Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Likely Reef Tank Suitable
Likely Fish-Only Tank Suitable
Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: Eastern Africa and the Red Sea to the Philippines, Taiwan, Southern Japan, Palau, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and northern Australia.
Size: 5 inches (13 cm)
Natural Environment: Inhabits fringing reefs, reef passes, outer-reef faces and slopes at depths between 6 to about 75 feet (2 – 23 m) and feeds on algae and benthic invertebrates.
General Husbandry: An attractive hardy species, with the juvenile having a yellowish body with two horizontal black lines beginning on the face, with the top ending at the rear base of the dorsal, and the other ending on the caudal peduncle. As for the adult, its front half is light brown, with the rear body, tail, anal and dorsal fins, yellow.
Juvenile can be quite feisty, but as it grows into adulthood, they become extremely aggressive and must be housed with very aggressive tankmates, e.g., dottybacks, hawkfishes, large wrasses, large angelfishes and surgeonfishes, and triggerfishes.
As to diet, a meaty diet, e.g., live fortified brine shrimp and/or finely chopped various frozen or fresh meaty foods such as mysis, squid, fish flesh, shrimp, clam and plant material, e.g., flake foods, especially those containing Spirulina should be offered several times daily.
Taxonomy:
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Labroidei
Family: Pomacentridae
Subfamily: Pomacentrinae
Genus: Neoglyphidodon
FYI: Attractive when small, yet not suitable for most home aquariums. Simply too feisty.
Easy to keep well fed, yet problematic as to tankmates!
Must have aggressive tankmates.
One per aquarium.
Experience Level: Intermediate
Temperament: Feisty/belligerent
Diet: Omnivore
Coral Safe: With Caution
Invertebrate Safe: With caution
Acclimation Time: 30 minutes+
Aquarium Environment: Reef or fish-only aquarium
Tankmates: Aggressive
Minimum Tank Size: 55 gallons
Temperature Range: 74 - 28°F (23 – 28°C)
Specific Gravity: 1.020 - 1.026
pH: 8.0 - 8.5
