I went on a trip to Hawaii last summer, and the last morning there I went to some tide pools and managed to get some pictures of them. In one of the pictures was a convict tang, scroll algae, and what I've identified as a black spot sergeant fish. Now, I'm looking to stock a 175 gallon reef tank and I thought it would be really cool to be able to recreate that scene. The convict tang shouldn't be too hard to find. Scroll algae would be a bit of a challenge. The sergeant fish, however, I have not found much information on at all. I know it is a type of damselfish and reaches around 9 inches in length, but that's about all I've found. With that, I'm wondering is this fish reef safe, how to properly care for it, and where on Earth can I find this fish short of making another trip back to Hawaii and flying it back to the states. Any and all information would be very helpful.
The juveniles typically live in tidepools, the adults typically live solitarily (I'm not sure if they live alone or in breeding pairs year round, but at least during breeding season they live in breeding pairs) by coral reefs or rocky outcrops.
They're omnivores, eating both algae and meaty foods such as small crustaceans (probably don't want to keep them with small shrimp) and invertebrates (I'd guess they might eat things like feather duster worms and/or sponges), so some foods like LRS Reef Frenzy or LRS Fertility Frenzy would likely be ideal.
They pair up to mate, they are demersal egg-layers, both parents guard the eggs, and the male tends to the eggs. The courtship displays involve the males changing colors, swimming exaggeratedly, and making specific sounds. After the eggs are hatched, the breeding ground (where the eggs are laid) is abandoned, then reestablished approximately every two weeks (typically by the same male that established it in the first place). These fish are noted as being extremely territorial and aggressive - though they are also noted in the wild as only being territorial while spawning. Recommended tank mates according to Salt Corner are dottybacks, tangs, triggers, and large angels. They sometime school in the wild, but it would probably be very unwise to try and have them school in your aquarium.
As best as I can tell, they're likely reef safe, but they may damage some coral while preparing a spawning ground if you keep a pair, as they're noted to clear any encrusting material growing on their preferred patch of ground so that they can lay their eggs and allow the growing out of filamentous algae (think Green Hair Algae) in that patch. The good news is, it seems they have strong preferences on where they put their spawning grounds, and they are very likely to re-use it, so they likely wouldn't harm the other corals. They also have a
very strong preference for nesting on human debris in their environment (plastic, wood, cement, metal, etc.), so you may be able to offer them something like a piece of PVC pipe for them to spawn on, and they might actually go for it.
They are not sexually dimorphic except when the male is in breeding colors, but they can be told apart by their breeding and breeding preparation behaviors (i.e. things like the male clearing a nesting site can indicate which fish is male vs. which is female). They spawn up to five times in the same spawning cycle, laying one clutch each time they spawn, and typically the spawns are separated by one or two days. The eggs hatch on the fifth or sixth night after they were laid. It's basically two weeks spawning, two weeks not, then back to spawning, as I understand it.
I don't know any place that carries these guys, so (unless someone else knows where to get them) you may have to special order it - it'd be expensive, but it would avoid you personally needing airline tickets to go find and collect it yourself. I've heard that both Marine Collectors and KP Aquatics both take special orders, so those would be the places I would look at to start.
TLDR; Most likely reef safe - an omnivore. Territorial and aggressive while spawning, may be territorial while not spawning too. You may have to special order it or figure out how to collect it yourself.
