Rtaylor
Well-known member
I get a lot of questions on my fab five (orange spotted filefish), so I thought I would share my experience with them. Warning, This is going to be long 
I purchased the first 3 in September of 2020 from Reefbeauties. They were shipped overnight and arrived thin, but active and otherwise healthy looking. I was prepared for a challenging period in converting them to prepared foods and had just about every food option I could find ready to go. After a short acclimation I added them to a 10 gallon tank for observation and food training.
I had researched a lot and seen people having success with Masstick, so that was the first thing I tried. I put some on the glass and to my almost disbelief, all 3 immediately started pecking at the Masstick. In less than 30 minutes I had 3 osff eating prepared food!
I’ll admit I then went ahead and added them to the DT a few hours later after confirming with additional feeding that they were indeed eating.
I added Panta Rhea Polyp & Panta Rhea Sponge pellets to their regular fare. Also TDO Chromaboost small pellets. Here’s a pic of a thin filefish (note the indented area above the eye) with a full belly.
After some additional time all my boys would eat anything they can fit in their mouths. All 3 were male. Osff are easy to sex by looking at the ventral flap:
There is definitely some aggression when keeping groups of these fish. A lot of chasing mostly. The males chase all the filefish and the more dominant females chase each other as well. Yet they seem to kinda school together.
I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. A pic of the boys.
After such an easy time with the first 3, I thought it would be fun to add some females. I ordered 2 more from Reefbeauties in March of 2021 specifically requesting females. These 2 also arrived thin, but 1 was extremely thin….emaciated
The female in better condition immediately took to Masstick just like the boys had. The other did not take to anything and died in under 3 days , I’m pretty sure of starvation.
Adding this little lady really upped the aggression from the boys and I had a request in to Reefbeauties for 3 more females when they were available. In June 2021, they sent me 3. One was doa sadly. The other 2 were in similar condition as most of the others I had received; thin, but otherwise healthy. These ladies also immediately took to Masstick.
So in total, I purchased 8 osff, 1 was doa, 1 died within days of arrival, but 6 arrived in decent condition and immediately started eating!
A few pics of the 6:
Ok, so if you’re keeping track….6? I said I have 5. So shortly after achieving the 1 year mark in my tank, 1 of the males disappeared. Was totally fine and then gone. My suspicion is he found a gap in my cover and a dog or cat took care of the evidence……I do have this monster prowling about.
I couldn’t resist throwing in a kitten pic, cuz he’s just too darn adorable
So, yes, 6 have become 5 and they are all great eaters and have been shockingly easy.
I always get asked what I feed them so I’ll go through my daily routine.
In the am, I give them 2 cubes of Easy Masstick, just split each one into 3 pieces and spread them out on the glass as the more aggressive ones will chase the others away. An auto feeder doles out a mix of 4-5 different types of pellets 3 times a day (pellet size about 1 mm is good). I also feed a frozen mix in the morning. I feed the Panta Rhea pellets 1-2 times a day and sometimes an additional feeding of frozen. Frequent, heavy feedings are important for these hummingbird fish.
They definitely eat frozen, but it is my experience that they could struggle to get enough food if someone were to feed primarily mysis or equivalent sized food. It just doesn’t fit in their mouths. They often end up spitting it back out.
Fish eggs and frozen rotifers are a size they can eat with ease. I typically have 5-6 different types of frozen mixed together with some tiny (fish eggs, etc) food included.
Now I’m going to say something controversial:
Orange Spotted Filefish Are REEF SAFE!!!
Yes, I am very aware of their natural diet. I have on several occasions added acropora millepora and other acro mini colonies thinking it might benefit them. Here is what I learned:
Osff don’t eat coral flesh, they don’t eat coral polyps, they do eat the mucus from coral polyps. Here’s a pic where you can see it’s mouth. It’s essentially a straw. It’s a single tube, not a hinged upper and lower jaw.
For anyone who has ever seen an angel take a bite out of lps, they rip and tear the flesh. This requires a jaw that opens and closes. Osff only have a straw. Mine have barely glanced at anything other than SPS.
Ok, now for sps. The filefish will peck at it. This will cause the coral to stop extending it’s polyps. The filefish can’t eat anything other than the mucus from the polyps. Like, they are physically not capable of eating the coral flesh. That means the filefish is getting nothing from its pecking at the coral. This could absolutely damage or kill a coral frag and frustrate a hungry filefish.
A hungry aggressive osff might even manage to peck to death a mini colony.
Based off of these observations I think it is prudent that osff are not given any sps (unless they won’t eat anything else) until they are confidently eating prepared foods. (Unless you have many huge colonies that will stand up to the attention from the fish). The acros will distract them AND they won’t actually be getting any nutrients from the coral because the coral will stop extending it’s polyps. No polyp extension means no food to an osff.
The fish will still occasionally peck at some sps (I don’t have much as I appear to be more deadly to acros than any osff) but quickly give up for the readily available food they are provided.
Whew…ok, that was a lot if you are still with me. It seems that the expanding food options available are making this a more accessible fish. I hope by sharing our experiences we can up the survival rates of these beauties.
I purchased the first 3 in September of 2020 from Reefbeauties. They were shipped overnight and arrived thin, but active and otherwise healthy looking. I was prepared for a challenging period in converting them to prepared foods and had just about every food option I could find ready to go. After a short acclimation I added them to a 10 gallon tank for observation and food training.
I had researched a lot and seen people having success with Masstick, so that was the first thing I tried. I put some on the glass and to my almost disbelief, all 3 immediately started pecking at the Masstick. In less than 30 minutes I had 3 osff eating prepared food!
I’ll admit I then went ahead and added them to the DT a few hours later after confirming with additional feeding that they were indeed eating.
I added Panta Rhea Polyp & Panta Rhea Sponge pellets to their regular fare. Also TDO Chromaboost small pellets. Here’s a pic of a thin filefish (note the indented area above the eye) with a full belly.
After some additional time all my boys would eat anything they can fit in their mouths. All 3 were male. Osff are easy to sex by looking at the ventral flap:
There is definitely some aggression when keeping groups of these fish. A lot of chasing mostly. The males chase all the filefish and the more dominant females chase each other as well. Yet they seem to kinda school together.
After such an easy time with the first 3, I thought it would be fun to add some females. I ordered 2 more from Reefbeauties in March of 2021 specifically requesting females. These 2 also arrived thin, but 1 was extremely thin….emaciated
The female in better condition immediately took to Masstick just like the boys had. The other did not take to anything and died in under 3 days , I’m pretty sure of starvation.
Adding this little lady really upped the aggression from the boys and I had a request in to Reefbeauties for 3 more females when they were available. In June 2021, they sent me 3. One was doa sadly. The other 2 were in similar condition as most of the others I had received; thin, but otherwise healthy. These ladies also immediately took to Masstick.
So in total, I purchased 8 osff, 1 was doa, 1 died within days of arrival, but 6 arrived in decent condition and immediately started eating!
A few pics of the 6:
Ok, so if you’re keeping track….6? I said I have 5. So shortly after achieving the 1 year mark in my tank, 1 of the males disappeared. Was totally fine and then gone. My suspicion is he found a gap in my cover and a dog or cat took care of the evidence……I do have this monster prowling about.
I couldn’t resist throwing in a kitten pic, cuz he’s just too darn adorable
So, yes, 6 have become 5 and they are all great eaters and have been shockingly easy.
I always get asked what I feed them so I’ll go through my daily routine.
In the am, I give them 2 cubes of Easy Masstick, just split each one into 3 pieces and spread them out on the glass as the more aggressive ones will chase the others away. An auto feeder doles out a mix of 4-5 different types of pellets 3 times a day (pellet size about 1 mm is good). I also feed a frozen mix in the morning. I feed the Panta Rhea pellets 1-2 times a day and sometimes an additional feeding of frozen. Frequent, heavy feedings are important for these hummingbird fish.
They definitely eat frozen, but it is my experience that they could struggle to get enough food if someone were to feed primarily mysis or equivalent sized food. It just doesn’t fit in their mouths. They often end up spitting it back out.
Fish eggs and frozen rotifers are a size they can eat with ease. I typically have 5-6 different types of frozen mixed together with some tiny (fish eggs, etc) food included.
Now I’m going to say something controversial:
Orange Spotted Filefish Are REEF SAFE!!!
Yes, I am very aware of their natural diet. I have on several occasions added acropora millepora and other acro mini colonies thinking it might benefit them. Here is what I learned:
Osff don’t eat coral flesh, they don’t eat coral polyps, they do eat the mucus from coral polyps. Here’s a pic where you can see it’s mouth. It’s essentially a straw. It’s a single tube, not a hinged upper and lower jaw.
For anyone who has ever seen an angel take a bite out of lps, they rip and tear the flesh. This requires a jaw that opens and closes. Osff only have a straw. Mine have barely glanced at anything other than SPS.
Ok, now for sps. The filefish will peck at it. This will cause the coral to stop extending it’s polyps. The filefish can’t eat anything other than the mucus from the polyps. Like, they are physically not capable of eating the coral flesh. That means the filefish is getting nothing from its pecking at the coral. This could absolutely damage or kill a coral frag and frustrate a hungry filefish.
A hungry aggressive osff might even manage to peck to death a mini colony.
Based off of these observations I think it is prudent that osff are not given any sps (unless they won’t eat anything else) until they are confidently eating prepared foods. (Unless you have many huge colonies that will stand up to the attention from the fish). The acros will distract them AND they won’t actually be getting any nutrients from the coral because the coral will stop extending it’s polyps. No polyp extension means no food to an osff.
The fish will still occasionally peck at some sps (I don’t have much as I appear to be more deadly to acros than any osff) but quickly give up for the readily available food they are provided.
Whew…ok, that was a lot if you are still with me. It seems that the expanding food options available are making this a more accessible fish. I hope by sharing our experiences we can up the survival rates of these beauties.
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