Indigo Hamlet

[waltj11]

Hello--
I have a 75 gallon reef tank that is lightly stocked. I saw an indigo hamlet on the LA divers den site. It looks great and is not expensive. I was wondering if it would eat my chromis. Has anyone kept these guys with small fish like chromis. My tank is also a reef tank so it has a lot of snails and a coral banded shrimp. Any suggestions or warnings would be really appreciated. Thx.

[MattyO]

I saw that also, a little research said anything under 2" would be eaten

[AlexS95]

Won't bother coral, eats small things, hides a lot; that said, I like mine.

[waltj11]

Alex--do they eat snails, i no u said small things so i guess that's a yes?

[philter4]

They don't eat snails and in the wild they mimic blue chromis to get close to the schools and feed on the young chromis and other fish which school, as the hamlets get older (and bigger) their size makes the smaller chormis afraid of them and they become ambush predators that will eat any type of smaller fish or shrimp.

I love the different hamlets (which are sometimes considered color forms of the same species and other times considered separate species) used to be really familiar with the different "species" and their preferred food and habits. They are functioning hermaphrodites which egg trade. What that means is they are both male and female at the same time and during a spawning session the dominant fish assumes male first then after the submissive fish is done laying eggs they switch roles and the former male releases it's eggs. They can spawn like that with several different partners over several days right around the full moon every month of the year with peak activity in the spring and summer full moons.

There are several color varieties and some of them mimic other fish depending on what they prefer to eat, my favorite and one that mimics and one of the rarest ones in South Florida is the shy hamlet, it mimics a rock beauty in color and feeds on cleaner shrimp. Most cleaner shrimp do not see shapes well but see colors extremely well. The basic color pattern (especially if it is out of focus) of the shy hamlet is the same as a rock beauty and it approaches the cleaner shrimp like it wants to be cleaned then eats the shrimp. This strategy also works with smaller fish, I have seen one picking at a sponge (like a feeding adult rock beauty) until a group of smaller fish, mostly juvenile blue head wrasse, come to pick at whatever the supposed rock beauty scares up and then the hamlet ambushed the group of smaller fish.

[waltj11]

That shy hamlet is awesome. I think ill skip a hamlet. Thanks for a great answer philter. Maybe in an aggressive fish only.