🐠 Teira Batfish (Platax teira)
Marine Not-Reef-Safe Very Large Batfish • Silvery-White Body With a Black Eye Band & a Dark Blotch Beneath the Pectoral Fin • Genuinely the Largest Species in the Entire Platax Genus — Please Read Before Buying • Advanced Marine Fish
 
⚠️ Important Information — Please Read First
We want to be genuinely upfront on this one. As the largest species in the entire Platax genus, this species genuinely grows up to 70cm (around 28"), and expert sources genuinely recommend a minimum aquarium size ranging from 200 up to 500 gallons or more for a fully grown adult. Juveniles are usually quite small when purchased, but will genuinely rapidly outgrow a small home aquarium. Please only consider this species with a serious, concrete long-term plan for its truly large eventual size.
 
📋 The Teira Batfish, also known as the Longfin Batfish, Longfin Platax, or Round-Faced Batfish, is genuinely often confused with the closely related Orbiculate Batfish, though it can be identified by a dark blotch beneath the pectoral fin and an elongated dark blotch just before the anal fin. Juveniles have genuinely long, flowing anal and dorsal fins with black-and-white vertical stripes and yellow lower fins, which shorten considerably as the fish matures into a rounder, more compact adult shape.
Native to a genuinely vast range across the Indo-West Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to the Ryukyu Islands, and south to Australia, this species inhabits reefs, lagoons, and even shipwrecks.
We want to share a genuinely fascinating fact: this species can visibly shift its colouration in real time, changing from silvery white with no bands to brown with darker banding, and then fading back to silver again. This is genuinely one of the hardiest and most personable batfish species available, settling into robust community tanks quickly, and is a real peaceful, social fish that will form schools with others of its own kind. We want to be upfront: this species is not reef safe, and will genuinely consume smaller fish, invertebrates, corals, and anemones present in the tank.
 
⚪⚫ Highlights
🎨 Silvery-White Body With a Black Eye Band: A genuinely iconic, distinctive large batfish
📏 Genuinely the Largest Platax Species: Grows up to 70cm, please plan tank size accordingly
🎨 Genuine Real-Time Colour Shifting: Visibly changes from silver to brown banding and back
⚠️ Not Reef Safe: Will consume smaller fish, invertebrates, corals, and anemones
😊 Genuinely Personable: One of the hardiest, friendliest batfish species