Longnose Filefish / Orange Spotted Filefish / Harlequin Filefish

[TheRedWater]

This new thread is to discuss any and anything about Oxymonacanthus longirostris. This fish is on many "do not buy" lists and is widely considered to have too high of a mortality rate to keep in personal marine tanks. However, things have changed recently and more and more people have been able to keep these amazing little fish alive and healthy - some even breeding.

Since more and more people are learning to keep these guys alive, I figured that many people out there must have some great tips and tricks out there to keeping these fish healthy.

I personally have one of these guys. He has been in my care for almost two weeks now and he's getting healthier and healthier by the day. It hadn't been eating at the store. Yes, it was hard to get it to eat other foods but I've got it eating just about anything now. It's main sources of food are currently chunks of spirulina-laced frozen brine shrimp, and Bird's Nest Coral (Seriatopora hystrix) polyps from the ones in the tank. It also eats a surprising amount of algea off of my live rock, and lately even small particles of prepared food pellets that the other fish didn't eat.

The first week of care seems to be the most important to keep these guys alive once you've gotten them to acknowledge the brine as food (and I suggest living brine if at all possible) he will still not eat much. It would seem that in the wild these fish graze on acropora coral all day, and aren't used to taking in a significant amount of food all at once. So, the first week I had this guy I fed him a few bites up to 10 times a day to make sure he kept eating but slowly lowering the number of feedings. I'm two weeks into this and I'm down to three times a day without reducing the actual amount of food eaten in total. In between feedings if it gets hungry it snacks on the Cat's Paw Coral polyps. Though, less and less as it gets used to larger regular feedings. it appears to be fattening up. My water conditions are relatively pristine, though I have a somewhat high salinity but no nitrates or nitrites and obviously no ammonia. The fish seems to be happy and healthy.

As for the tank, it is important that for the first while as he learns to eat the brine that he not have to fight for food. There are many ways to accomplish this; feed all the fish on one side and him on the other at the same time using droppers, or you can simply keep him with very passive tankmates. My tank only holds my Filefish and two other fish; a Bangaii Cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni) and a False Percula Clown (Amphiprion ocellaris), both of which are juvenile. As for invertebrates there are the usual cleaning hermits and snails, as well as a Coral Banded Shrimp. This is approximately a 4-month-old tank. The tank is almost a fish-only tank with the exception of the Bird's Nest Corals, one large Pink Hammer Coral and some polyps.

Now that it likes the brine shrimp, feeding isn't an issue. My particular fish is aggressive enough to get in the feeding fray and eat until it's full. To keep the water as pristine as possible, the fish are fed through a wide dropper, such as the type used in high school chemistry labs. The fish have all learned that it holds food and eat the food right out of the tip of it, leaving no extra to pollute the tank.

Anyhow, that is my experience with this fish. My specimen seems very happy and much healthier than when I got it. I will get back to you all with my exact water conditions. The levels are all at what my local fish store owner suggests from lots of experience. The alk is at the very high end of the "normal" range sometimes just over into "high". Calcium is kept at 450 and the specific gravity at 27, which I know is high. I will be bringing it down to 25 next water change.

I am by no means any sort of expert on this, and I hope some people out there have some tips for me.

[mpedersen]

RedWater, I assume you've already read my article in CORAL (March/April '09) - A New Future for the Harlequin Filefish | Coral Magazine - if you haven't, please do!!!!!

You hit on a few key things that I tried to get across in my protocols.

#1. Isolation / QT from the get go. I'm not sure I'd even suggest "passive" tankmates during initial establishment...some of the Harlequin Files that come in are pretty far gone, and the starvation also makes them more TIMID.

#2. Offering LIVE SPS corals from the get go.

#3. Frequent Feedings (feed these fish once a day and they lose weight FAST...as evidenced by recently being gone 4 days and coming back to find a fat male with a pinched stomach).

I'm really curious about your suggestion to use live adult brine shrimp, primarily because I never had good luck with it despite offering it to several different Harlequin Filefish. That said, one of the critical things you allude to is that obviously, if they're eating something, keep offering it!!

Some other foods to try that will help put the weight on - Ova, Squid, Live
Blackworms (and yes, Tubifex soaked with Selcon). Of course, mine all eat ANYTHING now, but at this point I think all my fish have been here at least a year to 1.5 years + now.

I will also say that at 2 weeks, you are still just barely out of the woods....but all my losses have occured in those first 15 days or so, except the ones I killed when a QT tank went south. Not to belittle your accomplishments to date, but I'd reserve calling this a true success until the fish is truly eating anything you offer, not just giving live SPS and brine shrimp...there's not enough nutrition in the brine shrimp alone, and honestly, based on my observations, the files aren't particularly effective grazers on SPS polyps either.

Of course, I must beg for pictures and suggest that you keep us all posted, success or failure. I personally feel obligated having been the guy to write "the article", to again emphasise that based on all my experiences, I strongly discourage beginners or even hobbyists with only a couple years experience from trying these fish as WC fish. And of course, for everyone who DOES try them, please read the article before you do - CORAL was very generous to me in allowing me to tell the WHOLE story, taking almost 4000 words to do so...we made sure to cover our bases because Harlequin Filefish (as WC FISH) did not suddenly become "easy". I wouldn't want anyone to get that impression.

Good luck RedWater!

Matt

[TheRedWater]

Matt,

Thank you very much for the lengthy response. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to read your article. I followed your link but that is only a teaser of the full article. I don't believe that CORAL magazine is sold where I live up in northern Canada. Is there any other way I can get my hands on this article fairly quickly?

I do however have a new problem. I'm leaving for the weekend and I have no idea how I'm going to feed them while I'm gone. I can get a neighbor or something to do it, but is there a more automated way for frozen food? My other fish are fine, they're super social little creatures. My clownfish will actually stick his head out of the water to see me if I open the hood. I can feed it once a day no problem with any dry foods automated system. But, is there anything I can do for frozen foods?

Last question: What should I feed it regularly? I've already described it's current diet and you've suggested some other foods. Unfortunately I don't have regular access to any sort of live foods. There is only one small store in town and it doesn't stock live food. Anyhow, what should I use as a food to feed them every day, if not brine?

Again, thank you for your time, and if anyone else has any experience, or things not to do, this is a great place to share them.

[mpedersen]

Originally Posted by TheRedWater

Matt,

Thank you very much for the lengthy response. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to read your article. I followed your link but that is only a teaser of the full article. I don't believe that CORAL magazine is sold where I live up in northern Canada. Is there any other way I can get my hands on this article fairly quickly?

You're welcome!

I'd contact CORAL ASAP - I don't think I can just send you a digital copy of the article yet (still has to run in other locations). I know they were offering it as a free download when you get a subscription. Or, you could order the back issue. I promise it's worth it! Not to over-inflate myself, but seriously, I wouldn't suggest that anyone go out and try the Harlequin Filefish without having read the article. My article wasn't based solely on my own experiences, but also information I gleamed in talking with other people who had been successful, as well as watching other people fail, and taking the time to figure out WHY their efforts failed.

I should mention, I get nothing more for telling people to go buy the back issue...as an Author you get a one time payment, that's that. So no vested interest in pushing you in that direction - it's a sincere recommendation. That, and I don't want to type 4000 words out here again, and in general, just like with clownfish breeding, when there's published info already out there, it's wise to read it and THEN ask the questions (otherwise, why did we bother writing it? ).

Originally Posted by TheRedWater

I do however have a new problem. I'm leaving for the weekend and I have no idea how I'm going to feed them while I'm gone. I can get a neighbor or something to do it, but is there a more automated way for frozen food? My other fish are fine, they're super social little creatures. My clownfish will actually stick his head out of the water to see me if I open the hood. I can feed it once a day no problem with any dry foods automated system. But, is there anything I can do for frozen foods?

Get the neighbor to feed them, and pre portion the feedings. That's your best bet. Or put in more SPS and hope for the best. Seriously, they lose weight fast if not fed. This is NOT a good time to leave your fish unattended...I lost one of mine that had started eating explicitly because I was called away on business for 4 days..when I came back the fish was basically dead.

Originally Posted by TheRedWater

Last question: What should I feed it regularly? I've already described it's current diet and you've suggested some other foods. Unfortunately I don't have regular access to any sort of live foods. There is only one small store in town and it doesn't stock live food. Anyhow, what should I use as a food to feed them every day, if not brine?

Long term, you should be able to get them to eat flakes, pellets, frozen mixes, mysis, everything. And long term, that's what you should give 'em. EVERYTHING. Mysis is far better than Brine Shrimp. I'd also soak your foods in Selcon. Frozen mixes should offer the nutritional diversity necessary..since we don't really know what the nutritional profile of coral flesh is, at this point, the best guess is to treat it as an omnivorous food source (coral flesh + zooxanthellae which is algae), so a well rounded, varied diet is probably the best. It's certainly enough to get my fish spawning with viable eggs, so, something is working right.

The basic method I used to train Files onto prepared foods was to coat coral frag skeletons with gel diets (i.e. Ocean Nutrition's Pygmy Angel Formula, or Rod's Food). It's a "natural presentation", and the fish pick at it, and eventually they're taking a much better food. But TIME is basically what it takes...when the fish learn to take food out of the water column, they become more apt to try other things, sometimes... Again, terribly difficult as a wild caught fish.

Good luck!

Matt

[TheRedWater]

I will definately contact CORAL as soon as I can. Turns out I'm only going away for a full day, and yes I've pre-portioned the food. My particular fish must be an odd one out if you had to do all that to get them to eat your food. Today I actually tried the different foods my local store has in stock (unfortunately almost none of the stuff you mentioned) but it ate anything that came out of the feeding tube. it had no problems with Mysis shrimp (at least the ones it could fit in it's mouth) and it even ate the Angelfish mix of sponge, krill, squid, etc...

I'll be heading down to Toronto tomorrow and I will stop at Big Al's and see what I can find as far as foods and gels and such go. I don't buy specimens there, though. They all look sick compared to the ones at my local store, but then the local guy takes extremely good care of his fish, and corals.

As for the next few days I'll use a mix of Mysis and Brine 1:1. Is there any particular advantage to prepared pellets or flake food? the other fish are all eating frozen food as well. So, other than for my convenience is there really much of an advantage? Also, I don't have ready access to any gels or any of that unless I order online, nor do I have ready access to SPS corals. Living where I do, they are extremely expensive. (Frags are from 75-110$ as a general rule). For the sake of it I can use the Bird's Nests in there right now, as long as he doesn't kill it first.

Now (on a loosely related note) I was speaking with a Marine Biologist in Western Canada who deals with orca whale pods and had experience training orcas to eat different foods. You may not realize it but there are different types of orcas, some live in the open ocean and eat other fish but other live in fairly refined spaces and refuse to hunt other living fish. Back when the first whales were being caught for captivity no one knew there were different types of orcas with different diets. When they finally caught their first non-hunting one, they could never get it to eat. Weeks passed and it was dying, until they put it in with other orcas. It saw the other whales eating that particular food (ground fish and seafood waste) and eventually that is how it learned to recognize that stuff as food. One of the resident orcas actually came to the starving one and forced the food in it's mouth, but that isn't my point. I'm finding that my filefish will eat anything coming out of the tube that it sees the clownfish eat. It only took me two feedings today to get it to eat that angelfish mix. It may be completely unrelated but I'm thinking that there may also be a psychological approach to this as well. You may have touched on this in your article, I'll hopefully find out soon.

Anyhow, I'll get on CORAL's butt.

Once again, thank you!

-and sorry for asking all these questions that I'm sure you answer in your article.

[jski711]

Well matt beat me to the punch. He is a personal friend of mine here in chicago and I've learned a lot from him in the short time I've known him. His article is very informative and should give you a lot of good advice. If u do get the magazine take a look at the green slimed in his article, its mine LOL. Anyways read the article it's full of great info!!!

[TheRedWater]

So I'm back from my trip (picked up a nice big 8" pipe organ) and my fish aren't looking too good. So, Ive fed them like 6 times in the last two hours and I'll continue for another hour before going to bed. Otherwise, still alive. The Filefish seems to have done the best actually. The temp dropped in the tank by 6 degrees from 82 to the 76 the heater is set at and the clownfish isn't very happy. I have it slowly climbing back up.

[TheRedWater]

Everything is back to normal, but I suppose next time I'll need to find a new neighbor.The filefish is pretty happy these days, though very picky about his food. Some mornings it will only eat mysis shrimp, others absolutely nothing but sponge. it loves the sponge, it will even eat it while it's floating on top. this allows me to overfeed a bit and let him pick at the floating pieces stuck in the corners whenever he gets hungry.