just curious to know if anybody has tried this fish in their reef yet. im thinkin of putting on in my 10 until i get my 100 set up.
Here a related thread read... sound like to me it's sure not an easy fish to have & survive. Might do some real research on him or maybe some of the forum members here can tell you more... http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/liv ... -fish.html
I have always enjoyed the beauty of this fish, and have tried keeping one captive. I am affraid to say that the keeping was a failure on my part, but I also believe it too be the relative hardiness of the fish itself. This should only be attempted by expert aquarist and someone with a large reef tank with many acros! This particular fish feeds on the small polyps of the acroporas. IMO, If u have a well-established sps reef with many acros, then the fish will in-deed survive, supplementation with cyclopeeze will help. Beautiful fish, cheap, relatively easy to get.....very hard to keep in captivity!
I HAVE BEEN READING ABOUT THIS FISH NOW FOR A WHILE. IVE HEARD MIXED REPORTS ON SURVIVABILTY. ONE ARTICLE IN PARTICULAR STATED THAT YOU COULD GET THEM OFF FEEDING ON ACROS AND ONTO MYSIS BRINE AND CYCLOPS. FROM WHAT I HAVE READ THEY HAVE BEEN CAPTIVE BREED. SO IM DOING A LIL SEARCHING FOR SOMEBODY WHO HAS T/R FILE FISH. IF I CANT FIND ONE T/R MY GOAL IS TO FIND ONE THAT IS STILL PRETTY YOUNG AND INTRODUCE IT TO PREPARED FOOD. I FIGURE IF A FOOD SOURCE OTHER THAN WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO EAT IS PRESENT THEN THEY WILL EAT THAT INSTEAD. JUST LIKE U CAN KEEP SOME TRIGGERS AWAY FROM CORALS AND OTHER SESSILE INVERTS. ITS BEEN DONE ILL FIND THE ARTICLE AND POST IT OR SCAN IT INTO THE COMPUTER.
I have the magazine that talks about them. The author took a acro skeleton and covered it with mysis/cyclops and other stuff. He then froze it and set it into the tank. His file fish learned to eat it and did very well in his system. I will post the magazine tonight. It may be a recent issue of Coral magazine, but will double check it.
501 I sure wouldn't put it in a 10, nor in a newly setup 100, this fish needs bigger then a 10 and an established, aged tank.
In the article i was reading, the section talking about life in captivity it says" It's important to know that this species is best kept in singly or heterosexual pairs in a tank at least 10-25 gallons (38-95L) in size."
Can tell you for what it's worth... in the thread I posted... the guy who has bred then & wrote the article for Coral said this... "still very much an EXPERT ONLY species. See the March/April '09 issue of CORAL" Good Luck... hope this helps - I do think a mature tank is a must to even think about giving them a go.
There was an article in FAMA, but the article I think being eluded to is in Coral magazines March/April issue. It was written by Matt Pederson and has some excellent photos in it. If you don't have the magazine you may be able to "Google" the authors name and find a similar web article. http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/resources.asp?show=371 http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content ... n-filefish http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/resources.asp?show=373 http://www.fishbase.com/Summary/species ... ngirostris Spawning video attached: http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/f ... hp?t=46935 That was just a few links from what Google brought up. EXPERT ONLY FISH.
I have seen them once or twice in local fish stores and they are a beautiful fish, but neither lived long nor fed. I know because the two times that I saw them I went back and called several days later to see how the fish was doing. I have always felt that there are certain fish that just should not be kept but then how do we learn to keep them if difficult fish are not offered. I am glad that we have forums to get this kind of information so that hobbyist don't kill fish duplicating what has already been done.
