Juvenile Teira Batfish (Platax teira)
Teira Batfish (Platax teira) known as the Longfin Batfish, Longfin Platax, Longfin Spadefish, or Round-faced Batfish are widely distributed throughout Indo-Pacific waters. Their range extends from the Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to the Ryukyu Islands, south to Australia from the central coast of Western Australia, around the tropical north and south to the coast of New South Wales. Platax teira have also been recorded in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.
Following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, it was reported in the Gulf of Mannar and more recently it was recorded in the Metiterranean off of Turkey and Israel.
Teira Batfish are a mostly shallow water species that are found among floating seaweed, floating debris and on artificial reefs of their range at depths from 10 to 82 feet although large adults are occasionally found exploring depths down to 230 feet.
Small Juvenile Teira Batfish (Platax teira)
Juvenile Teira Batfish primarily inhabit shallow, highly protected environments like the estuaries, mangroves, and inner coral reefs where they are frequently found close to the surface underneath floating debris or Sargassum seaweed rafts, hiding from predators by mimicking dead leaves.
Adult Teira Batfish are naturally curious and are more commonly found in deeper
Adult Teira Batfish (Platax teira)
waters where they school up on the open seaward reefs, deeper lagoons, and other deep offshore structure. At larger sizes, adults increasingly become more pelagic and will form sizeable schools that shelter under large rafts of Sargassum that typically form following the wet season. Divers frequently encounter them in large congregations around artificial reefs.
Fully adult Teira Batfish have a low hump on the nape of their body that is usually a brownish tan, gray, or silver color with a vertical blackish band through the eye and another wide black with a pale yellow or tan band through the pectoral fin. They have a dark blotch under the pectoral fin and another long, dark mark above the base of the anal fin.
As you watch adult Platax teira, they will often change color from a silvery white body with no bands, to a tannish brown with darker banding, and then fade back to silver again.
Juvenile Teira Batfish are brownish in color and look like floating leaves. Larger juveniles have highly elongated pelvic fins, front soft rays of the dorsal and anal fins that extend around the posterior at the base of the anal fin.
Small, juvenile Teira Batfish can be housed in a mature FOWLR grow out aquarium of at least 100 gallon capacity with a coralline sandy gravel substrate and a good amount of live rock arranged vertically into caves, overhangs and branches for them to hide among. They require diffused lighting, gentle low to moderate water flow, pristine water quality and stable conditions to thrive.
Within a few months juveniles transition into sub adults that require a tall, FOWLR tank of at least 250 gallon capacity with a sand or finely crushed coral substrate and plenty of free swimming space. Mature live rock should be arranged tightly along the back and perimeter of the aquarium to allow shelter zones with open water.
Adult Teira Batfish are massive omnivores that are best housed in a FOWLR aquarium of at least 450 gallons for a single fish or 800 to 1000 gallons for a pair or small school. Tanks should be a minimum of 8 to 10 feet wide, 3 to 4 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet deep to accomidate their large size. Landscaping with mature live rock should be kept low to the bottom and pushed tightly against the back walls. Avoid tall pillars, high arches and sharp coral skeletons that could injure their large eyes or damage their skin and fins.
Because adult Teira Batfish generate a huge organic load, commercial grade filtration systems with a minimum water turnover rate of 10x to 15x the total tank volume per hour and a protein skimmer rated for twice the actual tank volume are necessary to keep them healthy. Bright high output open lighting is also recommended for adult Platax teira.
The Round-faced Batfish is NOT reef safe and will aggressively consume soft and stony corals, anemones, and many other types of sessile invertebrates.
Adult Teira Batfish are gentle giants and will not bully other larger fish. Some ideal tankmates include large, active, non aggressive specdies such as Mono Argentus (Monodactylus argenteus) or Silver Diamond Mullets, Vlamingi Tangs (Naso vlamingii) or Nasos, Thalassoma Wrasses or larger Coris Wrasses, Hippo Tangs or a single Harlequin Sweetlips. Avoid all small reef fish like Okinawa Chromis, small gobies, dartfish, or clownfish that will be considered as food and swallowed whole.
Like the Marble Batfish (Platax batavianus) it is impossible to breed the Teira Batfish (Platax teira) in a home aquarium. Adults are impossible to sex and because they are open-water broadcast spawners that in the wild gather in deep open areas to spawn, no home aquarium would be able to accomodate them.
In the wild, compatible pairs require massive depths and heavy, complex water currents to perform an upward spawning rush, where they release thousands of buoyant, microscopic eggs directly into the open ocean water column. The eggs drift freely as plankton in the open ocean currents until they hatch out into tiny larvae. Research into their early life stages shows that Platax teira larvae are incredibly fragile and suffer from aggressive cannibalism in the first few weeks of life. In a home aquarium, the eggs would immediately be sucked up by mechanical filters, destroyed by wavemakers, or skimmed out by protein skimmers.
In their natural habitat, Teira Batfish are opportunistic generalist omnivores that feed on what is available in their current environment. They prey on small crabs, marine worms, ghost shrimp, tiny prawns, corals, anemones, sponges and tunicates, jellyfish, vast quantities of zooplankton like copepods, crustacean larvae, and benthic marine algae and seaweeds that they scrape off rocks, ship hulls and coral heads. Teira Batfish are one of the few reef fish that regularly hunt and consume jellyfish and other gelatinous macro-plankton.
Small juvenile Teira Batfish sheltering under floating debris focus on drifting zooplankton and micro crustaceans. As they mature into sub juveniles and venture out into pelagic schools, they feed on larger invertebrates, fish chunks and jelllyfish balls.
In an aquarium environment, they should be offered a balanced diet consisting of fresh and frozen marine algae and meaty seafoods 3 to 4 times daily for juveniles and 2 to 3 times daily for adults.
Adults should be fed high quality frozen Mysis shrimp, vitamin enriched brine shrimp, chopped krill, commercial angelfish/herbifore preparations with sponge matter, fresh raw shrimp, scallops, clams, fresh white fish, large high quality Spriulina pellets, slow sinking omnivore pellets, and daily sheets of green and brown marine algae secured to the glass with a clip for continuous picking to provide crucial plant matter for their digestive tracts.
Juveniles occasionally need coaxing with targeted feedings of live ghost shrimp, blackworms, or adult mysid shrimp until acclimated. Establish a 3 to 4 times a day feeding schedule to mimic their wild grazing behavior..
This species of Batfish can become very tame, sometimes feeding from its owner’s fingers.
Teira Batfish (Platax teira) are occasionally available to tropical fish keeping enthusiasts from specialty fish shops as well as a variety of online wholesale, retail and specialty vendors at prices that typically range between $30 and $90 for small juveniles to well over $150 for larger specimens. They are considered rare and seasonal because they are all wild caught and only available in sporadic waves.
Currently 1.5″ to 3″ Small juveniles retail from $30.00 to $55.00; Medium/Large 3″ to 5″ range from $70.00 to $115.00; Large 5″ plus command $175 to $350 or more.
Juvenile Teira Batfish (Platax teira)
Minimum Tank Size: 250-1,000+ gallons
Care Level: Moderate
Temperament: Peaceful
Aquarium Hardiness: Hardy
Water Conditions: 72-80° F, dKH 8 – 12°, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.020-1.025
Max size: 24″-28″
Color Form: White, Yellow, Tan, Black
Diet: Omnivore
Compatibility: Not Reef Safe
Origin: Indo Pacific
Family: Ephippidae
Lifespan: 10 – 15+ years (adults)
Aquarist Experience Level: Intermediate/Expert
