Pentapodus vitta experiences?

[rt456]

I believe I’ve got a Pentapodus vitta (whiptail bream), wild-caught from northern Western Australia. It has quite nice colouration, is an active swimmer, and seems to enjoy eating pods and other small foods. It’s also eating pellets and mysis, so it seems to be adapting well to captive life so far.

Does anyone have experience with this fish or something similar? Its common name is whiptail bream, but here in Australia, they often call them butterfish for some reason. I haven’t seen much mention of them here on Reef2Reef—maybe it goes by another name?

I’ll try to post a picture once it stays still long enough!

 

[KrisReef]

Waiting for the photo.

 

[rt456]

 

[i cant think]

I believe I’ve got a Pentapodus vitta (whiptail bream), wild-caught from northern Western Australia. It has quite nice colouration, is an active swimmer, and seems to enjoy eating pods and other small foods. It’s also eating pellets and mysis, so it seems to be adapting well to captive life so far.

Does anyone have experience with this fish or something similar? Its common name is whiptail bream, but here in Australia, they often call them butterfish for some reason. I haven’t seen much mention of them here on Reef2Reef—maybe it goes by another name?

I’ll try to post a picture once it stays still long enough!

Ive had experience with a similar species, Pentapodus emeryii in LFSs but never in my own tanks. Generally they’re easy but can be predatory as they mature from what I remember.

 

[rt456]

Figured it was a murder fish, how my luck seems to go, at the moment seems happy eating and cleaning the sad bed of things, see how it goes, so far no fights but it is smaller than most of the others it’s with. At least for now.

 

[Cael Gallery]

If you got it from ocean reefs, make sure you treat the tank with prazipro. Every fish i've gotten from them has unfortunately had a pretty bad case of flukes, but they do get some interesting stuff in. I had actually ordered an adult P.vitta about a month ago. However within a week it developed popeye and then my gunther's wrasse kindly tore its eyes out and it died.

 

[rt456]

If you got it from ocean reefs, make sure you treat the tank with prazipro. Every fish i've gotten from them has unfortunately had a pretty bad case of flukes, but they do get some interesting stuff in. I had actually ordered an adult P.vitta about a month ago. However within a week it developed popeye and then my gunther's wrasse kindly tore its eyes out and it died.

Did a few dips before adding it, seems fine and healthy so far, eating and active. Ocean reefs look like they are going out of business, so keep an eye out, they may end up having a closing down sale

 

[Zionas]

According to FishBase they get just over 10” although I’m not sure if that’s reflective of the average maximum in captivity. The common length is listed as 6” so I would expect 6-7”, maybe 8” tops as an average. How big is your tank?

 

[rt456]

According to FishBase they get just over 10” although I’m not sure if that’s reflective of the average maximum in captivity. The common length is listed as 6” so I would expect 6-7”, maybe 8” tops as an average. How big is your tank?

130 gallons for the non-metric people. 520 litres for everyone else. Minus the rocks and things. So should be ok at least for now, might be a good excuse for getting a bigger peninsula tank in the future

 

[Zionas]

@rt456 They will definitely be one of those species that needs a 1.8m / 6ft and longer tank in the long run. So I’d be looking at getting something in the range of a 6 x 2 x 2 (standard 180 / 750L). Good to know you’re thinking of an upgrade already.

 

[Cael Gallery]

According to FishBase they get just over 10” although I’m not sure if that’s reflective of the average maximum in captivity. The common length is listed as 6” so I would expect 6-7”, maybe 8” tops as an average. How big is your tank?

P.vitta (known as butterfish locally in WA) are pretty commonly caught from jetties around perth and i haven't heard of them getting bigger than about 7". I'm very sceptical of some of fishbase's sizes. I guess they could be very old individuals or just extremely big ones.

 

[rt456]

P.vitta (known as butterfish locally in WA) are pretty commonly caught from jetties around perth and i haven't heard of them getting bigger than about 7". I'm very sceptical of some of fishbase's sizes. I guess they could be very old individuals or just extremely big ones.

Definitely seen somthing similar snorkeling down Rockingham beach.

 

[Zionas]

@Cael Gallery I understand and don’t disagree with you. The largest of the Yellow and Purple Tangs, I have seen from people who’ve kept them over a decade, or two plus decades, seem to average out at about 5” (12-13cm) or so. Maybe 6” (15cm) for a pretty big one.

Regal Angels have a maximum size of 10” on FishBase but the captive average after many years seems to be about 5-6” (13-15cm).

There’s a Six-Bar Angel (which FishBase lists as having a 45cm / 18” maximum size) that was kept for almost half a century in a public aquarium somewhere in France and I believe it grew to 30cm / 12” which is just around 2/3 of its “expected” maximum size. So I believe that would be a reasonable estimate for how big most specimens top out.

I’d expect something like an Emperor to reach 10”, maybe 12”. And for some of the medium-sized Angels (most Chaetodontoplus except the Singapore which remains smaller, most Apolemichthys except the smaller Xanthurus Cream and Xanthotis and Bandit), to attain 6-7” on average.

I believe the maximum sizes on FishBase reflect unusually large specimens, kind of like a human who’s 6ft5 or 7ft tall while the average would be closer to 5ft9 or 10.

So I believe 6-7” would be the expected maximum size for the average specimen, in captivity or in the wild.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

P.vitta (known as butterfish locally in WA) are pretty commonly caught from jetties around perth and i haven't heard of them getting bigger than about 7". I'm very sceptical of some of fishbase's sizes. I guess they could be very old individuals or just extremely big ones.

I agree, Fishbase's "max. length" is higher than I think it should be for many species. Their "common length" also runs a bit longer than fish reach in captivity. I did a survey many years ago, using max. sizes of fish in public aquariums and that length ran about 25 to 30% less than what was shown in Fishbase.

 

[Cael Gallery]

Also, i'm hopefully receiving a 'super male', as they called it, of Pentapodus emeryii from ocean reefs today if the flight comes through. They said it's about 30cm including it's very long tail streamers. In the video they sent me it looks like the body is maybe 15-20cm and the streamers add another 5cm or so. and they said it's a very large individual compared to what they've seen. Meanwhile fish base says they supposedly reach 35cm which i just seriously doubt, even if you include the ridiculously sized streamers some males have. (Attached picture for reference)

Really hoping this one makes it. I've tried two whiptail breams from them, the first one was a fair sized Scolopsis regina which arrived very thin and quite inactive, then died a few days later.