Any advice on getting a pair of ORAs radial filefish to eat?

[pfan151]

I've had them for 5 days. So far I've tried Rods food, spectrum pellets, flake, Eco eggs, hikari mysis, and frozen cyclopeeze. All they seem to do is hang out face down at the bottom of the tank. Tank is a nanocube 24 with about 40 lbs of liverock, and some Xenia. I added a large fake bamboo plant from an old freshwater tank temporarily thinking they would feel more secure with something to hide in. They are the only fish in the tank. Thanks for any help.

[Myles]

I started my radial eating with frozen brine. It is wild caught though-not one of ora's.
Myles

[pfan151]

Thanks. I'll give that a try. I really thought these would have no issue with eating being captive bred but they are getting a little frustrating. I did notice the male actually out and swimming around a little last night so hope huffily that it a positive sign.

[Dmorty217]

I've had them for 5 days. So far I've tried Rods food, spectrum pellets, flake, Eco eggs, hikari mysis, and frozen cyclopeeze. All they seem to do is hang out face down at the bottom of the tank. Tank is a nanocube 24 with about 40 lbs of liverock, and some Xenia. I added a large fake bamboo plant from an old freshwater tank temporarily thinking they would feel more secure with something to hide in. They are the only fish in the tank. Thanks for any help.

Give it more time. I would let wherever you got them from know they aren't eating and have them then relay the message to ORA... There is no excuse for a non eating captive bred fish

[pfan151]

Give it more time. I would let wherever you got them from know they aren't eating and have them then relay the message to ORA... There is no excuse for a non eating captive bred fish



Pretty surprised really. I think I have the tank set up pretty perfectly for them. There is nothing in there to compete for food. There is a large clump of Xenia that they have ignored. I really expected them to use the big bushy fake bamboo plant that I put in to try to help them feel secure but they have ignored that as well. I cut the flow down to give them time to get to the food and recently I have totally turned off the flow so the food stays around for a long time. I've only been trying twice a day so I wouldn't stress them out too much. They did seem to swim around slightly more last night for about an hour before the lights went off. It was the first time in a couple days that they left their position at the bottom of the tank pointed nose down to the sand. Today they seem to be back to their position at the sandbed though. The female still looks pretty perfect but the male looks thin. Not sure if the males always look thinner or not though. Going to give cyclopeeze and frozen brine a shot tonight but they aren't interested in live brine. Kind of regretting not just grabbing a pair from divers den but I figured I'd save a little cash and get my local store to order some for me instead.

[bat21]

I have some experience with filefish. I started with a wild caught radial filefish from diver's den. And it behaved exactly like you are describing. Hanging at the bottom with it's nose touching the ground. I ended up getting it to eat pellets with the powerheads off once they hit the bottom and it noticed them. I got it eating this way for a few weeks, but it never seemed right and never swam around like a normal fish. And then, not unexpectedly, it died.

I tried again, but this time with a tank raised pair of whitespotted ones, and they were a completely different story. Voracious eaters of literally anything in front of them immediately. One ended up dying of a parasite, but that was months later. Other one is still healthy as an ox. They don't really ever hide. Always out in the open swimming around. It even sleeps in the open, usually with its mouth touching a branching coral.

I know I'm not really helping you at all, but maybe try live blackworms. Short of that, I would try to contact whoever you bought them from and tell them what's going on. But if it is anything like the radial I had, then it may not get better.

Don't give up on filefish though. They really are awesome fish if you get healthy ones. Sorry you are dealing with this, I was pretty bummed about my first one. The one I have now though adds such a unique shape and behavior to my tank.

Good luck. I really hope it works out.

[pfan151]

I have some experience with filefish. I started with a wild caught radial filefish from diver's den. And it behaved exactly like you are describing. Hanging at the bottom with it's nose touching the ground. I ended up getting it to eat pellets with the powerheads off once they hit the bottom and it noticed them. I got it eating this way for a few weeks, but it never seemed right and never swam around like a normal fish. And then, not unexpectedly, it died.

I tried again, but this time with a tank raised pair of whitespotted ones, and they were a completely different story. Voracious eaters of literally anything in front of them immediately. One ended up dying of a parasite, but that was months later. Other one is still healthy as an ox. They don't really ever hide. Always out in the open swimming around. It even sleeps in the open, usually with its mouth touching a branching coral.

I know I'm not really helping you at all, but maybe try live blackworms. Short of that, I would try to contact whoever you bought them from and tell them what's going on. But if it is anything like the radial I had, then it may not get better.

Don't give up on filefish though. They really are awesome fish if you get healthy ones. Sorry you are dealing with this, I was pretty bummed about my first one. The one I have now though adds such a unique shape and behavior to my tank.

Good luck. I really hope it works out.

I'm going to give some live blackworms a shot tonight. I think I have tried almost every other possible food choice at this point. Tried a grocery store clam last night with no response.

[bat21]

I'm going to give some live blackworms a shot tonight. I think I have tried almost every other possible food choice at this point. Tried a grocery store clam last night with no response.

Do yours seem to notice what's going on around them? Mine was so oblivious that I honestly thought it was blind. It would only eat pellets that it literally happen to graze with its mouth. The other thing I thought was some type of swim bladder issue keeping it at the bottom all the time. It was a losing battle, but every situation is different.

[pfan151]

Do yours seem to notice what's going on around them? Mine was so oblivious that I honestly thought it was blind. It would only eat pellets that it literally happen to graze with its mouth. The other thing I thought was some type of swim bladder issue keeping it at the bottom all the time. It was a losing battle, but every situation is different.



Mine do swim around normally sometimes now. Maybe 10% of the day they are out and not staring at the bottom. The male seems slightly more active than the female. They do react when I approach the tank for feeding attempts but the reaction is to move back to being face down at the sandbed. I've dropped the .5mm spectrum pellets from above with the flow off and watched them actually hit them on the bottom of the tank and roll off of them with no response. I'm hoping sine they have at least become slightly more active they will come around soon. Really never expected to have this much trouble with a captive bred fish. Really hoping they make it. This tank was set up specifically for the radial filefish. I might need to add some type of slow moving fish to at least clean up some of the uneaten food from the bottom.

[pfan151]

Still struggling with the female radial. The male is eating live brine well and picks at frozen mysis. Unfortunately the female eats basically nothing. I have seen her eat one single live brine shrimp since I bought her. She is looking pretty skinny now but is very active and behaving normally aside from not eating. She does basically everything but eat. She lines up the live brine like she is going to take it then the moment before it looks like she is ready to strike she backs off and moves on to another brine shrimp. This cycle basically repeats itself until the male manages to eventually eat all of the shrimp. She has plenty of time to eat them though. There are shrimp in the tank for at least an hour. I also bought a bunch of live amphipods hoping that would get her to eat but she acts the same way with those as she does with brine. Any other ideas?

[MondoBongo]

try live white worms. i haven't met a healthy fish yet that will refuse them. i order mine from angels plus.

[pfan151]

Thanks. I'll order some.

[bat21]

Since it's going on 6 weeks now that you've had her, I would tend to assume she has found a food source of some kind or she wouldn't still be around. If they are the only fish in the tank then there is no competition for pods or other tiny animals on your live rock. Watch her closely and see if she is pecking at the rocks. But to echo the last comment, if you haven't tried live worms, black or white, definitely do so.

[pfan151]

I definitely don't think she's found food. She doesn't peck at the rocks. I guess it's possible when I'm not there but I have been watching pretty closely whenever I am home. I've tried live black worms with no luck. Next up is white worms. I got another female from my LFS today. She is tiny but ate some mysis 15 mins after going into the tank. The original female is looking skinnier by the day. I'm not thinking she is going to make it unless the white worms do the trick.

[bat21]

I'm starting to think that these fish are slightly challenging. I have had 3 now. One came in like the one you're describing, but it was wild caught. Lived on pellets for a few weeks and then died. Then I got a pair of whitespotted tank raised. Ate everything they could stuff into their mouths. One died of I think a parasite after several months of being healthy. And then about 2 months later, last week, the other one just disappeared one night, never to be seen again.

I really love them though. So I just ordered another one from ORA through liveaquaria. Hopefully I can get past the 6 month mark.

[Myles]

Mine is almost 2 yrs now. Don't know if I got lucky but he never had issues. He is in a very peaceful 40gallon soft coral tank.
Myles

[bat21]

My new filefish arrived today. Really small. Was trying to swim through the glass for the first few hours. But I shut off the flow to try feeding and she ate a bit of frozen and even a live blackworm, even though it was almost as big as her. So far so good.

[pfan151]

My recent little female is doing really well. She is really small but very active and is eating frozen mysis. The original female just continues to waste away. I kind of done trying with her at this point. I've tried basically every kind of frozen food available, flakes, pellets, live blackworms, live brine, and even ordered live amphipods. I'll still give the white worms a try but then she's on her own.

[bat21]

Yeah, at a certain point there's just nothing you can do.