Schooling bannerfish

Geographic Origin and Biotope: Indo-Pacific Ocean and tropical coasts. Deep water pelagic swimmer: rarely explores the bottom, preferring to stay very high among the outer reef walls swept by currents.

Taxonomy and Morphology: Schooling Bannerfish (Heniochus diphreutes). Very often confused with the identical H. acuminatus, it is distinguished from the latter by the slightly shorter snout and by the fact that it forms cohesive schools.

Social Behavior: Exceptional Marine schooling species. Unlike many butterfly and angelfish (isolated and aggressive), the Heniochus loves to be kept in small groups (3-5), swimming in mid-water like true angels.

Coloration and Sexual Dimorphism: Back and belly with alternating very black and white oblique stripes, with the anal and caudal fin bright yellow. But the real crown is the very long pure white "banner" dorsal filament, enormous.

Aquarium Setup: Tank for large marines (Minimum 120-150 cm / 48-60 inches). Must be developed in HEIGHT (their filaments are long) and needs 50% open space on the water column. Not recommended to overfill the tank with "Live-Rocks".

Diet and Feeding: Planktivore. Extremely voracious, takes no prisoners (will swallow anything that enters the water). Mysis, brine shrimp, clam pulp. They are exceptional scavengers and rarely bite corals (unlike H. acuminatus).

Water Quality: Very clean marine water, with a very reactive skimmer because their huge ingestions lead to large excretions. Salinity (1.020 - 1.025).

Compatibility and Tankmates: Reef Safe with caution! (Unlike its cousin acuminatus which is 100% NON-reef safe). Perfect with Tangs (Zebrasoma, Acanthurus), Anthias, and clownfish. Not recommended with Triggerfish that would bite the long dorsal filaments.

Aquarium Reproduction: Non-existent in hobby aquariums. They lay pelagic eggs that follow ocean currents, impossible for the common citizen to raise.

Risks and Diseases: The species error (The Coral Nightmare): there is a very high risk of mistakenly buying H. acuminatus (visually almost identical), which overnight will devastate and eat half of your prized LPS corals in the tank.