I have been fascinated with this fish since I first saw one. I have been reading recently about people having success with them. I would prefer to keep this thread optimistic about keeping them and any experiences that would help someone to keep them successfully long term. If you have any experience, I would love to hear it!
Orange Spotted Filefish
- Thread starter Dizzle63
- Start date
Beaun
It's pronounced Bone
Joe at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, NY has a pair of them. They look really good, but that is a 20,000 gallon aquarium. They need specialized care being as they are coral eaters. I have never heard of anyone getting them to eat prepared foods, but there may be a few out there. I would be hesitant to say anyone but the most seasoned aquarist should even think about attempting to keep them.
I agree that they are not a beginner's fish, but I also think that no one would keep any of the organisms that we do without sharing of information. I have recently read in multiple sources (all of which, unfortunately, got lost when my computer fried) that while they pick at the coral, most of the time the corals actually appear to be healthier than before. This is due to the filefish picking various parasites and irritants off of the coral. In many things I have read, they seem to be hard to wean onto other foods, but it can be done. I appreciate the comments and I hope that more people can add to this thread.
People have gotten them to eat prepared foods and they have spawned and raised them.
http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=191&t=1922
http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=191&t=1922
It is important IMHO to have good Acropora growth when you introduce this fish to an aquarium. In general they do not seem to harm the corals even though they are constantly nibbling them. I have never seen mine to eat a polyp. Instead, it always picks between polyps. They also like to hunt small bugs from live rocks so you should have plenty of small critters in your tank.
Mine prefers flake foods over other dead food. It never accepted frozen foods and has tough time eating pellets. Now I must "force" him to eat from coral surfaces by not feeding the fish a couple of days every month. I do this because I don't know if they require something from the coral mucus to stay healthy. Given choice, it seems he would never eat anything but the flake foods
Once again, even at the beginning when mine ate exclusively from coral surfaces, it never caused any visible harm to the corals.
Mine prefers flake foods over other dead food. It never accepted frozen foods and has tough time eating pellets. Now I must "force" him to eat from coral surfaces by not feeding the fish a couple of days every month. I do this because I don't know if they require something from the coral mucus to stay healthy. Given choice, it seems he would never eat anything but the flake foods
Once again, even at the beginning when mine ate exclusively from coral surfaces, it never caused any visible harm to the corals.
Most corals are closed during the day and that's how I want them to be
I have many different types of corals. You can read more about which corals it likes here: http://grumpyreefer.net/2009/04/16/harlequin-filefish-2nd-month/
I know of someone who aquired 5 of these fish. They are eating mysis and tiny pellet food. He also believes that they don't eat the polyps of coral. He thinks it is the mucus or small critters within the branches. Someone needs to get one of these and introduce it into a SPS tank suffering from red bugs or AEFW. Wouldn't it be interesting if these fish ate those? Hmmmm...
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
I think Sanjay recently got a group of five of them and his are already eating fish roe. I have a pair that I acquired last New Year's Eve. They have not seen a coral since March 1, and they have been spawning regularly for several months.
The following are all my opinions based on my experiences:
1. There is nothing magical in coral flesh that keeps these fish alive. These fish eat corals in the wild because they are really bad at hunting for food and corals don't move very fast. Actually, I would tend to agree that they are likely eating small crustaceans caught in coral mucus, but gut content analysis of wild fish has turned up acro polyps in their bellies. So, they _do_ eat the corals, at least in the wild.
2. The key to success with these fish is not a large tank with lots of corals. The key is to successfully get them onto prepared foods. This is a very, very difficult thing to do in most cases (mine were very close to starvation by the time they finally got the clue and they had some decent fat reserves to start).
3. In the same vein, most of these fish that you see at the fish store are already pretty far gone. Given that you are going to spend weeks trying to train them, the fact that most are almost dead by the time you see them is another strike against their survival in your tank.
4. I can't stress it enough: These are the hardest fish that I've ever tried to train to frozen. If you aren't willing or don't have the time to spend lots of time on training them and all of the water changes that you'll have to do because of all the wasted food, please don't try them. I still feed them four times per day. Similarly, if you _can't_ manage to ever get them onto prepared food, then you do have to be prepared to feed them live coral for the rest of their lives.
5. Once you get them onto prepared foods and are feeding often, they are really easy fish to keep with tons of personality. They are very docile, though, and easily bullied by their tankmates. I had to move a pair of citron gobies because they were too much for the filefish. I now have a pair of small Banggais in with them. That seems to be working well so far, but I may have to move the cardinals once they get bigger.
Photos:
The male at day 1. Not too bad, but you can see some pinching at the belly.
A recent (well, June) pic of the male:
The female on day 1. Considerably worse-off than the male, with pinched belly and less fat reserves along the spine.
A recent pic of the female:
A recent spawning video. Sorry about the quality, it's just a webcam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mgnGgyNYG4
The following are all my opinions based on my experiences:
1. There is nothing magical in coral flesh that keeps these fish alive. These fish eat corals in the wild because they are really bad at hunting for food and corals don't move very fast.
Actually, I would tend to agree that they are likely eating small crustaceans caught in coral mucus, but gut content analysis of wild fish has turned up acro polyps in their bellies. So, they _do_ eat the corals, at least in the wild.2. The key to success with these fish is not a large tank with lots of corals. The key is to successfully get them onto prepared foods. This is a very, very difficult thing to do in most cases (mine were very close to starvation by the time they finally got the clue and they had some decent fat reserves to start).
3. In the same vein, most of these fish that you see at the fish store are already pretty far gone. Given that you are going to spend weeks trying to train them, the fact that most are almost dead by the time you see them is another strike against their survival in your tank.
4. I can't stress it enough: These are the hardest fish that I've ever tried to train to frozen. If you aren't willing or don't have the time to spend lots of time on training them and all of the water changes that you'll have to do because of all the wasted food, please don't try them. I still feed them four times per day. Similarly, if you _can't_ manage to ever get them onto prepared food, then you do have to be prepared to feed them live coral for the rest of their lives.
5. Once you get them onto prepared foods and are feeding often, they are really easy fish to keep with tons of personality. They are very docile, though, and easily bullied by their tankmates. I had to move a pair of citron gobies because they were too much for the filefish. I now have a pair of small Banggais in with them. That seems to be working well so far, but I may have to move the cardinals once they get bigger.
Photos:
The male at day 1. Not too bad, but you can see some pinching at the belly.
A recent (well, June) pic of the male:
The female on day 1. Considerably worse-off than the male, with pinched belly and less fat reserves along the spine.
A recent pic of the female:
A recent spawning video. Sorry about the quality, it's just a webcam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mgnGgyNYG4
small alien
The fungus is among us.
I read that Matt Wittenrich rubs frozen formula 1 onto bare acropora skeletons and puts those in the tank with the filefish. such an amazing looking creature. maybe someday they'll be more keepable.
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
Thanks, RichK!
tatuvaaj--I understand your point, but IMO it is much more important to be able to ensure that they are eating and eating well. I've seen pictures of these in tanks full of Acros that were slowly starving to death. If someone wants to see them amidst a coral stand, I would urge them to first get them eating frozen foods in a tank where they can be easily monitored. Then, once they are fat and happy, try them in the reef tank.
But, mine spend all day swimming around their tank picking at the substrate and performing pair bonding behaviors. What else am I likely to see by putting corals in there with them? The substrate would be more colorful, true.
But, my focus with them is spawning and trying to rear the larvae. So, my set up makes sense for that goal. If I can ever find another good batch of eggs, they are really hard to collect. The one good batch that I got also had a small stowaway amphipod that decimated the eggs overnight.
tatuvaaj--I understand your point, but IMO it is much more important to be able to ensure that they are eating and eating well. I've seen pictures of these in tanks full of Acros that were slowly starving to death. If someone wants to see them amidst a coral stand, I would urge them to first get them eating frozen foods in a tank where they can be easily monitored. Then, once they are fat and happy, try them in the reef tank.
But, mine spend all day swimming around their tank picking at the substrate and performing pair bonding behaviors. What else am I likely to see by putting corals in there with them?
The substrate would be more colorful, true. But, my focus with them is spawning and trying to rear the larvae. So, my set up makes sense for that goal. If I can ever find another good batch of eggs, they are really hard to collect. The one good batch that I got also had a small stowaway amphipod that decimated the eggs overnight.
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
small alien--Matt Pedersen. Mine _never_ took to the food on the coral skeleton thing. They only took food out of the water column until fairly recently.
