Arc-Eye Hawkfish

Care at a glance

Overview

One of the more pugnacious hawkfish in the trade: it stakes out a perch and defends it hard, and it is well known for harassing or outright killing smaller or more timid fish added after it, so it should always go into the tank last. It is reef safe with caution, since it leaves corals alone but will eat small ornamental shrimp, tiny crabs, and any fish small enough to fit in its mouth. Feed a varied carnivore diet of mysis, krill, and chopped seafood; it feeds eagerly and rarely needs coaxing.

In the wild

Found across the Indo-Pacific from East Africa to Hawaii and the Line and Mangareva islands, usually perched in the branches of small stony corals like Pocillopora on shallow reef flats and lagoons, mostly less than 20 m deep. It sits motionless on a favored coral head for hours, watching the water around it, then darts out to grab passing prey before returning to the same perch. Give it plenty of live rock with coral rubble or branching coral to claim as a lookout, plus a tight-fitting lid, since hawkfish are proven jumpers. A tank of at least 150 litres (40 US gal) suits a single fish long term.

Good to know

Like other hawkfish it has no swim bladder, so instead of hovering in open water it rests directly on rock or coral and moves in short hops between perches. Thickened, stiffened rays on the lower part of each pectoral fin act almost like little legs, propping it up while it watches for food. It is named for the broken orange-red ring that circles each eye over a mottled reddish-brown body, and reaches about 20 cm, making it one of the larger hawkfish commonly kept.

Did you know

Like most hawkfish it is a protogynous hermaphrodite: every fish starts out female, and the largest, most dominant individual in a group switches to male, which is how a mated pair can form from two fish that started out the same sex.

Related species

• 

  Freckled Hawkfish

  Paracirrhites forsteri

  8.7 in (22 cm)70 gal (265 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Longnose Hawkfish

  Oxycirrhites typus

  5.1 in (13 cm)29 gal (110 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Pixy Hawkfish

  Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus

  3.9 in (10 cm)29 gal (110 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Flame Hawkfish

  Neocirrhites armatus

  3.5 in (9 cm)29 gal (110 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Falco Hawkfish

  Cirrhitichthys falco

  2.8 in (7 cm)29 gal (110 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Lyretail Hawkfish

  Cyprinocirrhites polyactis

  5.9 in (15 cm)40 gal (150 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)