Coral Hogfish

Care at a glance

Overview

As a juvenile it will pick parasites off tankmates, but do not expect that good behavior to last: adults are aggressive, territorial, and will bully smaller or more docile fish, so tankmates need to be chosen carefully and added before the hogfish if possible. It is reef safe with caution as a juvenile, but a full grown coral hogfish hunts snails, worms, small bivalves, crustaceans, and even small fish and ornamental shrimp with real efficiency, so it does not belong in a reef tank with anything it can swallow or crack open. Feed a varied carnivore diet of mysis, brine shrimp, krill, and chopped seafood.

In the wild

Ranges across the western Pacific and into the eastern Indian Ocean, from the Andaman Sea east to Fiji and south to the Great Barrier Reef, on reefs at 5–40 m though it rarely turns up below 20 m. Juveniles shelter in caves and crevices while adults range more openly over rubble and coral. In the aquarium it needs at least 340 litres (90 gallons) with a rockwork base full of caves plus open sand to dig through, since it spends much of the day rearranging rubble and substrate while hunting.

Good to know

Bodianus mesothorax is a protogynous hermaphrodite: it starts life as a female, and a dominant female can change sex to male if the group's male is lost. Juveniles are burgundy with yellow spots; adults keep a burgundy face and a rosy yellow rear half, split down the middle by a black band, which is the source of the eclipse and split-level nicknames. Adults reach about 20 cm. Hogfish get their common name from this genus's habit of rooting through sand and rubble nose-first, much like a hog foraging in dirt.

Did you know

A young coral hogfish earns its keep by cleaning parasites off other fish in the tank, a helpful habit that fades as it matures into a bold, food-motivated predator that would just as soon eat a cleaner shrimp as accept its services.

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