H. clarionensis durability.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the middle of writing an article for TFH on marine fish to avoid, "The heartbreakers" and in a small note/sidebar on angels I'm listing the only truly hardy angel species (not "hardy for an angel" which is often the qualifier)...
H. passer, P. maculosus and H. clarionensis...and that's it, at least in the truly bulletproof, hang em on a clothesline to kill them category.

The clarion is the only species with which I have no direct experience...because annoyingly for the entire almost quarter century I've been doing this, this fish has been annoyingly unattainable. :x Well unless I was willing to sacrifice a few car payments.

Anyhoo, my information comes from a very old article on this species with regard to it's hardiness, which if I remember correctly is exceptional. Those of you with experience holding this species please let me know if I'm correct. Thanks for any input!

Cheers
Jim

 

[Vili_Shark]

Hi,
Yes they are hardy, but I cant see how Pomacanthus semicirculatus didnt make it in that list?
I'd also add Pomacanthus chrysurus.
Both are made from the same material of nuclear submarines! : )

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you, much appreciated!
I agree regarding P. chrysurus...forgot about him.
P. semicirculatus - I normally consider that fish in the "hardy for an angel" category. Hardy, but not in Huma Huma, C. argi, H. passer territory. Do you disagree?
My experiences wholesale/retail with some species is from years past, and might be based on collection practices that could have changed since then. I've never actually kept a semicirc.

 

[jhemdal1]

Jim,

I agree with both of you that chrysurus ought to be added and agree with you that semicirculatus probably should not (if nothing else than for their predilection for HLLE). personally, I would only put captive raised maculosus in that category though - some of the wild caught ones can be a bit dodgy. Funny thing, I've never had a single problem with annularis, they just go on for ever and never get HLLE - but for some reason other people haven't always had the same positive experience, I don't know why.
I haven't worked with clarionensis for 25 years or so, but they were always very hardy (if a bit pugnacious) for me back then. I think the last one I picked up was $125, maybe $150.


Jay

 

[Anonymous]

Last year we had 3 clarions and lost 2 within about 48 hours. They came in covered in Amyloodinium and Cryptocaryon (yikes!) and were being held by a hobbyist who hadn't diagnosed the problem and definitely wasn't treating it. So I don't know if those 2 were indicative of anything at all other than a poor prior treatment history. The third one made it through treatment although was pretty beat up initially. Seemed to be a pretty rugged fish while he was here and ate virtually anything. Kept great coloration and turned into a really beautiful fish. We surplussed him to another aquarium a couple months ago.

A wholesaler here in the Bay Area had that big batch of clarions come through last year and they kept a few that looked unsellable. All were full colored adults from what I remember, and had various issues. They looked like popeye or HLLE type problems that would probably clear up on their own given time in a proper setup. However, this was probably only 5-7 individuals out of (Gresham, Steve?) several hundred (???) individuals that came through.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input everyone.
Jay, I think maybe P. annularis is similar to P. imperator and some other "second hardiness tier" angels, in that they go through an extended acclimation process, which an experienced keeper (patient and attentive with initial selection, proper quarantine, wise choice of tank mates, attention to nutrition, good husbandry practices, etc) might not even notice. A less experienced or more lazy keeper not attentive to these things might have issues during this period and lose the fish. It seems that weeks after the fish appears to have acclimated, the immune system is still somewhat depressed.

Once the fish gets past this, it seems they're pretty tough and reliable.
Then again I've seen older, practically full grown annularis come in that look like they're ready to rock and roll...so who knows.
The little ones are definitely delicate.

 

[Vili_Shark]

Hello everybody,
Good thread.

I think it really got to do with the country of origin, methods of catching the fish and how many stations it goes on the way till it gets to the importer.

FME P.semicirculatus is super hardy, didnt have much HLLE problems with it, but I do try to avoid them from Indonesia.

Jay, for P.annularis ,FME, specimens from Indonesia (of course cant generalize the whole country)especially larger ones, have a quite a poor survival rate while specimens from Vitetnam that I've caught myself and specimens from Sri Lanka are very tough.(incld larger ones).

 

[Anonymous]

All I can think of when I read this thread title is of a testing outfit, rows of angel fishes attached to these machines, rubbing the hell out of denim with the angel fishes. Yep, they're durable alright! :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Are we testing the denim or the angels with that rig?

 

[Anonymous]

Both. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Bullet proof fish (Clarion). The ones from the shipment Matt got sucked but in general they come out of the bag fighting!

FWIW one of those one eyes has been living in Denver and couldn't look any better (for being a one eyed Clarion)

 

[Anonymous]

That one needs a tiny little eye-patch and a t-shirt that says, "Arrrgh, matey, AVAST!"

And a pair of denim pants.

 

[Anonymous]

He's Clarrrrrhhhgggggion!