Butterflyfishes for  Marine Aquariums Diversity, Selection & Care New eBook on Amazon: Available here New Print Book on Create Space: Available here by Robert (Bob) Fenner

Coradion melanopus in a reef tank?   2/27/08 Dear Bob, dear crew, <Hey, I'm part of the Crew as well> I have a question (well, three actually) about Coradion melanopus  (Twospot Coralfish). <Neat animals, genus...> I have read in a book from Debelius/Kuiter that  they are not very suitable to keep in a tank. <Unfortunately, this is so> Yet the book is a bit  old and maybe outdated (no DSB and refugia back then). So I wanted to ask you whether you think if C. melanopus would be suitable for an approximately 200g SPS dominated reef tank with refugium and DSB and a lot of sponge-growth, ascidians and feather dusters (and no other fish currently), there was no such info on WWM and my search on message boards did not bring up anything useful, apparently these fishes aren't being kept a lot... <Worth trying IMO... the bigger/biggest hurdle will be finding an initially healthy specimen> Do you know any other special things regarding its husbandry? <I do not... other than having seen the species in the wild, feeding... usually as individuals, sometimes as pairs... are at least a good deal sponge feeders> I only know from Debelius/Kuiter that they feed from microcrustaceans on sponges etc. and are quite bashful which makes me think that they could prove to be finicky eaters. <Maybe... but I have seen them in systems... nearer their range (not in the U.S.> And the third question would be about quarantine - would the standard quarantine procedure be suitable for this fish or is it one of those delicate fish that are best only dipped and put into the display tank immediately after arrival? <The latter> Thank you in advance & best regards, Alex <Do make known your experiences please. Bob Fenner>

Re: Coradion melanopus in a reef tank? 2/27/08 Hello Bob and all other crew members ;-) , thank you again for your answers, I will definitely give it a try and report back on how things are developing with the Coradion... Best regards, Alex <Thank you Alex. BobF>