Flame Hawkfish (Neocirrhites armatus)
Flame hawkfish (Neocirrhites armatus) are so named because of their brilliant red color. They also have a black stripe that runs along the base of their dorsal fin, as well as black circles around their eyes.
They belong to the family Cirrhitidae.
In their natural environment, flame hawkfish are often found in living in pairs in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean. They are usually found along coral reefs.
Flame hawkfish are bottom-dwelling fish and they often hide among hard corals. You should also provide lots of live rock in their aquarium.
Although flame hawkfish do best when living among hard corals, they often eat the other inhabitants in a reef tanks, such as small crustaceans and molluscs. They will eat your ornamental shrimps and hermit crabs, and sometimes even smaller fish and some sessile invertebrates.
In fact, their natural diet consists of small molluscs and other crustaceans. In captivity, flame hawkfish sometimes lose their brilliant red color due to dietary deficiencies. To prevent this, feed them meaty marine foods, chopped up sea food (crab, shrimp, squid) as well as other meaty marine fish foods (mysid shrimp, vitamin enriched brine shrimp, frozen marine fish food). They enjoy eating marine snails and feeder shrimp.
Flame hawkfish are small fish, reaching only about 3.5-4 inches (9-10 cm) in length. Despite their small size they can become territorial toward other bottom-dwelling fish. They are generally peaceful with non bottom-dwellers.
You can usually purchase flame hawkfish for about $35-40 each.