Oxymonacanthus longirostris (Orange Spotted Filefish)

[Myka]

That's great you have been able to get them to eat, that's the part that makes them difficult. They also have a tendency to suddenly go downhill out of nowhere (maybe because of unnatural diet?). They are certainly very beautiful fish.

[George]

Nice looking OSFF. Keep feeding them as much as they can eat. They look a little thin (shoulder area is where fish store their fat). They should fat up in no time if they are eating.

[FWC]

Nice !! I saw that pair week, and was really debating getting one, however every fish I have bought from that store has had velvet, and as such I would rather burn my money then run the risk of dealing with velvet again

All velvet aside, congrats on the fish !! I love OSF and my female I had was a charm, ate flakes and whatnot and was overall a perfect fish. Out of interest, how did you get them feeding, just by dropping pellets onto the rocks, or by "pasting" them over the rock ?? Also what size/brand of pellets ??

[Skimmerking]

sweet score mango. those are SPS eaters and love to eat the polyops of the SPS. that is their diet. I think Steve Sphelps had one to try out in his tank.. he loved the fish too. if you have them eating other foods that is awesome. maybe try brine and blood worms

[naesco]

Oxymonacanthus longirostris (Bloch & Schneider 1801), the Harlequin Filefish or Orange Spotted Filefish in the aquarium interest. The most commonly offered member of the family... and rarely alive for more than a week in captivity. In the wild almost only eats Acropora polyps.

The above is from wetwebmedia.com. I think it also appears in Fenners book "the Conciencious Aquarist"

In my opinion this is one fish that should never be imported but should be left in the ocean.
The LFS is not doing a good service to our hobby by doing so.

I agree with the earlier poster that the fish are thinning.

Please let us know your success or failure of keeping this fish.


Wayne

[andestang]

I really like these fish. I just was reading a thread on RC on how someone was/what feeding them. He was having good success with a certain dry food. Search for the thread and I'll see if I can find it again. Good luck with them.

[ScubaSteve]

This is pretty cool. Good work so far. Let see if we all can't help you be successful.

There is a great article here on getting picky angels to eat. The guy who wrote the article has weened some of the most difficult fish (mostly angels) to frozen using this technique. Basically the idea is to make a mush for foods and then freeze it onto whatever the fish normally eats. For instance he froze it onto empty clam shells; naturally, the fish would pick at it and start to eat. As the frozen food thawed, it would start to float into the water column and eventually they'd get used to eating right out of the water column during normal feeding time. I used the same trick to get my Potter's Wrasse to start eating and now have the fat bastard fully trained onto frozen. There is a famous collector in China who uses the same technique to acclimate all of his rare angels (like the $1000+ kind).

I wonder if you could try the same trick with bare/dead acropora skeletons until they get used to frozen?