Sand Tile Fish

[csababubbles]

I thought some of you might be a little interested in some curious fish I recently acquired. One is a Purple Tilefish and the other is a Skunk Tilefish. They are about 5"-6" and so very thick. The purple tilefish glows this crazy purple color and sometimes he turns this fluorescent blue. Its crazy. All that I read was that these fish do much better when not kept singly so thats why I decided to get two species and put them together. Well it seems to have done the trick. Purple would not look at food while the skunk was much more curious. But after a few days both were eating very well. They have been in my QT adjusting to captive life for quite a while now. I finally moved over the two sand tilefish to my display tank from my QT a few weeks ago and they seem to be adjusting very well to the larger tank. A little surprise was that they don't hide in the sand at all. They prefer to hide inside the rock crevices. One hides in a cave and the other constantly swims in the upper water column but at night they sleep literally right next to each other. But that purple tilefish is the fast fish I have ever seen. This thing can swim across a 6ft tank and back again before you can blink your eye. He's like an underwater missile!

I'll post some pics up soon but my camera has been on the skits for a few weeks now so hopefully it will work.

 

[Dr.X]

I thought some of you might be a little interested in some curious fish I recently acquired. One is a Purple Tilefish and the other is a Skunk Tilefish. They are about 5"-6" and so very thick. The purple tilefish glows this crazy purple color and sometimes he turns this fluorescent blue. Its crazy. All that I read was that these fish do much better when not kept singly so thats why I decided to get two species and put them together. Well it seems to have done the trick. Purple would not look at food while the skunk was much more curious. But after a few days both were eating very well. They have been in my QT adjusting to captive life for quite a while now. I finally moved over the two sand tilefish to my display tank from my QT a few weeks ago and they seem to be adjusting very well to the larger tank. A little surprise was that they don't hide in the sand at all. They prefer to hide inside the rock crevices. One hides in a cave and the other constantly swims in the upper water column but at night they sleep literally right next to each other. But that purple tilefish is the fast fish I have ever seen. This thing can swim across a 6ft tank and back again before you can blink your eye. He's like an underwater missile!

I'll post some pics up soon but my camera has been on the skits for a few weeks now so hopefully it will work.

I'm so glad I saw your post. I have a skunk tile fish I bought from Divers Den a couple of months ago. What a great fish! Very active, never hides, eats like a machine. I recently saw a purple tile fish at my LFS and was wondering if it would be safe to add him/her to my 150 gallon tank. Sounds like the two species get along! The purple tile at the LFS was just hanging out in mid water near the back of tank. Nearly motionless. Certainly not active like my skunk tile. But did not look sick. Obviously I would want to see him eat and will quarantine it.