I'm excited -- I got my orange spot file to eat finally :-D

C

CTaylor

Active member
Hi,

I just wanted to post this. I obtained a beautiful orange spot file. I got it b/c I thought i had a food she'd like. She didn't at all. So called LA to ask them if she was eating there. I love LA , but they said it was eating basicaly frozen meaty foods. I doubt it was. As she wasn't eating anything. I tried different things including what they said.. and little mysis, etc.. . She would taste somethings, then spit out. She wouldnt even care to taste copepods. most food she would spit out and not try again.

But then I tried Soft Protect by Fauna Marin. I noticed she tried and spit it out.. but she relaly liked the taste, she kept doing it. But kept spitting out. So I thought maybe she's too small and/or the food isnt soft enough. So I soaaked it a bit first in Garlic (from sea chem) and then in just added more tank water to it. I foudn I have to let that soak for 30-60 mins (maybe I can let it soak overnight...to have it ready the next day, I dont know if that will make the food dissolve). But anyhow well soaked, and she swallows it.

I think she's attacted to the color more than anything. As she does the same thing to the spirulina pellets. I havent got her passed spit out phase on that yet. But when I soak it enough i'm sure she'll eat it. I just now discovered all this.
 
BTW mine does not like Masstick, which is kinda advertiased on youtube as a food this fish will easily eat. Mine just gobbled easily some sprirulina granules.. so I'm getting her both protein and greens :)
 
Hikari Myses are the staple for my pair. you're spot on with food size. since the aperture for their jaw is more or less fixed like a seahorse having the right sized food is important.

once you find one thing they will eat, use that to introduce other foods. live worms (white and black) have been something my pair go nuts over, and after a time, i even got them reliably eating flakes.

also, make sure you provide them nori on a clip. mine absolutely love to graze on that all day long.
 
It looks like mine is attracted to brown, red, dark warm colored small bits of food. I don't know if it's because she first started eating the brown soft protect food first, and associated other food with that now that's the same color. I'm not sure if should would have eaten the massstick without first being 'trained' on the soft protect. But she eats the soft protrect, the spriulina grains, myssis dry bits (in small pellets). I broke a tiny piece of masstick off like a tiny pellet.. she went after it. Right after I stuck a wad on side of tank. So she can have it there to graze on. And it worked. Next I'm already getting a worm feeder (one of those v shaped floating clear plastic feeders with all the holed perforated in it). I plan on putting some food in it and the pellets hopefuly being a little too large to drop through it, they hopefuly will retain there while she picks at them through the day. Ideally it lasts a few days in case I go away. THough I doubt it. We'll see.

***Where do I get nori! lol I have a food clip. I already spent $50 on magnetic food clips and $25 on live copepods to try to get her to eat.. by cliping food into it. It didnt do anything lol. But obiously if I can get her to eat nori the food clip would be perfect. I konw they need some greens to be healthy.
 
i order my nori off amazing, it's real cheap. you have to cut down the sheets to a smaller size, but that's easy with a pair of scissors. you can even get it at the grocery store, just make sure it's not seasoned or oiled:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I01ZXYE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

i've found my female is the adventurous eater, and can often convince the male to eat. for whatever reason the anecdotal evidence i've heard points to males being much more picky eaters. my female has ALWAYS been the one to sample first. then usually after a couple times of watching her eat (they are remarkably visual fish) he will start to get agitated that she is eating, and he is not, then that's usually when he tries the food.
 
oh, and as a rule i wouldn't worry about them eating new things without being "trained" on the others yet. every food they will accept is one more weapon in your arsenal for keeping them alive, happy, and healthy long term.

i will also put in a plug for growing some SPS coral. mine still love to graze on acros, and i have a bunch growing just for the them. i get no polyp extension, but that all grow nicely. i basically started just collecting cheap, brown, or free acros and let them grow out. nothing fancy, but i believe they do appreciate the snacks.
 
Mondo.. TY for all that info :)
That's an idea for th eacro snacks.. maybe monti snacks??/ my montis grow really fast.. actually my stylo like a weed. Will they eat either? **the tank the ossff (now 2.. i just got a male today) is not brighly lit for coral. it's 27 watt led over a tall 37 gallon. you said youre acros didnt have much PE. I'm thinking when I put my SPS in the 37 for feeding they will also have no PE -- in my reef they have good PE. Does lack of PE mean the OSFF will not get much food from them ? I dont want to kill the coral and at same time not provide much food to the fish.
I'll get the nori asap
TY!.
*I know the OSFF ideally is in 50 gallon or larger tank. Sometime I will likely upgrade. But they along with 6 neon gobies are the only fish in tank. And will likely stay that way, but maybe a few other tiny tank mates like tiny gobies I might obtain.

TY
 
my pleasure. i'm still nuts over these fish, and i love seeing others keeping them.

so it's my belief that they don't actually target the polyps themselves for feeding, but rather mostly consume the coral's mucus (turns out this stuff has more nutritional value that people previously suspected), and incidentally nip at polyps some times. i also think that their diet is far more broad than typically indicated from the limited gut content analysis i've seen done, based on what i've observed them foraging for in my reef, even including chasing down and eating chunks of hair algae that got loose. i strongly believe that green algae is a larger part of their diet than previously thought. however it's possible that this is just a response to the relatively limited coral grazing options they're faced with in the home aquarium.

https://ryotanakajima.com/coral-reefs/the-role-of-coral-mucus-101
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14999280

mine don't touch any of my montis. either monti cap, or branching ones like digitata.

the polyp extension always come back to my SPS when i remove them from FileFish harassment. sometimes that's as quickly as a few days, sometimes it takes a couple weeks. i haven't noticed any adverse effects in color or growth.

i had mine starting off in a small 35 cube before i upgraded them to the big tank (at the time a 160, now a 120). they really appreciate the space. i had a lot of issues particularly with the male pacing and rubbing his spike raw in the smaller tank. a lot of that abated once i moved them to the big pool and they got room to swim.

it's also pretty incredible to watch them move around a large tank. they're deceptively strong, fast swimmers, and watching them gracefully weave in and out of large acro colonies is really something special to see.
 
MondoBongo said:
my pleasure. i'm still nuts over these fish, and i love seeing others keeping them.

so it's my belief that they don't actually target the polyps themselves for feeding, but rather mostly consume the coral's mucus (turns out this stuff has more nutritional value that people previously suspected), and incidentally nip at polyps some times. i also think that their diet is far more broad than typically indicated from the limited gut content analysis i've seen done, based on what i've observed them foraging for in my reef, even including chasing down and eating chunks of hair algae that got loose. i strongly believe that green algae is a larger part of their diet than previously thought. however it's possible that this is just a response to the relatively limited coral grazing options they're faced with in the home aquarium.

https://ryotanakajima.com/coral-reefs/the-role-of-coral-mucus-101
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14999280

mine don't touch any of my montis. either monti cap, or branching ones like digitata.

the polyp extension always come back to my SPS when i remove them from FileFish harassment. sometimes that's as quickly as a few days, sometimes it takes a couple weeks. i haven't noticed any adverse effects in color or growth.

i had mine starting off in a small 35 cube before i upgraded them to the big tank (at the time a 160, now a 120). they really appreciate the space. i had a lot of issues particularly with the male pacing and rubbing his spike raw in the smaller tank. a lot of that abated once i moved them to the big pool and they got room to swim.

it's also pretty incredible to watch them move around a large tank. they're deceptively strong, fast swimmers, and watching them gracefully weave in and out of large acro colonies is really something special to see.
Click to expand...


I read some place same thing on the coral mucus.. Interesting the acros may be used and reused :). My male just started eating yesterday, Thursday, with quick tastes (brown bits of same food female goes after). Today he ate more and more actively went after the food. The female really goes in almost a feeding frenzy when she eats. Darting after any food bits at all now. I'm hoping they eventually are able to eat more at one time. Though I'm going to try as soon as I can to put some holes in bottom of that feeding v ring and hopefully get them to graze via that.

The male especially seems to graze sometimes on the bottom of my tank for something. They dont seem to be pacers right now. Both did when first put in tank first couple of days. I was worried the male would be like that a lot. I'm watching him right now just hover in the water right by the female. They both seem to like to explore around and poke for food every few seconds. Maybe I just got really lucky. But the only other fish in tank are 7 other neon gobies. Best word for them right is 'content' looking lol as far as their disposition. I'll take a vid and post on my tiny youtube.

I need to get the nori. So I just go to grocery store and ask for "NORI LETTUCE"?. I got the female to try some other frozen food. She eagerly keeps attacking it, but spits all of it out. So I'll try others to get other food like hits. I'm super happy I got them now. I was suuuppper discouraged just over a week ago when I couldnt figure out how to get the female to eat last week. I got the tank they are in just for my past seahorses (tall), and I just got it 2 years ago, spent a fair amount on the custom stand and tank, so it would be hard to just get rid of it and upgrade to a more panoramic / large tank But right now they are 'content' lol . I'll probably get a tall fake coral sculpture for them to explore. They are explorers on small scale, without looking like swimmers.
 
I think I figured out how to feed them through the day automatically... The thing is they will easily eat only food that is softened up first. And no frozen food I tried do they like. Maybe Rod's reef b/c it's brown. But that wouldnt work for this.
I need soft tiny pellet sized, brown, red food. Once I get it done I'll post, but will be in an autofeeder that feeds into a feeding ring with that cone worm feeder with holes in it.. and holes on bottom I just drilled into bottom faced down. The pellets get sprinkled into ring 5 times a day, they drop into the v feeder. They soften up while they are in there. So far (it's only been one try) I cant get the OSFF to pick at the V feeder, SO....The the neon gobies I have in the tank eat from it, but also make lots of bits of the food leave the V >> File fish eat the now softened micro pellets. Perfect. Feeding small bits through the day, which is what mine seem to need (they cant eat much at one time).
If anyone has another autofeeder idea for them post it. -- keeping in mind soft small red/brown pellets are needed at least 4x a day.
I'll post my results and a movie. Crossed fingers.
 
re the nori: just make sure it's not flavored or seasoned with anything. some of them will be roasted in sesame oil or have other kinds of herbs/spices on them. just avoid those ones. there's plenty of regular old plain roasted nori available most places.
 
they look good. nice and plump and active.

sometimes mixing foods helps introduce new ones. soaking pellets/flakes/nori in the leftover water from the thawed shrimp can help entice a bit.

sometimes it also just takes time. but they're looking great.
 
MondoBongo said:
they look good. nice and plump and active.

sometimes mixing foods helps introduce new ones. soaking pellets/flakes/nori in the leftover water from the thawed shrimp can help entice a bit.

sometimes it also just takes time. but they're looking great.
Click to expand...


TY :)
Mine at least seem to go almost solely on look of a food when deciding to eat it. As long as it's warm color and smallish pellet and moist/soft they will eat and swallow it. I have algae pellets in the mix also. So hopefully that fulfills their veggie needs. They do pick on the sand on tank bottom as well -- they look like shrimp fish when they do that. But they love the food feeder. For some reason I havent been able to get a good vid of them going crazy on it. But if how they look relates to their health, then I think they are good to go, since they are going on 4 mo. Now I'm thinking about getting them better lighting to show them off better.. and some type of tall fake reef type structure. Now it's going from experiment to full fledge OSFF display :-D

They will not eat frozen mysis, no matter the size. They sometimes try other frozen food (it doesnt matter if I soak in garlic either). But they will not swallow anything. For some reason soft brown/green/red colors they like. And the masstick. Though they stopped liking that. Now I have the autofeeder feed them 4x a day into a floating circle. The food soaks enough and drops into the 'worm feeder' area. I drlled larger holes in it so the fish can poke into and grab food as they like. And the food shakes out some.

I wonder what would happen if I got another male/female "pair". These two are very friendly to each other...though they are for themselves when they eat.
 
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my understanding is that they can become aggressive towards each in larger numbers. best results from what i've seen are a solo pair, or barring that, a male with a small harem.

i always get worried about upsetting the balance and scaring them off eating though. sometimes they take stuff a little hard.
 
I'm just seeing this.. I'm glad you said that so I'll keep them as the pair.
**I just got them to eat this orange frozen food. It's a good quality one, so it should give them even more nutrition.

I mash it up into the bottom of the worm feeder I been using. They peck at it now, as they've gotten used to pecking at their pellet food. So they should be even better off now with more variation.

They are very happy it looks like for the past now 5? months.
 
Now they eat both the green and brown food.. AND no more feeder to pick at needed. I just 'grind' the food a second between my fingers to mash it to smaller bits, and they chase after it now. I put little tunze power heads in there for wave action. The water flow helped with making the water column food more interesting. They eat it like pigs, even the bigger bits, they tear apart now. They also seem to be able to eat more at one time without getting full. At first it seemed they could eat only a small amount and then they spit out after a few bites. Now they eat more at once.
 
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