Bat Fish????

[rjc]

I was looking for a Bat Fish (Platax Pinnatus) anyone out there had any experience with them??? I use to have one years ago he lived only about a year or so until I got a Moorish Idol that tore him up.

 

[disgusted]

The only thing I know about them is that they are nearly impossible to keep. Very, very tough to get them to eat. My lfs guy who is quite experienced lost one because it refused to eat. Good luck if you try it....

 

[meow]

I've always experienced the exact opposite. Any batfish I have ever come across will eat absolutely ANYTHING that they can fit into their mouths. They are absolute pigs. They do get HUGE too.

 

[daniel411]

Originally posted by Meow
They do get HUGE too.
Doesn't a Pinnatus Batfish need like a 300g tank by itself?

 

[disgusted]

Well maybe you've been lucky. I've never seen one make it more than a few weeks. I also didn't think they did well in captivity.

 

[stacyt]

I have to agree with disgusted. I've never seen anyone successfully keep one for any real length of time. Plus they do need an extremely large system with peacefull tankmates. Also I've seen them handled at the importers and the conditions that they go through are pretty horrible.

 

[fmarini]

you guys need to keep your batfish straight.
Pinniatus bats are the solid black fish w/ a red/orange outline as juveniles. These fish do very poorly in the home aqurium, very low survial as we really don't know what they eat. They will feed on live brine and mysids, but for some reason these fish just croak. That said a few people have had success w/ these fish abd adult pinniautus are a drag grey, ugly fish.
The other batfish common in the hobby are tierra bats and orby bats, these are brown, white fish, and do very well they eat like pigs and grow quite large. You really want taller tank w/ these fish as they get vertical size . These batsfish are recommended if you liek that sort of thing
frank

 

[meow]

yeah the o-bats are the ones that i usually see, and like i said, they eat like little piggies.
i don't even know about the other ones.

 

[dbgt]

I have an orbirculate bat and he does eat like a pig and takes stuff right from my hand.These fish don't need a massive tank because they have the ability to grow to their surroundings.If the tank is not big enough they will stop thier growth until more space is provided.If your going to get the pinnatus by a very healthy young one and make sure your fish are smaller and not aggessive at all. I would start feeding them frozen food all the time until they can adjust to dry food which may take a long time but will happen. I would not recommended having a cleaner wrasse in the tank with this fish because batfish don't like other fish getting to close pecking at them.

 

[drew44]

is the pinnatus reef safe or not?

 

[rjc]

I had a pinnatus bat and it never had a problem eating. I also had him in a 55 gal tank. Although the tank was more or less bare. He lived about a year but I didn't know if I just got lucky or not????? I have a 75 gal and it's pretty empyt so I thought I'd give it another try but the only places I've found that I can get one on-line won't guarantee that he'll even arrive alive so maybe I'll try something else....but thanks for the info