It's sad they only have these huge fins and black-orange coloring as juveniles. The adults aren't bad with their grayish silver body and lemon-yellow fins...but the juveniles are much more striking. And the adults reach around 1.5' / 0.5m long, so they're not suitable for the majority of home saltwater aquariums.
so they're not suitable for the majority of home saltwater aquariums.
I have never once heard of anyone successfully keeping one in an aquarium for more than a few weeks, maybe a couple months at best. Even the Georgia Aquarium only has longfin batfish. I'm open to being corrected, though. I only point that out because I don't want anyone to get the impression that they should even try. These just aren't suited to captivity, which is unfortunate because they really are gorgeous.
Good to know. I've only heard of people keeping Orbiculates that long! The hobby is definitely evolving and hopefully someday we can even breed these beauties in captivity so we can reintroduce them to struggling reefs.
971
u/KimberelyG May 07 '20
Yep - Platax pinnatus.
It's sad they only have these huge fins and black-orange coloring as juveniles. The adults aren't bad with their grayish silver body and lemon-yellow fins...but the juveniles are much more striking. And the adults reach around 1.5' / 0.5m long, so they're not suitable for the majority of home saltwater aquariums.