Oxymonacanthus longirostris - a week in review.

["Umm fish?"]

I know what you mean. Take a deep breath. Let it out. Fish are supposed to be a stress-relief. Yeah, right.

The truth is, I doubt you'll have trouble with zooplanktivores with this fish. It's certainly a completely different feeding behavior. I was watching mine eat out of the WC today and it's a very different motion than zooplanktivores use. And mine do (finally) spend a lot of time cleaning up the food that has dropped out of the water column. I'd bet that they could survive on that at this point, given enough leftover food and the bullying that would make it necessary for them to do so.

Honestly, they just don't seem all that delicate any longer, either. It's the training that's iffy and you have yours well past that.

What about harpactacoid copepods for bioencapsulation? That would seem like a more natural food for them than BS. I would hate for you to do all this work to have the fish decide that BS is the one-and-only food for her.

 

[seahorsedreams]

I wonder how fatty urchin roe is. I bet she would like that. Hopefully the pier will have one today and I'll try it out on her.

 

[jmaccvols]

Looks like DD has a pair coming up for sale this evening.

 

[seahorsedreams]

She's looking good and eating like a little pig.

 

[small alien]

more pics?

 

[seahorsedreams]

We just got some new things for her tank... pics coming

 

["Umm fish?"]

Uh oh! Sounds good!

 

[seahorsedreams]

It was nothing exciting... just a new filter. I need to get her a better stand and make her a screen cover. I'm going to do that tomorrow.

I need to work on the lighting, but I thought I would post some "not-so-good-I-promise-I'll-retake-them" pictures

She gets very excited over Salmon.... it's treat night.

You can tell she's starting to fill out nicely.

 

[seahorsedreams]

I just put her side-be-side with an old shot.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Oh, yeah! Very nice, Renee! Congratulations! She's looking good.

 

[seahorsedreams]

:bounce2::bounce1::bounce3:

 

[edwing206]

Awesome work you've done! Hopefully one day in the future I'll be able to set up a tank just for a pair of these awesome fish.

 

[Recty]

This is very nice to see, I'm glad you're putting all this work into keeping these hard to keep fish, so I dont have to

 

[Sheol]

Do you ever get her a treat of SPS?
Anyway, congrats again! Never seen one that seems to be thriving.

Matthew

 

[seahorsedreams]

No I haven't added any SPS back in.

Umm, Fish has a beautiful fat pair.

 

["Umm fish?"]

My LFS also got in a cute little male a couple of weeks ago for their SPS display. It was in much better shape than the pair that I got (and also from Quality Marine). I just saw it today: It's already filled back out to what a harlequin should look like! It's just so good to see that more of them seem to be getting to the fish stores in much better shape.

 

[edwing206]

What would be a good tank size to keep a pair of these in? Would a 20 gallon suffice? Or would they need something larger?

 

["Umm fish?"]

Matt keeps them in tiny tanks, but I personally think they need some room to swim. I have them in a 40XL (4' x 1' x 1') and they use the whole length of the tank for courtship. You _are_ ready for those 4x/day feedings, right?

 

[edwing206]

Of course I am Andy. I only have 3 college courses right now so that won't be a problem. I probably won't get around to these guys until after summer anyways so I have plenty of time to plan.
I'm just curious as to how much they cost. I've never seen them for sale locally before so I have no idea.(Not that it would stop me from buying them)

 

["Umm fish?"]

Fair 'nuff. I just want to make sure. These fish take a lot of work. I don't think the fish themselves were very expensive, something like $30/each. The water and food were far more expensive than the fish.