Schooling Bannerfish

1 Schooling Bannerfish Introduction

Also called the White Bannerfish, it lives mainly on outer reef slopes, a high-value ornamental not used as food. Active at 15-210 m depth, a carnivorous ornamental.

Chinese name: Schooling Bannerfish

Binomial: Heniochus diphreutes Jordan, 1903

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Actinopterygii

Order: Perciformes

Suborder: Percoidei

Family: Chaetodontidae

Genus: Heniochus

Species: Heniochus diphreutes

Distribution: Indo-Pacific

2 Physical Characteristics

A high-value marine fish mainly at 15-210 m on outer reef slopes. What are its features?

Body white with three brown diagonal stripes: first from head top to eye top; second from dorsal base to belly; third from dorsal spines to anal soft rays. Dorsal soft part and caudal fin yellow. Dorsal spines 12-13; dorsal soft rays 23-25; anal spines 3; anal soft rays 17-19. Length up to 21 cm.

3 Aquarium Conditions

From the Indo-Pacific, up to 21 cm, a high-value ornamental not for food. In captivity give a suitable tank and stable water quality.

An offshore fish, likes fast currents on reefs, schooling to feed on plankton. Feed animal foods; it is rather irritable, so when netting avoid flashing that causes scale loss and injury. It lives on outer reef slopes; juveniles school around isolated reef flats, adults form large schools swimming a distance above the reef bottom.

4 Feeding Guidelines

A marine fish; many find marine fish hard because of high water demands. A high-value ornamental, not for food.

Carnivorous, eating zooplankton and coral polyps. If it refuses food, possible causes:

1. Sick fish: internal injury from poor capture methods, or disease from transport/handling; sick fish lose appetite.

2. Environment/water: large swings in water or temperature, or poor acclimation of new fish, cause refusal.

3. Social group: schooling or paired fish kept alone, or stressed by tankmates, refuse from ‘stress’.

4. Space: too large a fish in too small a space also delays opening.

5. Nutrition: fish that ate before but stop after a move; besides new-environment adjustment, long single-food feeding weakens constitution until it shows suddenly.