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Orange Spotted Filefish Adventure Continues

arking_mark

By arking_mark,
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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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Actually the SPS is doing fine...but different. My birds of paradise is growing but shows little to no polyps. Rainbow Birds Nest is growing but has very small tight polyps. I have an unknown monti that is green and hairy...now it's hairs are gone.

 

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KingOfAll_Tyrants Master Reefer

KingOfAll_Tyrants

Congratulations on maintaining her this long. I'll keep an eye on this thread, it's interesting.

 

What are the cardinal-tetra like fish she's housed with?

 

Finally, I disagree strongly with the idea that this hobby is inherently destructive to the reefs. (Even though poor commercial collecting practices are definitely destructive). BUT, that's a topic for another thread. maybe I'll start (another) thread on that subject in a few days, when I get home and don't have to type on my phone.

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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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Red Spot Cardinals. I have another thread on them. Not recommended as they appear to NEED frequent feedings or they disappear.

 

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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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Actually the SPS is doing fine...but different. My birds of paradise is growing but shows little to no polyps. Rainbow Birds Nest is growing but has very small tight polyps. I have an unknown monti that is green and hairy...now it's hairs are gone.

 

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So I was curious about the polyps and checked them out when the lights went out and through the night...and there they were!

 

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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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Its been awhile since my last update. So it's been 7 months since I got my OSF. She eats everything and is fat and healthy.

 

I recently got a male OSF from another fish keeper. While he was successfully kept for over 6 months his head was skeletal and tail thin. However, he would meagerly eat brine shrimp. After a week of peaceful cohabitation and increasing appetite he became aggressive. In talking with Matt Pedersen, he suggested separating the fish until the male becomes fat and healthy.

 

So he is now in an acclimation box getting 4-6 feedings a day plus a coral skeleton with Repashy gel and Masstick. He has taken to the brine shrimp, nutramar ova, and the Masstick.

 

Really like the masstick and Repashy as they allow me to leave food in the tank that the fish is able forage all day long. It can then be removed and has little impact on the system.

 

 

 

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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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Nice. Glad they are working out for you. More pics?

Only had the male for a couple of weeks. Won't declare success until he is fat and healthy like the female. Based on Matt's article, I expect this to take several weeks. Good news is that he is definately eating and getting a full belly dailly.

 

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elbowdeep88 Reefer

elbowdeep88

Have enjoyed following along. Admire your perseverance. It really is a beautiful and curious fish. Agree need more pics. Down the line would also appreciate more info about your feeding regimen and the foods. I guess the danger in posting a thorough "How to keep an OSF" article is that folks will see it, see how attractive and realtively inexpensive they are and think "I can do that." I'd hate for this fish to become like the Mandarin where people buy them convinced that they can get them eating brine in a week, only for the fish to starve to death. However, as you develop long term success, I would be interested in learning what it truly takes to keep one so that I can decide if the colors and personality are worth the work.

 

Also, do you have other fish in the tank or species only? And do they go after softies/LPS? What about Caps and Monti?

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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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Other fish in tank:

1. Red Spit Cardinal

2. Target Mandarin

3. Helfrichi Fire Fish

 

So I did put together a protocol. However, never really got to test it as I lucked out with OSFs already eating brine shrimp.

 

Just be aware that of my track record:

 

1st OSF never ate; lasted 4 weeks; died with the rest of my tank due to velvet. I suspect one of the fish I ordered was infected. Lessons learned: only take on one difficult fish and quarantine. Note after tank was nuked, I left it barren and pretty much empty for my next OSF atrempt.

 

2nd OSF arrived DOA

 

3rd OSF was gotten locally after being weaned but was so thin it did not survive transition to another tank.

 

4th OSF looked healthy and ate live brine from the get go.

 

5th OSF was gotten from another fish keeper who had him for 6 months. Came in under weight but at least meagerly eating brine. After a couple weeks, I have it eating live brine, frozen brine, nutramar ova, and Masstick. He gets a full belly now and should hopefully recover to a fat and healthy OSF.

 

Here are the basics:

 

Prep:

1. Have multiple SPS for OSF to snack on.

2. Have multiple coral skeletons to coat with food.

3. Have several live and prepared foods on hand (live brine, blood worms, frozen gut loaded brine, nutramar ova, LRS nano reef frenzy, selcon, nouri polyp, Repashy, and Masstick)

4. Be prepared to feed 4-6 times per day

5. Have an aquarium that you can maintain high water quality with heavy feedings.

 

Wean:

1. Drip acclimate OSF

2. Prep a mix of live brine, frozen brine, worms, nutramar ova, lrs nano reef, nouri polyp, and selcon. Basically throw everything in but the skeletal coating stuff.

3. Dose food a couple times and see if it eats anything.

4. If it does eat out of the water column and focuses on a particular ingredient, increase that ingredient in mix and alternate single ingredient and mix.

5. If it is not eating well out of the water column, or needs to put on weight, coat portions of coral skeleton with Repashy and Masstick each mixed with selcon and nutrama ova or any of the other ingredients it seems to prefer. Make this available to the fish throughout the day.

6. If not eating well from water column or skeleton. Alternate coated skeleton live SPS throughout the day and dose the mix. Literature indicates that Millipora is the preferred SPS. Alternate SPS to maximize life of SPS...time to recover between OSF exposure.

 

Tips:

1. You have about 3-4 weeks to get it eating

2. Worms are the 1st food I give up on after a week if it shows no interest in them

3. Live brine worked best for me, followed by frozen brine, nutramar ova, nouri polyp, and lrs nano.

4. Once fish was eating well I reduced the live brine until it was eating frozen. Kept up with the mix without live components and after several months, it eats everything.

5. I tried many SPS types including Millipora with little success for my non-eating fish.

6. You'll spend way more on SPS and food then on the fish.

7. OSF will pick on SPS in the tank. However, I have NOT found this to be too detrimental to the SPS... SPS just seems to hide or reduce polys extension.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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For those following along, I removed the acclimation box and let the male back in with the female. Weekend went well...aggression is minimal and seems to only happen during feedings. Otherwise, they mostly hang out together. Couple other interesting notes on behavior. The male is doing what my female used to do...sort of obsessively go up and down the glass fighting with his reflection. I remember being annoyed by this with my female...wore of in a couple weeks. The other interesting thing with the male is his beak is a little crooked. I wonder if he was injured during collection. I don't think it affects him in any way...but just something that distinguishes him.

 

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arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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Just a quick update. Male and Female OSFs are doing well. Male is now eating much better and is putting on weight. Since he has survived 8 wks, I think he will be around for the long haul. Happy new year!

 

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  • 9 months later...
arking_mark Grandmaster Reefer

arking_mark

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So it's been awhile since my last update. Good news is that the original female OSF is still doing great. The male lasted a while but never really recovered its weight and didn't survive a 2 week vacation I took. I came back to a fish barely eating and I was unable to get him back on track.

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