Monkeyfish
Active member
Figures. I've got other fish in my quarantine now.
Oxymonacanthus longirostris pair enters a mixed reef environment
- Thread starter small alien
- Start date
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Nominated for Thread of the Month
Nominated for Thread of the Month
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And thanks, everyone, for participating. :beer: Cheers, the small one
Nominated for Thread of the Month
Hi All. This thread has been nominated for thread of the month!
Please follow this link to vote:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=17874444#post17874444
And thanks, everyone, for participating. :beer: Cheers, the small one
Thales
Active member
I guess it depends on what you are calling a middle man. FWIW, I don't think it has much to do with how they get them - ok a little, but the real benefit to DD is the way they treat the animals. Lots of attention, little to no overcrowding, lots of feeding and QT.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
That seems to be the assumption. Given how feisty my pair is with eachother (they ignore everyone else), I would imagine two males would not tolerate eachother. I believe Matt (the one who bred them) kept a m/f/f trio. Given the behavior of my pair, I could imagine two females coexisting but that's just my intuition.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
When days matter as the fish hangs in the balance during conversion, I would imagine shaving even a few days off each part of the transfer could have a big impact on potential success.
Thales
Active member
I agree, but don't think early arrival is the key to DD animals. Plenty of places get their fish 'fresh' that don't have the success that DD has.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Indeed. You've got to put all the pieces of the puzzle together as they do so well at DD.
Thales
Active member
Depends on the size of the tank and the aquascape. At work I have 5, 2 male 3 female, in a 36x36x36 inch cube with a pinnacle in the middle so the fish can swim at speed in circles to get away from each other if needed. They can also be on different sides of the pinnacle so they aren't constantly in sight of each other. Pretty decent current in there. The females seem to mostly ignore each other, and the males face off from time to time (pretty colors!) but it doesn't last too long. They have been together for over two years, and I am pretty sure they are spawning, but haven't had time to stay late and make sure.
Attached is a pic of the tank from March of this year.
Attachments
Thales
Active member
You bet! I think the most important one that we haven't covered is DD makes a huge effort to not send out fish that are compromised in any way. I'm not sure who else goes to all the extra effort.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Thales, that tank is really, really super. Are the files the only fish? How did you wean them? Please tell us a little story about your files. 
Thales
Active member
Thanks for the compliment!This is my 'staff pick' tank at the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences. It contains the 5 OSFF, 2 Meiacanthus grammistes, and 2 Pseudochromis fridmani - pretty sure all of them are spawning. In 6-12 months the tank is prolly also going to get 16 Apogon leptacanthus that are currently in a tank on the same system (and they are spawning regularly).
I was given this tank right before Matt Pedersen published his OSFF breeding success so, after talking with him, I modeled my weaning after his protocol. I also talked with him quite a bit about the tank and how many fish would work - we really had no idea so we decided to try for a display of 5, so I ordered 7 (3 male, 4 female) fish from Divers Den and they went into a cube tank system (12x12 cubes) but the fish could not see each other. If they all made it I would keep 1 pair at home, back of house at work, or put them in the 200,000 gallon reef. They weren't interested in picking on live acro or dead acro with fourmula 1 squished into it. I tried both for two days and then decided, with consultation with my QT partner Matt Wandell, that the most important thing was food in their bellies, not trying to get them to eat 'easy' food, so I gave them live brine shrimp and they ate like pigs. I quickly started offering them Hikari micro pellets which they ignored and then tried crushed up flake, on day 4, which they started eating very quickly. A few days later I offered pellets again, this time letting them settle to the bottom and leaving them there - they started picking at them later that day, and now eat just about any food offered - PE mysis, cyclops, BBS, flake, pellets - they are pigs. During the 30 day QT we lost 2 - one from 'spinning' and one found dead one morning. Necropsy showed nothing obvious.
When they went into the tank they picked at lots of soft corals. They didn't bother clams until I moved the clams around, then they were vicious. Now they are great and eat a lot, they pick on corals a little, but never seem to do any real damage. No acros in the tank with them, mostly because I have another tank with acros around the corner and we like to avoid redundant exhibits.
The tank has a 400 watt 10000 k MH and an auto feeder that feeds micro pellets 4 times a day. They get a 5th feeding every day of live brine, PE mysis, bbs or whatever else I have prepared.
Theres my little OSFF story!
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Thanks, Thales. That is really interesting. Thank you for taking the time to share. Cheers, small
small alien
The fungus is among us.
I noticed again today a distinct intensification of the male's colors while and after replacing water during a water change. I've noticed this a half dozen times before. Anyone else notice this?
Just changed the water... no change in the fish.
I was looking at my fish today and couldn't decide if they looked really fat or really thin; part of their bodies behind their head was sticking out, but I couldn't tell if that was because the rest of them was so thin. I ended up turning off the flow like was recommended and I dumped 8 cubes of PE mysis in my tank (a couple at a time, my wrasses/tang/butterfly were gorging and blocking out the OSFF), and watched what happened. The male started pigging out. The female ate more timidly. Now the male is fat and bloated and I know what a fat OSFF looks like. The female is thinner, makes me somewhat concerned.
seahorsedreams
New member
Is he "tapping" her during feedings? He could be keeping her away from the food a bit.
Nope, there was literally food everywhere, and i could of sworn she started eating a few bites only after watching him chow down for awhile.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
My male definately "taps" my female and drives her away from food. But there's plenty. Mine seem to find PE mysis too big. Even Hikari mysis is not a favorite. The foods they really go wild for are the prawn roe, frozen formula 1 gel and prime reef flakes.
