Orange Spot Filefish and Soft Corals

[Bongo Shrimp]

I want to get a pair of osff for my seahorse tank but I have a really rare and expensive soft coral related to dendronepthyas that I can't afford to have eaten. Anyone know if they will pick at or eat softies like that?

 

[Brickyardgreg]

Your softys should be ok. Those guys eat sps. In fact if your going to keep this fish alive you should have some live acros handy in case it won't eat.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I will. Sometimes my LFS gets SPS that are just too far gone to recover so they throw it in the LR vats. Then I can get it cheap. But I'll get the pair from DD which claims that they already eat frozen.

Are they as big "pickers" as say a green filefish? I tried one of those once but it picked at the seahorses. Not because it wanted to kill them, just because they are filefish and that's what they do. I thought I heard somewhere that osff are not AS big pickers as others.

 

[namxas]

IME with both species, OSFF aren't such "pickers". i doubt they would bug your SH (i'd feel comfortable adding them to my SH setups).

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Yeah I've been hearing that about the seahorses. Now my concern is for my rare softie. I'm trying to find someone who has kept them with softies before who can tell me with first hand experience what they did or did not do.

 

[LemonLemon]

they eat SPS in the wild...likely to leave your soft corals alone..

BUT, as with all things natural, there are exceptions. i have had one specimen ate my goniopora and clove polyps before. that was the first and last time i kept one and i returned it to my LFS.

i think it was a freak chance and you should not be worried.