long nose filefish
- Thread starter Juice It
- Start date
They only eat SPS corals, and even than are known to have preferences. The only captive success I've ever seen or known with these is a pair kept in a 20,000 gallon reef tank at Atlantis Marine World. Plenty of coral to pick on, and enough coral in the tank that the picking doesn't hurt the corals. As for the home aquarist, unless your growing mass quantities of Acroporids to feed them they are best left in the ocean.
Carnavor180
In Memoriam
has to be a mature sps tank and good size for them to feed and also be a stress free tank.
i have one in a 10g tank with two diffrent branching SPS corals (not sure on type)and it barley touches them at all, it spends most of its time sifting/eating the sand(sand comes out in its poop)and some hair algea, and it also takes crushed formula one and hikarie S pellets, iam not claiming succes with it yet as its still vary thin from not eating anything at the LFS for two or three weeks.
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As I mentioned before, they do show preference as to which SPS corals they eat. That pair I mentioned in the 20,000 gallon reef are known to pick on only a certain handful of SPS colonies in that tank, and yet there are quite a few of a very large variety of species to choose from in that tank. I know quite few other people that have tried with this species, including myself in years past, even in cases where any of us thought we had them eating something other than coral they still ultimately died withing a couple of months at best. I wish you luck with yours, but don't hold out much hope.
Freinds of ours that owned a local LFS were very good at 'training' new filefish into taking seafood mix forced into dead acro. The solution would dry and then be placed in the tank. Once the fish were hungry enough it often worked.
Problem is even experienced fishkeepers could not keep them alive for more than several months. There must be something missing in this diet thats found in coral flesh.
As for live acro, the acro eventually stops opening up and then the fish slowly starves again. This probably doesn't happen in a huge system eg a public aquarium, so real success is more likely there.
I really think this is one of those fish thats better left at the reef IMO
Problem is even experienced fishkeepers could not keep them alive for more than several months. There must be something missing in this diet thats found in coral flesh.
As for live acro, the acro eventually stops opening up and then the fish slowly starves again. This probably doesn't happen in a huge system eg a public aquarium, so real success is more likely there.
I really think this is one of those fish thats better left at the reef IMO
Antiloser24
New member
I love these little fish. And am currently looking for a decent one myself. I had on a while ago, that i had for about 6months, eating new life spectrum pellets. (the small variety) He was ultra fat, and very vibrant color wise. I beleive i spent 25$ for him. But i must of went throught about 5-6 before i got a healthy one. I would advice against it :[ but there are those individuals that adapt quickly and can be very hardy, but those are only the "exceptions" ...
Antiloser24
New member
Ohh, and i forgot to mention, i lost him to aggressive issues between him and my lunare wrasse. I thnk the stress got to him
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Please don't consider buying a new one. I've been at this professionally for over 20 years, and a lot longer as a hobbyist. In all this time I only know of precisely one success story at keeping this species alive in captivity longer than it takes for malnutrition to kill it. That one success story is 20,000 gallon reef tank at a public aquarium.
