Cirrhitichthys falco

Cirrhitichthys falco, commonly known as the Dwarf hawkfish, is a small hawkfish. Their base colour is pure white, with many red to brown spots in it, which do form horizontal and diagonal lines and even some saddle like patterns. The back of the dorsal, the caudal and the anal fin are a little blueish and on the first few dorsal fin spines have tiny hairs on them called 'cirri'.

These fish usually pick one or a few spots on rocks or corals where they observe the aquarium. We recommend to only keep one hawkfish in a tank, unless a proven pair can be found, because they can be very aggressive towards other hawkfishes. Most other fishes are ignored, but do watch out with small docile species though. In nature their main diet consists of crustaceans. They're not shy at all and will eat about any meaty food (preferable crustaceans like mysis, gammarus and krill) you offer. They can even be hand-fed after a short while in the tank. Except for resting on a coral, which some corals can't handle, they're reef safe, but do watch out with shrimps and crabs that fit their mouth!