Does anyone have a Siganus doliatus? Show a picture if you do :)
 

I'm just curious if anyone has a Siganus doliatus in their tank? (Common names include: Two barred rabbitfish, penciled rabbitfish, stenciled rabbitfish, and possibly blue-lined rabbitfish).

I've been looking for one for a king's age but all I've been able to find are the similar Siganus virgatus. Not that these aren't nice fish too (I have one), but, they're different.

I'm just jonesing for some pictures. I've been googling for pictures and that sort of suffices but what I'd really like to see are pictures of one in a Canreefer's tank. So if you have one, please show off his (or her) picture(s) here in this thread! :)

To give you an idea what a doliatus looks like, take a read of the reefkeeping.com article at http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hcs3/index.php and search on doliatus. There is also a picture of virgatus in the same article.

Here's the virgatus in my tank from when I first got him:
http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/a...s_doliatus.jpg
(I need an updated shot of this guy. He's doubled in size in 7 months, and the yellow and the blues are much more striking now.)

The main difference is that virgatus has blue spots instead of blue stripes in behind the brown bars on the head. The doliatus has vertical striping that extends all the way to the caudal fin (the "tail") whereas the virgatus has spots that reduce in density as they go towards the back.

Tony, your metaphors bring me pleasure.

<3 <3 <3

PS: RC doesn't allow hotlinking.

Oh nuts! Rats, they are the best pictures I could find that show off how to tell the difference. Now I'm gonna have to look for some different ones....

I had a Siganus doliatus in my 230g. It ate all the pesky feather dusters which was wonderful. Later on it moved onto my zoos, that wasn't so wonderful. It got along well with my one spot foxface, but when the 230g came down, it went on to another tank. I'm looking for photos, but am only able to find fish-shaped blurs!

I'll take a fish shaped blur (come on, look at the picture of my virgatus, it aint potm material :neutral: ). I've put in word at all the major retailers, local and mail-order, to be on the lookout for one, and not one, not one in twelve months! I've seen several virgatus that were mis-ID'd but no bona-fide doliatus. At this point I just want to see some evidence that this fish really does exist and really does show up north of the 49th once in a while... Please post the pictures! :)

Sorry, your SOL. I've gone through all of my photos from the 230g, and I don't have anything that I can post. My "blur" photo is horrid, so bad you can't even tell what kind of fish it is.

i've got a pair of these guys....they are cool too

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...us_puellus.jpg

Those are actually Siganus puellus. :) (Also called the blue-lined rabbitfish..) Nice fish!!! Mind you I like just about all the yellow/blue rabbits, very nice fish.

I have a Virgatus but last time I was at J&L (in the Spring) they had a Doliatus which they referred to as a Scribbled Rabbitfish (pretty sure this is the same fish you are referring to). I wanted to buy it but they wouldn't sell it since it was in one of the coral tanks making it too hard to catch. You might want to try J&L as they also list the Doliatus on their web site.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...ategory_ID=142

They are one of the places I have a standing request in. There hasn't been a doliatus, however, since at least August 2006 (I check the site every day :lol:). I'm not 100% convinced that the doliatus back then was really doliatus as many sites do mistake virgatus for doliatus. This week they listed doliatus but I when I saw the pictures I knew they were virgatus. I told them of it and they corrected the page.

Not that there's anything wrong with virgatus, like I said, I have one. :) I just don't need 2 of the same. :lol:

So .. uh .. does anyone actually have pictures of a doliatus?