NEWS104
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Pervagor janthinosoma
Lexicon
Filefishes
Aiptasia:meaningunknown (not
explained in theoriginal
description).
Acreichthys: fromLatinacer=
“pointed”andGreek ichthos= "fish".
tomentosusmeans "hairy".
Oxymonacanthus:means "pointed
Monacanthus";Monacanthus is
another filefishgenus. longirostris
means“witha long snout ".
halli:namedafterMajorH.W.Hall,
M.C., theownerof theM.Y.
Manihine.
Acropora: "acro"means "extremity"
(including in the senseofbranch),
"pora" refers to the similargenus
Millepora (=“with thousandsof
pores").
Alutherus:meaningunknown.The
originatorof thename,Baron
Cuvier,called these fishes "les
Alutéres",whichwas later Latinized
intoavalid scientificname.
scriptus:means "covered inwriting",
referring to the scribble-likebody
pattern.
Pervagor:means "onewhowanders
far".
janthinosoma:means“violetbody".
Oxymonacanthus
even
should
be.
Nevertheless one should always try to put
pairs of this species together. So far not
muchhas beenpublished on the Blackbar
Filefish.Thereare reports that the species is
difficult toget to feed,but thesearemostly
ancient (before1980)and it isn’tcompletely
clear whether the problemsmay not have
been down to inappropriate treatment of
the fishes.When adult (around 8 -10 cm in
length upwards) the Blackbar Filefish
usually lives in pairs. The male can be
recognized by rough, bristle-like scale
structures on the caudal peduncle, which
are absent in females. Should
Pervagor
janthinosoma
turn out to be a good
Aiptasia
-eliminator, which also looks
attractive and can be bred, then it would
certainly be the dream filefish for the reef
hobby. However, it must be stressed once
again that there are as yet far too few
experience-based reports available on this
fish, letaloneonbreeding it.
Breedingessentiallypossible!
Filefishes have proved fairly amendable to
attempts to breed them. Even the
extremely tricky
Oxymonacanthus
have
alreadyspawned in theaquarium.However
the Bristletail Filefish is probably the only
species that has so far beenbredwith any
degree of success worth mentioning.
Unfortunately the sexes cannot be
distinguished in the youngsters usually
available in the trade, and only with the
arrival of sexualmaturitydomalesdevelop
the spiny scales on the caudal peduncle,
alreadymentioned for Pervagor, that have
led to the popular name of Bristletail
Filefish.
Hence it is best to obtain 5-6 youngsters
andwait for them to formpairs.The fishes
spawn in pits in the bottom that are
stringently defended by the male. The
youngwill readily take the usual plankton
(rotifers, plus phytoplankton) cultivated by
private breeders, the main difficulty in
rearing being maintaining a sufficiently
high food density - the young filefishes
should always literallybeup to their fins in
food - and at the same time the water
quality mustn’t be allowed to deteriorate
toomuch.
All in all, filefishes are interesting aquarium
fishes, about which there is still much to
learn. Andwe haven’t evendiscussed here
the fact that thereare filefishes that imitate
the highly poisonous puffers. But more of
thatanother time,maybe…
If youarenow filledwith thedesire tokeep
filefishes, then your pet dealer can
undoubtedly order one or another species
for you from a wholesaler of his
acquaintance,
for
example
Meeresaquaristik Reising in Alzenau-
Wasserlos,Fax+49 (0)6023-31502
