The marine betta comet fish is a one-of-a-kind fish and a great addition to any reef aquarium. The Comet is simply gorgeous looking: when you look at the body of this fish, plastered with white dots and shaped like a comet falling from the sky, you would think you are looking at space itself, full of stars.
This unique fish copies the look of the Turkey moray eel (Gymnothorax meleagris) in order to look like a big predatory fish, to scare off other hunters. This is called Batesian mimicry, a defense strategy where an innocent animal resembles a dangerous one.
The Comet is shy at first and hiding when it can, but will become more and more visible over time.
The marine comet fish will hide its head into a reef cave and only leaving its tail out, which has an eye-like shape, which is actually the dorsal fin, mimicking the head of the moray eel, although the more experienced hunters won’t fall for the trick.
This relatively easy to keep fish will look for a hiding place in between rocks in the aquarium during the day as it is a nocturnal by nature. They swim gentle and graceful in a calm matter. In general they are hard to feed as they will only except live food in the beginning and are slow hunters.
| LATIN NAME | SIZE |
| Calloplesiops altivelis | Up to 20 cm. |
| REGION | WATER CONDITIONS |
| Indo Pacific & Red Sea | Temperature: 24 – 27 °C pH: 8,1 – 8,4 Sg: 1.020 – 1.025 |
| FUN FACT | |
| Also known as the marine betta due to its similar shape and swimming behavior compared to the freshwater Betta fish. |
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