One For The Aquarium

[pmak]

My kids were catching heaps of these fish at Grays Point (Port Hacking) recently. They seemed to be schooling with small luderick and bream close to rocks. I thought they were a dart or sweep species until I saw them recently at the local aquarium shop!

Anyone know what it is?

[dailow]

I've caught a lot of these up on the central coast. Someone told me they are called butterfish.

They are good eating but not much meat on them.

[Dolmo]

In the aquarium industry we call them "mono Angels" or "mono argents"

[Sammy0884]

Definately a Mono Angelfish, they are a nice aquarium fish.... usually mixed in with Mado's and sweep

[james1990]

Iv always called them butterfly sweep???????? good eating but.

cheers james

[Flattieman]

G'day pmak. to Fishraider. That fish appears to be a "Silver Moony" Monodactylus argenteus (also known as many other names - mono, butterfish etc). They are very common throughout our estuaries and range from freshwater to brackish to marine habitats. They are distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, Red Sea and East Africa to Samoa, north to the Yaeyamas, south to New Caledonia and Australia. They can even be found in the Mekong Delta! Here's a few pics from fishbase to confirm:

Flattieman.

Edited February 9, 2007 by Flattieman

[pmak]

Thanks for sharing your depth of knowledge Flattieman. I have enjoyed your contribution to this section of the forums immensely.

Like dailow and james1990 we have sampled a couple of the larger specimens and found them not too bad. The real surprise with this fish is that they were on sale at the aquarium shop for $35 each !!! We had a $70 snack of exotic ornamental fish!! (Imagine how much bream/flathead/snapper you can get for $70!!)

[Flattieman]

Thanks for sharing your depth of knowledge Flattieman. I have enjoyed your contribution to this section of the forums immensely.

Like dailow and james1990 we have sampled a couple of the larger specimens and found them not too bad. The real surprise with this fish is that they were on sale at the aquarium shop for $35 each !!! We had a $70 snack of exotic ornamental fish!! (Imagine how much bream/flathead/snapper you can get for $70!!)

No problems. I always throw them back becuase they're a bit of a pain when trying to catch other bait species like mullet, herring and garfish. They can also dish out a nasty spike! I never thought that they'd be good on a plate... Very interesting. I might even contemplate keeping a little one for my own Aquarium.

Flattieman.

[Flattieman]

i wouldnt bother flattieman,

ive kept a few before in a 6ft tank with all the goodies,

the wild ones get real edgy and frightened,

you will find they will scratch themselves up on anything they can whilst trying to hide behind it, they lose their silvery shimmer and frankly look like a grazed turd by the end of it

also ive caught mono's in the fresh and in the salt FYI

CFD

Thanks for the heads-up, mate. I was also thinking that my tank was probably too small anyway.

Flattieman.