Foster's Hawkfish (South Pacific)

Hawkfish are entertaining fish with outgoing personalities. They have do not have swim bladders so can only float in the water with effort. They prefer to spend their days perched atop rocks or coral surveying their surroundings. They are coral safe, but are predatory towards shrimp. It is possible for hawkfish to consume even a large shrimp by bashing it against a rock into bite sized pieces. They may also eat anything else that can fit in their mouths, including small or slender fish. They may bully other fish and we don't recommend keeping them with small wrasses, jawfish, dottybacks, gobies or blennies. They do well with angelfish, tangs, larger dottybacks, large wrasses, triggers and puffers.

Hawkfish are carnivores and their diet should include plenty of high quality meaty items, marine algae, Spirulina, and frozen Mysis shrimp. It is preferable to feed at least once a day. They are hardy and usually learn to eat dry foods.

The Fosters hawkfish is uniquely colored snow white on its belly, ruby red on its face fading to black at its tail, and lemon yellow along its back. Some individuals may be deep rusty red with a yellow tail. On all fish its face is covered in dozens of blood red to black freckles. Males and females are visually identical. As one of the largest hawkfish it is quite predatory on smaller fishes and possibly crabs, and is best kept with other large and aggressive species. It is also known as the Blackside or Freckled hawkfish. It grows to 9 inches; we recommend an aquarium of at least 75 gallons.