Blood red hawkfish (Cirrhitops fasciatus)

fishoholic · #1 03-31-2011, 12:30 AM

Has anyone on here owned a Blood red hawkfish (Cirrhitops fasciatus)

My lfs has had one forever and I really like the looks of him but everything I read about them is that they may eat small fish, but I don't know how small of a fish they are talking about.

The fowlr tank he would go in has a small 1-2" fairy wrasse that I do not want to risk getting eaten. Just wondering if anyone had one before and if they really would eat a fairy wrasse or not or what. The blood red hawkfish in the store is about 3" and it really doesn't look like it would even be possible for him to eat a fairy wrasse, however I don't really know so I thought I'd ask. Maybe a very small clown goby or eviota goby but a wrasse????

toytech · #2 03-31-2011, 02:01 AM

My falco hawk fish went after me 2 inch yellow watchman goby and he wasnt much bigger that the goby ,he just didnt like the look of him . Now my goby lives in a nano and has no bottom fin to perch on . A 1 in wrasse thats peacefull isnt going to stand a chance if the hawk dosent like it .

ScubaSteve · #3 03-31-2011, 03:53 AM

When they say "May eat smaller fish" they're basically saying anything the same size or smaller. I'm waiting until my goby is bigger before I get any type of hawkfish.

pscott99 · #4 03-31-2011, 03:56 PM

Sadly my red hawkfish was the death of my favourite goby. My purple gramma is back to hiding in his cave again. My larger african flameback definitely bats him into his place. Fun fish to watch perches just like a hawk. A little agressive like one also unfortunately.

christyf5 · #5 03-31-2011, 06:22 PM

They don't look like they could fit a small fish in their mouths but they have a hinge-ing system to their jaw, like a grouper. Their mouth gets pretty huge and they'll cram whatever fits into it (and some things that don't). I wouldn't risk if if I were you.

fishoholic · #6 04-01-2011, 12:36 AM

Ya I keeping thinking he's pretty similar to the falco hawkfish I had and that he doesn't look like he could fit it into his mouth, but if it's sort of like a hinge thing like Christy said, I'm not sure I want to risk it, but he's so cool I have a hard time resisting him whenever I see that he's still there.

Because I couldn't get my dumb red corris wrasse out of the reef tank I put my little fairy wrasse in with my triggers, toby puffer and king angel. The neat thing is that even though he's in a very aggressive tank no one picks on him, I'm guessing because he's small, no one sees him as a threat and that's why