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Neoniphonsammara
Sargocentronpraslin
Nocturnal shoalers
The largeeyes arealsoa survival from the
deep-seapast,but areusedby the species
that exist today inorder togohunting at
night. Soldier-andsquirrelfishesspend the
day incavesandbeneathoverhangs,often
accompaniedbycardinalfishes (Apogoni-
dae), bigeyes (Priacanthidae), and other
crepuscular species. It is very common to
findseveral speciesof soldier-andsquirrel-
fishes there together.Oneof thepeculiari-
tiesof these fishes is that theydon'talways
swim ”normally”,but also veryoftendo so
belly-up.
Littlepredators
Soldier-andsquirrelfishes feedexclusively
onmeaty foods,with squirrelfishesprefer-
ring bottom-dwelling crustaceans while
soldierfishes instead take largerplanktonic
organisms (small fishes, shrimps, cuttlefis-
hes, etc) from the openwater. But in the
aquarium they adjust very quickly to the
usualdeep-frozen foodsandaregenuinely
problem-free to feed.Theywill even take
food sticks from thewater's surfacewithin
a short timeof settling in.
The vastmajority of soldier- and squirrel-
fishes remain fairlysmall andgrowno lon-
ger than20 cm.But because theyarevery
common they are caught and eaten
everywhere.The largest of all the soldier-
fish species is
Myripristisadusta
,whichat-
tainsamaximum lengthof32cm,butusu-
ally grows toonly 25 cm long in thewild;
all the other soldierfish species remain
smaller.The largest squirrelfish species is
Sargocentron spiniferum
with amaximum
lengthof 45 cm,butwhichusually attains
only 35 cm long.Here too the remaining
speciesusuallygrow toaround20cm long.
Unspectacularbreeding
Just like theoverwhelmingmajorityofma-
rine fishes, the soldier- and squirrelfishes
employ the "quantity rather thanquality"
approach when it comes to breeding.
Brood care isn't practiced in any shape or
form, but the eggs are simply released in
largequantities into theopenwater,where
they are abandoned to their owndevices.
Novisibleexternal sexualdifferenceshave
been described to date, and details of
courtshipbehavior are likewiseunknown.
There is considerable scope for research-
orientedaquaristshere,because,ascanbe
seen from thephotos, numerous species
of soldier- and squirrelfishes look extraor-
dinarily similar.Andbecause threeor four
species often occur together in thewild,
there must be some sort of mechanism
that prevents hybridization. Hybrids bet-
ween soldier- or squirrelfishes have not
beenmentioned todate in the literature,
so if they exist they are at least rare. The
barriers to crossing are probably to be
found in thecourtshipbehavior,but forob-
vious reasons that isdifficultor impossible
to study in thewild (bearing inmind the
nocturnal activity). Soldierfishes (
Myripri-
stismurdjan
) spawned in theaquariumas
long ago as the 1960s, so in this respect
they are generally cooperative fishes (de
Graaf,1970).
In theaquarium
Soldier- and squirrelfishes are exceptio-
nally well suited to maintenance in the
Sargocentronhastatus
,specimen fromSri Lanka.
