Oxymonacanthus longirostris pair enters a mixed reef environment

[Terryz_]

Hahaha... You found out... =P

 

[Renton777]

funny

funny

small alien,

As my reef has come together I have been planning on keeping certain coral and fish. Every time I jump on the forums to check out info on a fish I really want you are there! Not only are you there but you have the fish I want! OSFF, pipefish and leopards! I have leopards and am looking for some pipes. I plan to let my sps grow out more before attempting OSFF, though I hope to ween the to frozen as their main diet. Anyways I am impressed and thought it was funny. I will let you know what other fish I hope to keep so that you can get them first and educate me :wave:

 

[namxas]

You'll need to get your pipes conditioned and weaned before adding them to the tank with the leopard. This is important as they will be in direct competition for any pods in the tank, so they won't always have "between meal snacks". I've kept D. janssi with a leopard wrasse with success, but the pipes were weaned prior to going into the DT.

 

[small alien]

Greetings Renton777 (are you from Renton, WA?).

I'm not exactly sure what attracts me to these species. I kind of like funky oddballs in general. I'd love to keep a cowfish and boxfish someday. Have you got a picture of your leopards to share?

All the best, small the alien

 

[small alien]

You'll need to get your pipes conditioned and weaned before adding them to the tank with the leopard. This is important as they will be in direct competition for any pods in the tank, so they won't always have "between meal snacks". I've kept D. janssi with a leopard wrasse with success, but the pipes were weaned prior to going into the DT.

Absolutely. I think all pod eaters should get conditioned to prepared foods in QT. Good point , Greg.

 

[namxas]

You did a great job with your pessuliferus, but I do think that it's a matter of the individual specimen thriving in most cases, as you mentioned. I could never get that one to "take", but I also think it's one of the "touchiest" of the flagfins, and they always come in REALLY emaciated, so it's hard to "pull them back" once their digestive system begins to shut down.

 

[Renton777]

Small Alien, not from Renton, WA. Just a nickname.

Here is one of my 3 blue star leopards. Got them about 2 weeks ago. One is out every morning into the late afternoon and eating well. One comes out in the evening and eats a bit but is easily spooked. I have not seen the third, but I currently believe she is alive. They all seem to be on different schedules.

namxas, thanks for the tip on the pipes!

 

[small alien]

You did a great job with your pessuliferus, but I do think that it's a matter of the individual specimen thriving in most cases, as you mentioned. I could never get that one to "take", but I also think it's one of the "touchiest" of the flagfins, and they always come in REALLY emaciated, so it's hard to "pull them back" once their digestive system begins to shut down.

For the record, of all my fish, my pipes are the ones about which I feel the least clarity in terms of the morality of collecting and keeping them in captivity. The mortality rate is just so high no matter how hard you work on the feeding. It's extremely hit or miss, more than any other species I've done food training with. And, yet, they are so extremely awesome and I do believe with more experience, we hobbyists will find ways to effectively keep most pipes long term. I feel that there is some room morally for experimentation with these animals just like with the OSFF. It's a tough one for me. When I lost a couple pipes a year and a half ago that I had worked really hard on, I was ready to throw in the towel on this hobby altogether. That's how badly I felt about their demise. But eventually I saw it in a broader context and decided to try again. I think it's up to each individual fish keeper to determine what they feel are a reasonable level of losses when paving new ground in the hobby.:strange:

 

[small alien]

Great picture Renton777. Thanks for sharing!

 

[D5HP]

I'd like some suggestions from you guys about my feeding regimen now that my fish are out of the 'danger zone'. I still have another two months of heavy feeding before I add any other fish though. My female ate more today than she ever has in a single day. I've never seen her belly look like it's about to explode before. Took this ten minutes ago:

I went to the LFS today and got a brick of that frozen cyclop-eeze. I then stopped by the seafood market on the way home. This place is a legit market with thousands of whole fish on ice in the place and some choice fillets....smells like it too

I talked to the owner to try and work out a deal where I could get small cuts off a ton of different filets but when I said aquarium and realized I wasn't wanting to spend a ton of $$$$$ he just told me he'd give me some guts and walked away. Awesome....I'll try a local grocer at some point and hopefully I'll get some more sympathy.

So I got $3 in shell on shrimp caught this morning and washed them really well and chopped them up. I put some of that shrimp, cuts of frozen then thawed salmon, and smeared cyclop-eeze all over it. I stuck that in the clip and the female turned into a wild woman! The male likes the salmon but that's about it. I didn't see him do anything with the shrimp. Is this shrimp okay for them to eat? I know it's clean and fresh but I just wondered if there's any reason I should avoid it.

Now my question pertains to brine shrimp. I have been feeding it daily (first thing in the morning) to keep my female interested in free floating foods and in an effort to get the male to jump back onto this method of eating.

Is this actually a problem or should I just continue doing it since she is eating it pretty well and I at least let it sit in selcon overnight before feeding. I think most of the selcon just washes off into the water column but I have the bottle so I might as well use it. I don't think it hurts anything, that's for sure.

Oh and your pipefish are just unreal small alien. I'd love to try the yellow banded one that's such an amazing fish. I get Coral as well and that writeup this month was really awesome! I also love your leopard wrasses...there's a trio of tamarin's at PIA I want super bad but I just blew my "fun" money for a month on parts for a new computer I'm building...

 

[small alien]

Great reporting, Dustin, thanks. I have yet to try grocery store seafood but I would like to. Regarding the brine shrimp, I don't know. I've heard it called "fish popcorn". Long term, I'd be looking to feed it only once a week or so. I think with soaking it in vitamins, I would feel comfortable feeding it daily for a while. As long as there were several other foods in the mix.

And that is one fat belly. Congrats!

 

[Monkeyfish]

Brine shrimp has very little nutritional value and is generally used to get finicky fish eating prepared foods. IMO you should wean them off of it or, like Small Alien said, just offer it every now and then.

 

[D5HP]

Great reporting, Dustin, thanks. I have yet to try grocery store seafood but I would like to. Regarding the brine shrimp, I don't know. I've heard it called "fish popcorn". Long term, I'd be looking to feed it only once a week or so. I think with soaking it in vitamins, I would feel comfortable feeding it daily for a while. As long as there were several other foods in the mix.

And that is one fat belly. Congrats!

It is definitely not her only food by far. She is only aggressive enough to get about 4-5 shrimp before the chromis clean up the whole show. I use the freeze dried cyclop-eeze to distract them at the surface sometimes though, which helps quite a bit.

Her favorite is also the Rogger's blends. She eats that throughout the day alongside the male on "her" clip.

I've also heard the popcorn and chocolate monikers before, which scares me a bit but I figure the morning snack isn't a huge issue. I have actually been feeding it because I am really afraid of them both reverting to only eating from the clip. It's not a huge deal since I don't mind keeping food on it but I don't know how easy it will be for me to try new foods like pellets and flakes.

I even got a bottle of the prime reef flakes and put them in there but they didn't seem interested. I have been sandwiching the rogger's with nori, flakes, pellets, and salmon cuts to try and get them to at least start trying some of the other stuff...even if by accident!

Brine shrimp has very little nutritional value and is generally used to get finicky fish eating prepared foods. IMO you should wean them off of it or, like Small Alien said, just offer it every now and then.

Thanks Monkey...my male would only eat the spirulina enriched brine when he first came in but now he won't even touch that stuff.

 

[D5HP]

Here's a pretty wild observation that I'd LOVE to hear corroborated with another experience.

Male wasn't eating this morning AT ALL. I put three different foods in his clip and left them all there. Both types of Rogger's and a nice chunk of salmon. He would hover around it and look at it but not eat it. I'm freaking out, of course. Water tests! All fine. Okay...

More foods. What else could he possibly want to eat? The female is eating like crazy and he is chasing her around the tank. Everything is totally normal. His feeding behavior is totally normal as well as he hovers around the clip but he just won't eat it. I hid in the adjacent closet and watched for like 10 minutes. He never once ate a bite but was staying around the food perfectly.

Oh hello there frustration. It's me again.

I have 30g of salt water ready to go....mixed and at temperature. I go ahead and fire up the RO/DI unit to get some 5g buckets filling up so I can do another change tonight if necessary. I know Greg and Renee said that their pair would often go off their feed if the water was amiss.

Wait...first thing I do in a water change is turn the MP40 to 'Nutrient Transport Mode', which starts as just a short pulse wave I have saved. It does a good job of spinning the tank into a mess of debris that I can suck out. Normally it is on full bore 'Reef Crest'.

I go grab my change towels and bring them back into the room (I'm prone to accidents) and the SOB is SLAMMING some food. Light switch style. Off to on. Not "oh okay I think I'll eat now" but he is voraciously tearing into the food. By the time I've finished writing this he has a notable bulge in his belly....in maybe the 20 minutes it took.

I'm still going to do the water change but what the hell? I know that their native environment is outrageously rough but the water flow is the ONLY thing that changed from him not eating to slamming down some food like a group of linebackers at Thanksgiving. There was food in the clip for a solid two hours this AM and he didn't touch it...just chased his woman away.

So what do you all think? Other than I might have to change modes on the vortech daily...He hasn't ever needed this mode before though so I don't know what the deal is with him today.

Temperature is fine...no other changes.

 

[small alien]

That is pretty crazy. I have not seen anything similar from my pair. I have noted that after a water change, my male gets "in the mood" flashing his brightest blue and flirting with the female. That is a reliable behavior for mine. And I have wondered why. I imagine it has to do with the temperature drop as I don't heat my replacement water but I do not know. It would be interesting to see if you could reproduce the behavior.

And, again, great reporting. I enjoy reading your writing, Dustin. Cheers.

 

[D5HP]

That is pretty crazy. I have not seen anything similar from my pair. I have noted that after a water change, my male gets "in the mood" flashing his brightest blue and flirting with the female. That is a reliable behavior for mine. And I have wondered why. I imagine it has to do with the temperature drop as I don't heat my replacement water but I do not know. It would be interesting to see if you could reproduce the behavior.

And, again, great reporting. I enjoy reading your writing, Dustin. Cheers.

Thanks...it's great to know someone is reading my rants!

I was out of the house for most of the weekend so I wasn't able to feed the way I normally do. I only had about an hour of "lights on" time yesterday with the files and wanted to maximize their days feed. I decided to try a few new methods of feeding that I had not tried previously.

One seemed to be marginally successful. I purchased two flat packs of nutramar ova when I originally got the fish and have only fed it on a handful of occasions. This time I cut a small chunk off the block and dropped it down in the corner of the tank under their clips and let it slowly sink. The chromis of course went nuts eating the eggs that were thawing and drifting away but the majority of the 'chunk' settled on the sandbed and began to thaw there. Both files eventually made their way down to the sand and pecked around for quite a while. I had not seen the male eat this food before and so all new avenues he pursues are exciting for me.

Just wanted to share that one. Nothing else new and both are eating well on Reef Crest mode again so I have not been able to replicate the previous incident but will certainly report it if I do.

 

[small alien]

Great. Have you tried flake?

 

[D5HP]

Great. Have you tried flake?

Yes the female picked at Ocean Nutrition's Formula One on a single incident but has not since. The male has not eaten anything from the water column since he started eating from the clip and before that it was just spirulina enriched brine and rogger's minced finely.

I have tried the following flake foods:

Formula One
Formula Two
Prime Reef Flakes
Zoomed's Spirulina

I still want to try the Brine Shrimp flake stuff...I just don't know if they will give it a shot yet.

 

[small alien]

1 Year Anniversary!

1 Year Anniversary!

:celeb3::bounce1::celeb3::bounce1::celeb3::bounce1::celeb3::bounce1::celeb3:

Greetings friends. Today marks my one-year anniversary with my amazing pair of Oxymonacanthus longirostris. And quite a year it has been. Thanks to everyone who's come along for the ride so far and shared all of your experiences with this fish. I am proud of this thread and we all should be.

THANKS!:wave:

the small one

 

[Terryz_]

Congrats, Hopefully, I can keep mine that long too..