Siganus Doliatus, also known as Barred Spinefoot, The Two Barred Rabbitfish, Pencil-streaked rabbitfish, and many other names. It is an outstanding, colorful sea fish that is commonly kept among various reef tank enthusiasts.
How does it look? Barred Spinefoot is a pretty large fish. The color of this fish is bright yellow with bright neon blue markings, also it has a big neon yellow back tail. Also, this sea fish has two dark streaks that goes through its eye and mouth. When it comes to the size Siganus Doliatus is a medium sea fish, its length is about 10 in.
Also, it is important to mention that even though plenty of aquarium keepers keeps this fish in their reef tanks, the fins of Two Barred Rabbitfish are venomous, so you must be careful with this fish.
The natural habitat of this beautiful Barred Spinefoot is an outstanding reef and lagoons of the western Pacific Ocean. But you can also find this bright neon fish in Indonesia, Australia, and Tonga. The depth of this fish natural habitat is 2 to 15 meters.
What Siganus Doliatus eat you will ask? These fishes are herbivorous and their main food is marine algae.
The behavior of this Pencil-streaked rabbitfish is quite interesting. When there are juveniles it swims in large groups, but when they reach the size of 2,8 to 3 inches it stars to swim in pairs that swim alongside other similar herbivorous fishes. When these beautiful colorful fishes reach the maximum of their size, they usually swim only in pairs of two.
And the most interesting thing about it is that Two Barred Rabbitfish swims in pairs, not for reproductive purposes. Scientists say that these fishes do that in order to find algae easier. Another theory says that this specie does that to protect themselves from predators. For example, Barred Spinefoot searches for food into deep areas, and sometimes they even need to dig for it, by doing this it is a lot harder to see what’s happening around you and look for predators. This is why these fishes live in pairs, while one digs for food, another looks for predators and ensures that they both are safe.
If you are interested in keeping Two Barred Rabbitfish in your marine tank here are a couple of things you need to know before buying it. This ocean fish requires a fish tank of 120 gallons or even larger, the larger it will be, the better the fish is going feel there. As we mentioned before, this specie lives in pairs, so they are not very comfortable to live in larger groups.
Although, they can live with other fishes that are not aggressive since Barred Spinefoot has venomous spikes and can hurt other fish is they are disturbed.
The diet of this fish is not a hard task, Two Barred Rabbitfish eats algae, such as macro-algae, bubble algae. Also, these fishes can eat soft and hard coral polyps. We hope that you find some interesting info about this amazing fish!