Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Not Reef Tank Suitable
Likely Fish-Only Tank Suitable
Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: Andaman Sea and Sumatra to Papua New Guinea, north to southern Japan and south to Australia.
Size: 6 inches (15 cm)
Natural Environment: Inhabits protected inner coastal reefs and inner drop-off areas at a depth of 10 to 100 feet (3 – 30 m) and mainly feeds on tunicates, sponges and hydroids. Adults occur singly or in pairs, while juveniles are solitary.
General Husbandry: This hardy aquarium fish and seldom seen in the trade, has a silvery-white body with several front body wide dark brown vertical bands edged in yellow, and a single vertical yellowish brown band on the rear body.
Adapts quite easily in fish-only community aquariums, yet not trustworthy in reef aquariums as it is known to pick on SPS and LPS corals and some soft corals such as Xenia. Will also consume small decorative tubeworms and other useful small worms.
Generally adapts quite easily to aquarium foods, and a meaty diet of live fortified brine shrimp, black worms (Lumbriculus variegatus), red worms (genus Tubifex) and/or frozen meaty foods such as mysis are usually eagerly accepted and should be offered several times daily. Small human consumption clams/black mussels purchased in local grocery stores and placed on the half-shell in the aquarium is another eagerly accepted foodstuff.
Taxonomy:
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Percoidei
Family: Chaetodontidae
Genus: Coradion
FYI: Preferably maintained without others in the same genus, except as a male-female pair, as it can become quite territorial and battle others for territorial rights.
Pressing some soft foods into openings/crevices on a piece of old dead coral skeleton can sometimes encourage finicky eaters to begin feeding.
Experience Level: Intermediate
Temperament: Peaceful
Diet: Carnivore
Coral Safe: No
Invertebrate Safe: No
Acclimation Time: 30 minutes+
Aquarium Environment: Fish-only aquarium.
Tankmates: Peaceful or non-aggressive
Minimum Tank Size: 100 gallons
Temperature Range: 72 - 82°F (22 – 27°C).
Specific Gravity: 1.020 -1.026
pH: 8.0 - 8.5
