🐠 Spanish Hogfish (Bodianus rufus)
Marine Reef-Safe-As-Juvenile-Only Large Wrasse • Golden-Yellow Body With a Blue-Violet Back Patch & Purple Scale Margins • Genuine Documented Juvenile Cleaner Fish • Advanced Marine Fish
 
⚠️ Important Information — Please Read First
We want to be genuinely upfront on this one. This species genuinely grows up to 40cm (around 15.7"), and expert sources genuinely recommend a minimum aquarium size of 125-180 gallons for a fully grown adult. As it matures, this species becomes genuinely unsuitable for reef tanks, consuming snails, worms, mussels, small fish, shrimp, and squid, and can become genuinely aggressive and bullying toward smaller, docile tank mates.
 
📋 The Spanish Hogfish has a genuinely eye-catching golden-yellow body with a patch of blue highlighting across the back and violet margins along each scale.
Native to the tropical Western Atlantic and Caribbean, this species inhabits coral reefs and rocky areas to depths of 70 metres.
We want to genuinely share a charming juvenile behaviour: young specimens are documented cleaning parasites and dead scales off other fish, though we want to be honest that this behaviour is genuinely facultative rather than obligatory, and typically ends, or may even become harmful to the recipient fish, by the time the hogfish reaches adulthood. This is genuinely a characterful, hardy species that may be shy when first introduced but soon gains real confidence, becoming a genuinely outgoing aquarium occupant. We want to be upfront: this species is only reef safe as a juvenile, and adults are best suited to a spacious, fish-only setup with other moderately aggressive species.
 
🟡🔵 Highlights
🎨 Golden-Yellow Body With a Blue-Violet Patch: A genuinely eye-catching, characterful hogfish
🧼 Genuine Documented Juvenile Cleaner Behaviour: Young specimens clean parasites off tank mates
⚠️ Reef Safe Only as a Juvenile: Adults will consume invertebrates and small fish
🐢 Genuinely Shy at First: Becomes noticeably more confident and outgoing with time
💪 Genuinely Hardy: A robust species once properly acclimated