High Hats

[Paul]

As a young lad years ago growing up in Florida near Pompano Bch. I used to snorkel the shallow pools off the jettes and find little schools of what was called High Hats. I used to watch them for hours. Always the larger one would lead and they always stayed together. Does any body know if these fish are reef safe and what are they really. Like some baby gruntfish or pork fish. And are they so plan that nobody wants them in a tank? The local pet shops in my area do not usually carry them and I have not seen them on the internet. I had three in a ten gallon in 1966 and they lived the longest of all the fish I had at the time. Would like to know if I should even consider getting any?

[Condiman]

Humm I am sorry to say that I have never herd of that kind of fish. But Welcome to our forum. I do hope that maybe someone else can be of better help.

[FishinInTheDark]

This site has pictures:

http://core.ecu.edu/biol/nortons/NCFishes/BonyFish/Sciaenidae/High-hat/HighHat.html

This site says they're mildly aggressive, hardy and eat sessile inverts:

http://core.ecu.edu/biol/nortons/NCFishes/BonyFish/Sciaenidae/High-hat/HighHat.html

And good, old, reliable WWM comes through again:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/croakers.htm

[cich1]

great links Conni, now i know how you spent your day :wink: :D

[FishinInTheDark]

I'll let you in on my private little secret if you promise not to tell anyone:

I have a huge database with lists of websites compiled at my fingertips. I just input whatever criteria strikes my fancy, and I instantly have thousands of answers to any question.

Naw, I used Google. It took just a few minutes. But it sounded good for a moment! :roll:

[cich1]

ahh google, i've heard of that, but i did like the data base story better

[newtofish]

I was hooked with the Conni's Data Mining theory. You broke my heart with the "google" part.

[Sugar Magnolia]

hehe, google, a reefers best friend. I do have a huge bookmarked fish section in my "favorites" with lots of reference sites. It comes in quite handy when searching for specific info.

[jman785]

Paul,

We have a lot of High-Hats here on the Gulf Coast. I saw a rare strain of one, that breeded with a type of a Jack...I'll see if I can find the info

[jman785]

The one I saw was a cross between a High-Hat and a Jack Knife, we called it a Hi-Jack.

[greasyclownG]

I think that the High-hats in my book look pretty neat
I saw one once at LFS but it way very small and, to me, it looks like a drum, which, as far as I know get very large. Does anyone know how big they get?
Also someone said they kept several in a ten gallon tank? Wow

[Mako8500]

lol high jack is what they do on planes , just kidding cant wait to catch some of those file fish that come threw here time to time offshore 125 miles lol im a tuna fishermen and when we are in the canyon i catch um with a dip net now i got to figure out how to keep alive back to port good luck with the high hats. some sacarsom grass would look kool in tank to i sapose