Oxymonacanthus longirostris pair enters a mixed reef environment
- Thread starter small alien
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small alien
The fungus is among us.
Nothing wrong with a little crab talk to cleanse the pallet.
Monkeyfish
Active member
Normally, I'd agree with you and would NEVER recommend this animal to others.
However, I've had him for about 2 years and he's never harmed a fish (at least not that I'm aware of). At one point, he was sharing a cave with a damsel. I've seen small butterfly fish try to steal his food. He was in a tank with a Humuhumu trigger (among other fish). The trigger liked to chew on his legs. The crab pretty much ignored the fish. Every now and then he'd flick a leg to shake the trigger off and then just continued on his merry way. The trigger never actually did any harm - couldn't get through the carapace.
Monkeyfish
Active member
Maybe I found the wimpy one.
D5HP
New member
I hope you don't mind me sharing my experiences here as well, since I derived most of my knowledge from this thread anyways.
Here's my pair:
The male looks a little thin and the female seems to be a relatively larger fish. I am excited about getting them in safely.
My first plan of action is getting their food supply ready. I have nutramar ova on the way and already have a pretty solid selection of foods for my other fish:
NLS Pellets
Formula 1 & 2 flake and pellet
Cyclopeeze freeze dried & frozen
H2O Marine Fusion
Spirulina flake
Hikari Mysis
PE Mysis
Reef Nutrition Arcti Pods
Mixed fresh fish flesh from the local seafood market (frozen)
Will also be getting some frozen brine, and some other gel foods for skeleton smearing if its necessary. We'll see how honest the DD is with them eating prepared foods already.
Here's my pair:
The male looks a little thin and the female seems to be a relatively larger fish. I am excited about getting them in safely.
My first plan of action is getting their food supply ready. I have nutramar ova on the way and already have a pretty solid selection of foods for my other fish:
NLS Pellets
Formula 1 & 2 flake and pellet
Cyclopeeze freeze dried & frozen
H2O Marine Fusion
Spirulina flake
Hikari Mysis
PE Mysis
Reef Nutrition Arcti Pods
Mixed fresh fish flesh from the local seafood market (frozen)
Will also be getting some frozen brine, and some other gel foods for skeleton smearing if its necessary. We'll see how honest the DD is with them eating prepared foods already.
Monkeyfish
Active member
It took a day before mine started chowing down on the mysis. I never used brine shrimp.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Good luck and keep us posted.
D5HP
New member
Okay I'll try not to freak out too much if I don't have them eating in the first two days then...
I am really excited and equally nervous. I just got the rest of the things I need for my water mixing closet so I'll have 60g of freshly mixed water available all the time.
In addition to the foods I mentioned I had I ordered some other stuff along with the nutrimar just to have some more options. Uhuru said the Roggers stuff was great and after reading it I imagine it will be, so I bought both of their available foods.
Some of this obviously will not get touched but I do have plenty of other fish and figured I was already spending money on the shipping...why not throw it in.
D5HP
New member
I picked up the fish from the FedEx facility and it's a good thing I went that route. I forgot to have the food held as well and it didn't arrive until 3:15PM! I am impressed with the diver's den and LA.com with both shipments.
I was wrong about size of the filefish. The male is much larger than the female, at least one inch. Each arrived healthy but thin. The female is MUCH thinner than the male and is a concern, sort of (*see below*). The male is agile but is constantly swimming with his nose on the glass. Is this a behavior you have seen before?
I put a drop of ova in the tank, turned off the flow, and walked out of the room. I peered around the corner five minutes later and both of the fish were vertical picking at it on the bottom of the tank. The female had her horn? up a few times during feeding. I'm excited...but extremely worried about her size. I'm planning on daily water changes for at least two weeks and 10-15 feeding attempts daily unless I'm not able to get them to eat that much.
The female appeared more interested in the food than the male. I then put a small dot of the green roggers food in there and it definitely perked him up and he went over to it and picked once before backing away. This was in the water column, mind you. I put some of that in my reef tank as well and EVERYONE went batshit crazy. Buy some. All of you.
It's a real awesome sight though...watching an obligate coralivore eating ova. I forgot the significant other has the camera for work but I'll get some photos at some point. The male is not as thin as I had though but the female is worse.
I was wrong about size of the filefish. The male is much larger than the female, at least one inch. Each arrived healthy but thin. The female is MUCH thinner than the male and is a concern, sort of (*see below*). The male is agile but is constantly swimming with his nose on the glass. Is this a behavior you have seen before?
I put a drop of ova in the tank, turned off the flow, and walked out of the room. I peered around the corner five minutes later and both of the fish were vertical picking at it on the bottom of the tank. The female had her horn? up a few times during feeding. I'm excited...but extremely worried about her size. I'm planning on daily water changes for at least two weeks and 10-15 feeding attempts daily unless I'm not able to get them to eat that much.
The female appeared more interested in the food than the male. I then put a small dot of the green roggers food in there and it definitely perked him up and he went over to it and picked once before backing away. This was in the water column, mind you. I put some of that in my reef tank as well and EVERYONE went batshit crazy. Buy some. All of you.
It's a real awesome sight though...watching an obligate coralivore eating ova. I forgot the significant other has the camera for work but I'll get some photos at some point. The male is not as thin as I had though but the female is worse.
Monkeyfish
Active member
They'll fatten up.
I've seen many fish running up and down the glass with their nose pressed to the wall when they are first introduced to a new tank. This will go away as they get used to their new surroundings.
4 - 6 feedings should do well enough, but if you have that kind of time go for it.
Good luck and keep us posted.
I've seen many fish running up and down the glass with their nose pressed to the wall when they are first introduced to a new tank. This will go away as they get used to their new surroundings.
4 - 6 feedings should do well enough, but if you have that kind of time go for it.
Good luck and keep us posted.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Good luck. We'll be watching for pictures.
Monkeyfish
Active member
...and movies. We like movies
D5HP
New member
...and movies. We like movies
Well I can get a video sometime soon but I need to get my flip cam back from the girlfriend's office. I got my camera back though.
I apologize if I am updating too often, I am just really enjoying these fish. Their swimming patterns are so strange. It was mentioned in this thread that these fish are very agile swimmers (would have to be given their food source) but it's still a surprise somehow. You'd think a sideways flounder would suck at getting around!
So the female is eating well...destroys ova. She spends most of her time on the sand picking up eggs (it appears) and I squirt 10-20 in every other hour or so to keep her occupied. The male is a little less interested in all the foods. I got a great reaction from the Rogger's plus when I first tried it but not from anything else in my arsenal until today.
I hadn't tried the spirulina enriched brine shrimp because it seemed like a gimmic. Gosh was I wrong. I put a tiny blip in the baster, sucked up some water and shot it down into their preferred corner or the tank and he DARTED over to it and was eating it FROM THE WATER COLUMN. Insane. The female joined in a little but the male was voraciously picking at it. I couldn't really tell how much he was actually eating but there was a definite response to that stuff...so I'm excited about him having a go to fall back food now.
Enough talky you want to see the female's post shrimp and eggs pooch belly...right?
Mr:
Thin Mrs. OSFF...but no worries because she's so haungry.
Renton777
Polyp Nipper
D5HP, I don't think you are updating to often. Keep the updates rolling! I am considering a pair in the future and every personal experience I can read helps tremendously.
Does anyone keep these guys in with SPS as well? Have you found they eat prepared foods and leave sps alone for the most part?
Does anyone keep these guys in with SPS as well? Have you found they eat prepared foods and leave sps alone for the most part?
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Great pictures, Dustin. That is awesome! Mine will not touch spirulina or regular frozen brine.
D5HP
New member
I'm obviously not out of the woods yet but I believe that these fish were properly weaned before being shipped out to me. They are both eating well at this point.
Thanks! I'm so pumped! The male is tearing into some brine shrimp now. I now have them hovering around the end of the turkey baster waiting for big shrimp bits to get slowly pushed out and they immediately nuke them. Once they are totally comfortable with the turkey baster I feel like I'll really be able to fatten them up quicker. I ground up some pellets and have put them into the brine mix. I'm going to add in some mysis and cyclopeeze as well to see if I can't trick them into broadening their palette. The female eats well but the male only is interested in brine shrimp (either spirulina or regular at this point).
I'll have to get a video soon of them hovering at the turkey baster. The female has actually started ramming into it thinking that the food floating inside is accessible!
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Sounds like you're doing everything right! Great report.
D5HP
New member
CHECK.
So this is what I had ground up (into a fine powder) in that brine shrimp I fed an hour ago. I just threw two pellets into the tank and the female picked at them. They were too big to eat whole but she definitely was eating parts of them. Now that's a serious serious breakthrough! I've had a bangaii cardinal for almost a year that JUST started eating pellet foods last week. Insane.
