Pellet feeding Harlequin filefish ???

[CalebNg]

I love the Harlequin Filefish. My personal opinion is that it is one of the most beautiful fish around , and it has an extremely attractive personality to match . I have heard that at night when it goes to sleep it imitates a branch of sps , to disguise itself against predators .

I would love to keep this fish in a reef setting with acropora and milliepora corals . They are best known for devouring milliepora corals quite quickly . Any success stories ?

[CalebNg]

Also known as the yellow spotted greenish-blue body filefish .

[diki88]

Unless ur tank is super big and filled with many many sps, dont keep this fish with sps. Even if its eating pellets, it will still go after sps. Just like if u were to put mock beef and wagyu beef, likelihood of people choosing the latter is 100% unless they're vegetarian.

[iskay]

You're likely referring to this article - http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/harlequin-filefish-masquerading-as-its-prey

There is another article talking about a rare success by lighting guru Dr. Sanjay Joshi here - http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/study-reveals-orange-spotted-filefish-have-very-selective-coral-diet

Better stay away due to very poor success rate.

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[Snoopyhamburger]

Mine ate pellets

And mysis.

Until it took an arrow to da knee

Jkjk.

My pistol shrimps gunned them down

Slow movers yea.

[CalebNg]

Snoopyhamburger , i envy you so much ! You must have took alot of effort to get it feeding on something else other than your beloved corals haha ! How did you do it ? Oh , was it kept in your reef ?

[CalebNg]

Snoopyhamburger , i envy you so much ! You must have took alot of effort to get it feeding on something else other than your beloved corals haha ! How did you do it ? Oh , was it kept in your reef ? Any sps ?

[CalebNg]

Iskay , appreciate very much your effort took to find the urls of the articles you have recommended . Great article on their successes in caring for such a delicate but beautiful fish. Learnt creative ideas on how to get these difficult-to-feed fish feeding . However i must agree with you that such successes are the rarity and only happens to the lucky few like snoopyhamburger haha .

[CalebNg]

Unless ur tank is super big and filled with many many sps, dont keep this fish with sps. Even if its eating pellets, it will still go after sps. Just like if u were to put mock beef and wagyu beef, likelihood of people choosing the latter is 100% unless they're vegetarian.

I fully agree . I like you , believe that it is impossible to completely alter an animal's feeding habits brought about by natural instinct . The fact is that they are obligate corallivores and their anatomy is built on that . Actually , i read from the article iskay recommended that the harlequin filefish prefers milliepora spses , so much so to the point that when a bleached out dying millie and a healthy acro was presented to them , they still chose to attack the millie and left the acro mostly alone . Super interesting ! Also it is reported that their anatomy is more suited to the consumption of milliepora sps corals . Bro you are right , better not have such a fierce millie predator preying on just one or two babies in the tank ! Sigh i love millies , decisons decisions ! Also , i am hesitant to bear the burden of them starving on me .

[diki88]

U can search for matt pedersen articles on them. He even managed to make them breed and I think got them past meta.

Hmm, I dont mean to promote this fish or underestimate their difficulty but if Jireh can get them to feed on pellets, easily 7-8 of them in one holding tank, I think its more to do with sustaining them long term than getting them to eat.

Pass on this fish, keep ur sps. Do not even contemplate that u could be lucky with a corallivore. Its like putting a chicken and a cucumber in a lions den and expecting the lion to eat the cucumber.

[Snoopyhamburger]

Snoopyhamburger , i envy you so much ! You must have took alot of effort to get it feeding on something else other than your beloved corals haha ! How did you do it ? Oh , was it kept in your reef ?

Yup,it was.

But no SPS at that time yet.