Hephaestus carbo (Ogilby and McCulloch, 1916)
Suggested pronunciation: hef-EAST-uss car-bow

 

Rating Availability Hardiness Overall appeal

Species description

• Physical description....
• The Coal Grunter is an elongated deep-bodied fish with a pointed snout and large mouth.
• The forehead slopes quite steeply and they have a very slight head hump.
• The eye is large.
• The body colour is a charcoal grey to almost black with distinctive irregular gold banding and markings on the head and body.
• The fins are a khaki colour.
• The dorsal fin has very spiny hard first rays and the first couple of rays on the anal fin also look like spines.
• The caudal fin is fan shaped and the dorsal and anal fins are rounded.
• The soft rays of the dorsal fin are longer than the hard rays.
• The golden pattern is brighter in juveniles.
• Taxonomy....
• Systematic hierarchy:
  • Kingdom: Animalia
    • Phylum: Chordata: Sub-phylum: Vertebrates - Group: Fish
      • Class: Osteichthyes (Bony Fish): Sub-class: Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fish)
        • Order: Perciformes (Perch-like Fish)
          • Family: Terapontidae
            • Genus: Hephaestus
              • Species: carbo
• Geographical variants....
  • None.
• Similar species....
  • They are very distinctive and there are no similar species.

Habitat information

• Hephaestus carbo are a large carnivorous Terapon from Australia and New Guinea.
• They are found in a relatively small number of streams in Queensland and the Northern Territory adjacent to the Gulf of Carpentaria and in southern central New Guinea.
• They inhabit clear fast-flowing streams with a substrate of sand or mud and also live in rocky pools.
• They prefer freshwater and live in the upper reaches of the waterways away from the coast.

Aquarium care
The following information relating to tank size, decoration and tank mates is indicative and intended to be used as a rough guide only. Other possible tank mates are listed under Compatibility and there are many plants and decorations that can be used - just ask us.

• Tank ideas....
  • A large tank of at least 120 centimetres is necessary.
  • Juveniles can be kept in smaller tanks to begin with, but will need to be moved as they grow.
  • Example - Australian native tank:
    This tank represents part of a low bank in a North Queensland stream. A large piece of driftwood should dominate the tank and create the illusion of a fallen branch that creates shelter.
    
    • Tank capacity: 460 litres
    • Tank type: HRB-1800
      
      • 180 centimetre (6 foot or 72 inch) tank
        
      • 1 x 40W; 2 x 30W; 2 x 20W fluorescent tubes
    • Fish ideas:
    • 1 x Hephaestes carbo
    • 1 x Tandanus tandanus
    • 1 x Lates calcarifer
    • 1 x Oxyeleotris lineolata
    • 2 x Arius graeffei
    • Building the tank:
  • Background - eg. external printed Amazon tree trunk background
  • Substrate - River sand; 3mm Coffs Harbour gravel - 40:50 ratio. Build a gravel bank, rising gradually from about two-thirds along the front of the tank. Cover the gravel with a layer of river sand and scatter flat stones and the remainder of the gravel over the surface, using more on the bank itself.
  • Decoration - Driftwood; rocks. Position the driftwood so that it starts roughly as the bank begins to rise.
    
  • Plants - Straight Val - Vallisneria spiralis
    
• Maintenance and Disease....
• Because they are a large carnivorous fish, good filtration is essential.
• Regular partial water changes are necessary. There should be a slight current in the water.
• They cannot tolerate water temperature below 15oC for any length of time. They do best if the water is maintained above 20oC.
• Water parameters:
  
  • pH: neutral to alkaline (7.0-8.0)
  • Hardness: moderate to hard (10-20dH)
  • Temperature: 22-28oC.
    
• Compatibility....
• Coal Grunters are a large aggressive fish that should be kept by themselves or with fish of similar size.
• They are intolerant of conspecifics.
• Like most fish from the teraponid group however, the Coal Grunter has an aggressive nature and if kept in a community tank it should be a large one with other larger species.
• Hephaestus carbo makes an excellent aquarium display fish - in the right tank.

Ideas for suitable tankmates.... The fish listed below are indicative of the species that can be kept with this fish. Other fish may also be suitable - please ask us which other fish are compatible. ______________________________ Australia/New Guinea Eel-tail Catfish (Tandanus tandanus) Salmontail Catfish (Arius graeffei) Melanotaenia trifasciata Goyder River Saratoga (Scleropages leichardti) Freshwater Eel (Anguilla australis) Murray Cod (Maccullochella peelii) Other Terapons Barred Grunter (Amniataba percoides) Silver Perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) ______________________________ Asia Clown Loach (Botia macracantha) ______________________________ South America Spotted Leporinus (Leporinus maculata) Sailfin Pleco (Glyptoperichthys gibbiceps) Peacock Bass (Cichla monoculus) ______________________________ Central America Snook (Petenia splendida) Synspillum (Vieja synspillum) ______________________________ African Riverine Red-eyed Characin (Arnoldichthys spilopterus)

• Breeding....
  • Sexual maturity is reached at about 13 centimetres.
  • Spawning in the wild has been recorded in November and is thought to continue through to March.
  • There has been some breeding in dams in Queensland using hormone injection.

 

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ph: (07) 3823 1866