I have read that they are extremely timid fish and that they die prematurely because of it. It's too bad because I really do like the look of them.

I've also noticed that there isn't very much good/specific information about them online. I suspect this is because they are so difficult to keep alive for long periods of time.

[prow]

no problem. yeah not much info out there. but i have notced that the info on tilefish seems to be more on the purple ones. but then again i can only compare the bluejaws and the purples. so the bluejaws might be the exception for tilefish, kinda like orchids are to dottybacks.

i do love the way they look. maybe a good size group will do better. like 6-7 of them. man that would look awsome. i would love to try that. just need a huge tank,

[iluvzigz]

their behavior and features remind me of a dartfish or barred goby like a cross breed kinda..ha