orange spot file

T

Theoj

New member
hiyya all :fun2:
i bought a orange spot filefish yesterday for my 225 Gallon ops/softie reef system, i had been tempted to get one of these for some time now but i've never actually found one that feeds on frozen foods readily so i pretty much gave up looking for one"¦ however yesterday i saw one for sale in the LFS and i asked to see if it was feeding (expecting to see the usual, refusing to eat anything other than Acropra sp.), to my astonishment it was feeding and very heavily eating mysid, brine, anything the guy was putting in :bounce3: so instantly i picked him up! since being in my system he seems to only really swim near the surface which is little worrying (not sure if this is normal as I've had no previous experience with this species) but he's looking health, a little thin but this is probably due to not being fed enough at the LFS. and he eats anything i put in the tank! bloodworm, mysid, brine, cyclopeeze etc"¦ i added a couple of new era 1.5mm pellets to his food today and he was even picking at them until the yellow and sail fin tangs came along :p
just wanting to share my success in finding a feeding specimen and also asking about its behaviour.
thanks :)
 
Awesome to hear, and would love some updates on his progress. Orange Spot Files are definitely one of my favorites, but then again so is the moorish idol :facepalm: I think Ive got a thing for "forbidden fruit". Keep us posted :beer:
 
yeah, i defiantly will do! i will post a pic as soon as i can. i guess the guy is pretty small, he's still around 2inches so maybe this has contributed to the fact that he's eating frozen because when they're young their possibly more adaptable? just a theory. all i can say really is that he's absolutely beautiful and seems to be able to hold his own against tangs and even a small niger trigger however i guess this could be down to the size of the system. however, if i see any aggression against him i will immediately catch him (not hard, he seems reasonably tame as he actually never went into hiding when first introduced) and move him to the refugium section of my sump.
 
Nice snag, be sure and feed that fish and feed often. I would feed ova over bloodworms, I don't trust bloodworms and there is always a possibility of introducing disease in a tank with bloodworms. Not worth it IMO
 
ok thanks, the blood worm are frozen so would these still introduce disease? its the TMC frozen bloodworm so I'm not sure if its gamma or not, i would imagine not? if there is any chance of introducing a disease into the system then no, i'll deco stop as i wasn't aware of this. Thanks for the advice!
 
file:///Users/elle/Pictures/Photo%20Booth%20Library/Pictures/Photo%20on%2021-12-2014%20at%2015.51%20%235.jpg (copy and paste the link into browser) there's a really bad pic of him, sorry he's so hard to take a pic of him with a laptop web cam haha. i'll try and take a better pic later.
 
i have noticed him pecking at the polyps of my monti cap frag….. guess no more sps for me then, i'll stick only with softies and LPS. on a good point though he's constantly pecking at the new era algae grazer rigs things for my tanks which is very surprising, he now spends most of his time either at the grazer or my poor mint cap
 
Might be mistaken but from what I've read even the ones that acclimate to frozen/prepared foods still need some SPS in their diet or they will go downhill after several months or so.
 
Megistos said:
Might be mistaken but from what I've read even the ones that acclimate to frozen/prepared foods still need some SPS in their diet or they will go downhill after several months or so.
Click to expand...

No. That is a myth. I have had my current female over 2 years with no sps.
 
Not meaning to hijack the thread but are these reasonably hardy if feed enough sps, ie taking the dietary requirements out of the equation? and do they only eat specific species of coral or is a general sps feast? just planning something for the future.
 
Anybody know the longest this fish has lived in captivity?

Ever heard of anyone keeping one (acro only eater) in a dedicated acro/SPS tank big enough to allow the regeneration of the eaten coral and therefore being able to sustain this fish for its natural lifespan? Wondering if the tank was big enough and the acros large & healthy would the damage would be acceptable visually and be able to thrive?

Acros are nice but I'd sure be willing to sacrifice a few to keep this fish.
 
i think the original breeder of these fish kept his mated pair in a acro/monti only system dedicated to these fish and thats where they bred, he even raised the fry. i think you can occasionally find them on ORA which are captive bred.
 
recently i added a few more corals, 2 leathers (4-6" each), 1 large acan colony (18 heads), 1 large ric colony (around 8 heads), 1 duncan colony (14 heads). when i added these i noticed the filefish instantly trying to get to the leather while it was floating in the bag. This surprised me a lot due to the fact of how potent the leathers toxins are…… also i've noticed the filefish having a occasional peck at the acan however its not really often enough to even slightly bother the acan…. other than that the filefish is still eating any prepared foods i offer and still pecks at pellets etc. i have noticed the niger trigger (he's only around 2") occasionally squaring himself up against the file but so far (hopefully it will stay this way) no physical damage. the first sign i see of physical damage i will put the file in my fuge in the sump on his own (bar a few palys and macro's)
 
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