Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Likely Reef Tank Suitable
Likely Fish-Only Tank Suitable
These fishes belong in the Order Perciformes and Suborder Percoidei, where they are members of the Family Caesionidae. There are four genera, Caesio, Dipterygonotus, Gymnocaesio, and Pterocaesio, which overall consist of about 23 species, and are related to snappers.
Most are quite pretty, fast moving and somewhat large zooplankton feeders that at night sleep on the reef infrastructure. They rarely show up in the home aquarium trade, and when so, should be considered unsuitable for the home aquarium because they need to be fed many times (6+) daily, since in the wild they constantly feed throughout the day. They also should be maintained in small groups, and given vast open swimming areas.
Better suited only for large public aquariums, not home aquariums. Very few species make it into the trade, with those listed below shown here only to help identify the species, not provide home aquarium husbandry information, as these fishes are better maintained by professionals in public aquariums.
