Hawkfish vs. coco worm

[weez1959]

Longnose Hawkfish and a coco worm, will it work!
Will the worm become dinner or will it be safe?

[weez1959]

Hey you guys! am I going to have to start whining to get an answer!?!
Don't make me go down there!

My daughter wants to know if the hawkfish is going to be a suitable addition to her tank. She's had the little guy in QT for about 3 weeks now and she was planning on a cocoworm.

[charlie]

Hey, weez, I am gonna bump this for you.

As far as an answer goes, you may want to get Lee to give you a hand here too. What type of hawkfish is it. I had one that really liked crabs for snacks.

[Ninong]

According to Julian Sprung, "some hawkfishes" will eat them

Protula bispiralis

The Hard tube "Coco worm" from Indonesia is a popular and expensive creature that is not recommended for the beginner. Its life span is not very long in captivity, usually not more than two years, and often much less than that. It has not been reported to reproduce in captivity. One should provide sufficient calcium and alkalinity for it to build its calcareous tube, and plenty of food, such as liquid invertebrate foods, live phytoplankton, or spray-dried phytoplankton.

Predators

It is important to consider leaving out potential predators of feather duster worms when designing an aquarium to house them. Butterflyfishes quickly decimate them as the feather duster crown is a delicacy they really appreciate for dinner, lunch, and breakfast, while the worm left in the tube is finished for desert. Crabs of many kinds find great pleasure first in making the crown withdraw, then pinching the tube, squeezing the life out of the worm and finishing it off in a single session. Some (but not all) wrasses will make short work of feather dusters, eating them so quickly that the worm probably hardly realizes it is no longer safely in its tube. Some hawkfishes likewise will eat them. Serpent stars are generally safe, but they may pick apart a colony of Bispira brunnea, especially when the colony is first introduced to the aquarium and it smells like your fish-food flavored finger tips.

Full article here.

[zhenya]

Louise,

You can search the web for the diet preferences of Oxycirrhites typus. It seems that it prefers crustaceans, benthic and pelagic alike. I had one for about 10 month until it jumped to it;s death. While I had it I never seen this fish go after the small feather dusters that I had on the rocks, it is not to say that he didn't eat them while I wasn't watching.
So, I think it is a questionable addition as far as your coco worm goes.This fish loves to hang out inside gorgonian branches, perching and observing it;s surroundings. I enjoyed it;s personality a lot.

[weez1959]

Hi everyone,
The fish is supposed to be my daughter's but she really wants a cocoworm so I may end up keeping the little bugger myself if she decides she still wants the worm
Except I do believe I will be overstocked if I keep adding her orphans to my tank!

[Ninong]

I just browsed through the fishbase list of hawkfishes and checked the three species that are commonly available in the hobby and I can't find coco worms listed among the food items. So I'm not sure which hawkfish species Julian is talking about.

On the other hand, a lot of fish will eat things in captivity that are not part of their natural diet in the wild. This is because they will adapt to what's available in captivity. In the wild, they will search out and find their favorite foods.