Silver moony
Encyclopedia
The silver moony also known as mono argentus, silver moonfish, fingerfish or Malayan angel, is a perciform fish, usually found in the Red Sea
and East Africa
to Samoa
, North to the Yaeyamas, south to New Caledonia
and Australia
. Silver moony has a silver body in a triangular shape. The big eye
s are crossed by a dark ray. Its fins are silver with yellow reflection. Both, yellow and dark colouring, are fading with age . It is also confused, rarely, with Monodactylus sebae
, but easily distinguished by its other black ray that crosses where its tail starts, darker color and less yellow coloration. It is commonly called fingerfish because its genus Monodactylus means "one finger". It is also sometime called "Sea Angel" in the pet shops.
aquaria
. It is a shoaling fish that needs to be in groups of three and can grow up to 12 inches, but more commonly 8 inches in aquaria. The biggest requirement for this fish is that as a juvenile it resides in mild brackish water, but travels downstream to ocean, which means as it grows, it needs to be acclimated to increasing specific gravity
or salinity. To mimic this in the home aquarium, it should be started at 3-4 tablespoons of marine salt per gallon of water for juveniles. An extra tablespoon would then be added monthly during water changes, the salt should always be dissolved completely in a separate container. It should be continued until about a cup of marine salt per gallon is being added, which is the normal marine salinity. To be more accurate, a swing handle or a floating hydrometer
should be used to accurately measure the specific gravity, that needs to be raised by 0.002 every month, starting from 1.008 for juveniles to 1.023-1.024 for adults. It may be kept with other marine fish in an FOWLR marine aquarium, provided it is large enough.
Feeding is not much of an issue because they will eat anything once they are acclimated. They will eat flake food, pellet food, bloodworms, tubifex, brine shrimp, spirulina, etc. They also need much vegetable matter, so feed them lettuce, spinach, whatever leafy greens are on hand.
Tankmates are not much of a worry, as long as they are peaceful such as archerfish
, scats, mollies, halfbeaks, etc. They prefer to be in schools and will normally chase each other to establish a pecking order
.
There have not been any reports about spawning in aquaria, and sexual differences are unknown.
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
to Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, North to the Yaeyamas, south to New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Silver moony has a silver body in a triangular shape. The big eye
Eye
Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors in conscious vision connect light to movement...
s are crossed by a dark ray. Its fins are silver with yellow reflection. Both, yellow and dark colouring, are fading with age . It is also confused, rarely, with Monodactylus sebae
Monodactylus sebae
The African moony, Monodactylus sebae, is a fingerfish in the family Monodactylidae. It is a brackish and saltwater fish from the eastern Atlantic, ranging from the Canary Islands down to Angola...
, but easily distinguished by its other black ray that crosses where its tail starts, darker color and less yellow coloration. It is commonly called fingerfish because its genus Monodactylus means "one finger". It is also sometime called "Sea Angel" in the pet shops.
In the aquarium
One of the most commonly kept in brackish waterBrackish water
Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salty"...
aquaria
Aquaria
Aquaria may refer to:*Aquarium, in the plural*Aquaria , a computer game*Aquaria , a Brazilian metal band*Aquaria, one of the Twelve Colonies in Battlestar Galactica...
. It is a shoaling fish that needs to be in groups of three and can grow up to 12 inches, but more commonly 8 inches in aquaria. The biggest requirement for this fish is that as a juvenile it resides in mild brackish water, but travels downstream to ocean, which means as it grows, it needs to be acclimated to increasing specific gravity
Specific gravity
Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance. Apparent specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a volume of the substance to the weight of an equal volume of the reference substance. The reference substance is nearly always water for...
or salinity. To mimic this in the home aquarium, it should be started at 3-4 tablespoons of marine salt per gallon of water for juveniles. An extra tablespoon would then be added monthly during water changes, the salt should always be dissolved completely in a separate container. It should be continued until about a cup of marine salt per gallon is being added, which is the normal marine salinity. To be more accurate, a swing handle or a floating hydrometer
Hydrometer
A hydrometer is an instrument used to measure the specific gravity of liquids; that is, the ratio of the density of the liquid to the density of water....
should be used to accurately measure the specific gravity, that needs to be raised by 0.002 every month, starting from 1.008 for juveniles to 1.023-1.024 for adults. It may be kept with other marine fish in an FOWLR marine aquarium, provided it is large enough.
Feeding is not much of an issue because they will eat anything once they are acclimated. They will eat flake food, pellet food, bloodworms, tubifex, brine shrimp, spirulina, etc. They also need much vegetable matter, so feed them lettuce, spinach, whatever leafy greens are on hand.
Tankmates are not much of a worry, as long as they are peaceful such as archerfish
Archerfish
The archerfish are a family of fish known for their habit of preying on land based insects and other small animals by literally shooting them down with water droplets from their specialized mouths...
, scats, mollies, halfbeaks, etc. They prefer to be in schools and will normally chase each other to establish a pecking order
Pecking order
Pecking order or just peck order is the colloquial term for a hierarchical system of social organization in chickens. It was first described from the behaviour of poultry by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1921 under the German terms Hackordnung or Hackliste' ...
.
There have not been any reports about spawning in aquaria, and sexual differences are unknown.