Orange Spotted Filefish

If you want me to ask to have this thread put back in Reef Fishes, I'll do so. I know it's not really a breeding project. I didn't want it to degenerate into flaming (which it hasn't, so far) or for newbies to think they should go out and buy this fish. Maybe we should have an advanced projects forum in the Marine Fish forums (not that the mods or admins want any more). :)
 
Well, you guys know your business best, I would say. Heck, I'm not even the OP here, so I don't know that I should even have a say.... :)

So, I shot a video of the pair today. I had fed some of my frozen fish goo and some had gotten hung up on a powerhead. Here's my female--the one that nearly starved and who was not the most voracious of eaters--trying to figure out how to get to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEvLRRJ9jec
 
Oh, it's the normal "buy at least some of every marine animal at the fish counter with lots of shrimp and blender it beyond recognition with nori, vitamins, and HUFAs" sort of thing. I usually add a flat of mysis to it as well as some blanched spinach and garlic. Basically the Borneman or Rod's Food recipe, but without really following a recipe. I think the whole idea is just to get as much variety as possible and to get it all as small as possible so extras are easily dealt with by the cleanup crew. I usually make up a couple of gallons at a time and freeze.

This is where having a fish room refrigerator saves the marriage.... :)
 
so awesome. why oh why do the coolest fish have to be so hard to feed? one day, I hope to keep a pair of these myself. just simply beautiful.
 
Thanks, y'all! Renee and Greg, yours is truly a great match. :) My lovely bride is very supportive--heck, she pushes to get lots of the critters we keep--but fish smell is where she draws the line.

small alien--Because you get used to seeing the ones that are easy to keep. I was taking a close look at one of the purple tangs today: Absolutely gorgeous.
 
I know that's true about things that are less common seeming cooler. If you'd never seen a clownfish, it would look pretty dang amazing. That said, there is just something extremly interesting about the look and behavior of mandarins, pipefish, file-fish, shrimp fish, etc. I'm a sucker for the odd I guess.
 
"Umm said:
Thanks, y'all! Renee and Greg, yours is truly a great match. :) My lovely bride is very supportive--heck, she pushes to get lots of the critters we keep--but fish smell is where she draws the line.
Click to expand...

well, being from Newfoundland where being a fisherman is a way of life, Renee is pretty immune to the "fishy smell". i can't say i have the same tolerance for it, but sometimes it's an evil i have to overlook...
 
small alien--I'm with you there. That's probably why I love all the microscopic creatures.

Greg--I've never had a problem with it personally (it takes a good week for me to really even notice skimmer smell), but I've had to learn as it does drive my bride crazy.
 
tagging along!

I have had a pair of what I thought was M and F for about a week now and they have been eating nothing but frozen Hikari and PE Mysis. They get about 2 servings a day and have been eating out of the water column since day 1.

I say I thought they were a M/F pair because the F showed the dark grey and lack of white pigment on its belly. But after a few days they both seem to have the male markings

Anyone know more about this color shifting? And if these fish are hermaphroditic?
 
Congratulations on getting them to eat. I think Matt has mentioned that he thought one of his changed sex, but his and yours are the only two reports of possible hermaphrodism that I've heard. Do you have pictures of the before and after?
 
Wanted to revive this great thread for a question before trying a pair myself.


tatuvaaj said:
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.
Once again, even at the beginning when mine ate exclusively from coral surfaces, it never caused any visible harm to the corals.
Click to expand...

If this is the case, why go to the trouble of training them to eat prepared food instead of nipping at corals?
Why not keep them in a tank with a variety of corals and let them pick on whatever they want?
I have lots of extra frags and even some colonies, so I can QT them with lots of corals too.
 
That's how they've traditionally been tried in the past. And that's fine if it works out for you. I have seen pictures of them in reefs tanks that were starving to death, though.

It's just like with mandarins. You can just keep them in a large reef tank and hope that they get enough food. Or you can train them to eat something that you can feed them and _know_ that they are getting enough food.
 
So it sounds like the problem is that they don't really "EAT" corals, but just pick as described by tatuvaaj, and our reef tanks do not have enough of what they actually eat in the wild.
It is therefore necessary to train them.
 
Well, as I said earlier in the thread, gut content analysis of wild-caught specimens has turned up polyps in the stomachs. They do eat corals, at least in the wild. I've never seen them do it myself, but that's what the evidence is. I can tell you categorically that mine do not eat coral polyps, as they are in a tank without corals.
 
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