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Wreckfish
Information resourced and
researched from
"Tropical Marine Aquaria"
by Graham.F.Cox.
Published by Treasure Press
© The Hamlyn Publishing Group
This fish belongs to the family Anthiidae. It is available in two distinct forms which occupy the same territory on the same reef and so there may well be sexual variation within the same species. To date my collector has been unable to confirm this theory, since he has not witnessed any spawning activity in the species.
This fish has a manner of swimming reminiscent of Amphiprion species to which, of course, it is not even distantly related. The whole body undulates with a slow sinewy grace as the large pectoral fins alternately paddle back and forth with seemingly little effect. A beginner not acquainted with this species could be forgiven for thinking that the fish was distressed owing to its unusual mode of progress through the water.
Feeding a newly imported Wreckfish can be nerve-racking because they are frequently reluctant to begin taking dead foods in captivity. The first Wreckfish I ever caught came from a small reef off Mozambique. Although it survived the arduous 2,000 mile (3,200 kilometre) road journey from the East African coast to Central Africa, once home it refused all food, even baby guppies, for nearly two weeks. One morning it accepted a guppy and, from then onwards, its progress to full acclimatization proceeded without event. After ten days on live guppies, it accepted its first feed of dead protein. This was a small morsel of fresh steak impaled on the end of a toothpick. The feeding of Anthias spp. has, however, become less of a problem since the author’s introduction of sterilized Mysis shrimps.
