Orange Spot Filefish

People used to say the same thing about Seahorses and Mandarins a few years ago.

exactly. Blake is on the cutting edge of getting them to survive and breed. I think it's awesome!

Plus a lot more is known about them now. People used to say the same thing about SPS corals way back when.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the encouragement. I have been feeding the crap out of these guys lately, and have bumped the temp a few degrees, and I am seeing "flutter dives" from the male. This is breeding behavior. Here is a short video. Not the best vid, but it's an iphone, what do you expect?

first off: GREAT job blake! you've kept these fish alive and healthy for longer than anyone I know of! and if anyone can care for these beautiful fish - YOU can! though I think adding sps and bit more liverock for pods as snacks can only help with your success!

Originally Posted by BlakeT

Thanks D I'll pick some of that up from work on Thursday.

GREAT suggestion D! (and D was successful too )........did you get some of this blake? if so, how are they taking to it?

Originally Posted by D3monic

People used to say the same thing about Seahorses and Mandarins a few years ago.

yeppers! don't forget anemones too! and now look what the hobby's doing with them!

Originally Posted by rgrking

exactly. Blake is on the cutting edge of getting them to survive and breed. I think it's awesome!

I couldn't agree more!

Originally Posted by chris&barb

Plus a lot more is known about them now. People used to say the same thing about SPS corals way back when.

yeppers!

Thanks Barb! I did add some more live rock to the tank, and I did pick up that product that Mike recommended. It's good stuff, but has a strong scent. They weren't crazy for it, but they will eat it. I have been using this every other day with them. They seem to appreciate the live rock, they have been picking a lot more. After adding the live rock, increasing the temp in the tank, and bumping their feedings up to 4 times a day, they have been showing strong breeding behavior. These are my observations so far with these guys:
-Courtship takes place during the evening, and intensifies when only actinic lights are left on.
-Male's coloration increases, colors get more bold, while female becomes lighter. Yellow on female fades during courtship.
-Male "flutter dives" to catch female's attention. He does this by swimming straight down and opening and closing his fins quickly.
-Female appears submissive, curling her body toward the male.
-Male sometimes briefly chases female, does not nip at fins though.
And a quick video:You can see the "flutter dive" around the 30 second mark. This is before I added the live rock, but it is one of the best videos I have gotten that shows the flutter dive and interactions between the pair.

Cool videos Blake. Thats great that they are starting to court. They wont do that if they are not healthy, happy and strong

Good news on these guys! They have had 2 false spawns within the last few days. Basically, they are going through all the motions of breeding, the female just is not releasing eggs. Matt Pederson documented similar occurrences, he noted the false spawns preceded the actual spawning event by about a month...We'll see! Here's a couple pics:

great news!!!! That one looks fat! Is that the female full of eggs or just well fed? or both lol

Wow that is awesome news CONGRATS!!!

They do look great. How do you tell them apart?

Thanks guys! I'm very excited at the possibility of breeding with these guys.

Originally Posted by rgrking

great news!!!! That one looks fat! Is that the female full of eggs or just well fed? or both lol

LOL, probably a combination of both. She is a little pig! When I turn the pump off in the tank, both of them start begging for food.

Chris, they both have a little "flap" that opens under their bellies. The male's is orange, and the female's is brown. You can see the male's pretty well in the 4th pic in the post above.

Ok, i see it. Thats easy enough to tell them apart

ohhhh catch a video next time!! documentation!!!!!

I'll try! Every time I approach the tank, they stop. They just look at me like "food?"

EXCELLENT news blake!!! they both look fat and happy too! I can't wait to see this happen!

Originally Posted by estanoche

ohhhh catch a video next time!! documentation!!!!!

+1 .......yes please........maybe if you set up the camera on a tripod each night they'd get used to it? then when they "do" it just press the button???????

so has anything "happened" yet with these two blake? I'm so looking forward to following a breeding thread on them! (loaded with LOTS of pics of course)

They still court every night, but the black O's are interfering. Matt Pederson does think I was getting spawns out of these guys, and now whenever they really get into the courting the clowns are all over them. They must have learned that that activity=food (filefish eggs). So I am selling my spawning pair of rods onyx and I will move the black o's to the 120 so the filefish can have their privacy. Hopefully that will do the trick!

so you gonna post up those onyx's on here? come on....

Yeah, I want to try local buyers first though. Are you interested?