RE: Banner fish

[Randy1]

My newly purchased Banner fish like to pick at my accra, any advice?

Thanks

[Ninong]

Randy,

Is this what you have: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=242

Also, what do you mean by "accra?" Are you talking about Acropora corals or something else?

If you just set up your 90-gal tank (as you posted in another thread), it may be a little too soon to be adding this particular fish and certainly too soon to be adding corals, unless "accra" refers to something else.

I don't agree with the comments on Live Aquaria (the link I gave above) that this fish can thrive is a tank as small as 50 gallons but I do agree with them that it is not reef compatible.

[Randy1]

Yes, I'm talking about acrapora Coral. This is a newly set-up tank only becouse my 75Gal started to leak 2 weels ago. I transfered everything into my new 90Gal. The 75 Gal was set-up for about 1 year.

Thank

[dougc]

There is a reef-safe "schooling banner fish", Heniochus dipreutes, that looks almost identical in appearance to Heniochus acuminatus. The one you have is most definitely not reef-safe. I don't know whether Heniochus dipreutes is less common in the trade, but many stores won't even hazard a guess about which species they have. I have stared at pictures of both species and am not sure I could reliably tell the difference. A local store near me had a group of five heniochus that most likely were the reef-safe variety, but I chickened out because I wasn't absolutely sure of their identity.