Orange spotted filefish weaning (aka Oxymonacanthus longirostris)

[Breez]

Hi Reef Central, so I've been admiring oxy files from afar for the last year or so and reading everything I could find online and in my university's archive on them. After running across Matt Pedersen's "Survival Log" on MOFIB I figured there was some hope for these fish in the dedicated hobbyist's aquarium. It finally happened that I walked into a LFS that had a reasonably healthy specimen. The 4" female was pinched on her sides, but not completely wasted looking, and whats more, she even displayed an eagerness to eat non-coral foods. The staff had dumped in a big scoop of frozen brine into her tank and I watched her take two bites out of the water column without spitting them back out!

So today is day 9 of owning and weaning an orange spotted/harlequin filefish. I have gotten her to eat enriched brine, small mysis, cyclopezze, and even flake foods. Whats really interesting is that she even seems to prefer these foods to the acropora colony in the QT with her. At this point, I think this girl has a pretty good chance of living a long happy fish life in my 40B mixed reef.

I would love to hear from other reefers that have encountered this fish. Anyone own one? After you have them eating how long did it take for you to get the weight back on them? She's started to fatten up, but not enough for my liking. Here's a pic of her on day 1:

and here's day 9 (aka today):

 

[Breez]

hmm... guess I haven't figured out how to upload pics from flickr yet. Thumbnails doesn't seem to be working either... bah heres the link to the album :
https://www.flickr.com/gp/134828805@N03/nxn7m4

 

[ReefGeekb]

Hi I have one and she is a beaut. When I first got her home she would not eat at all,it took me 2 weeks to get her to eat.
She is now eating everything,frozen food and flake sometimes the odd pellets as well.
I had one 3 years ago but lost it due to my anemone going in my power head, I was really annoyed,so now I have another one.
What I would say those who would like one please please do your research before buying on you really need to know what you are getting yourself into if you get one.

 

[MondoBongo]

a bit of an old thread here, but these are hands down my favorite fish.

my pair will have been with me 3 years now this december. they're voracious eaters now, but getting them on to a captive diet was challenging to say the least.

i used live white worms and live black worms are a bridge food for them. eventually getting them interested in frozen myses (hikari fit their mouth size better), and flake food.

my female is much more ready to try to new foods, then the male usually gets upset that she is eating and he is not, and will eventually follow suite, sampling whatever the new fare may be.

i have them in an SPS dominant mixed reef, and while i have no polyp extension on any of the acropora, i still get excellent growth.

 

[tyleraoc]

I have had a few of these, I personally have used live brine shrimp to get them to eat successfully - it didnt eat anything else. Once it recogognized brine as food, it ate frozen shortly after. I was then able to get it on mysis, and then it ate everything.