Breeding Journal, Orangespot Filefish [ Oxymonacanthus longirostris]

General
Species:  Orange Spot Filefish, Harlequin Filefish
Social Structure: Male/female pair 
Size of Individuals:  3.5 inches
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  July 2010

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  46 Gallons
Substrate Details:  Aragonite live sand
Filtration Details:  Reef Octopus BHF HOB Skimmer
Water Changes:  10 Gallons weekly
Water Temperature:  80*F
Lighting:  T5's
Lighting Cycle:  Random-Varies according to my schedule. (No timer)
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Pair of Darwin Black clowns

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  PE Mysis, Fauna Marin Base and LPS foods, Cyclopeeze, Nutramar Ova, Rod's Pacific Plankton.
Feeding Schedule:  Many small feeding throughout day. At minimum, 3.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 
Spawn Time of Day: 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
Courtship Details: 
Egg Size: 
Egg Color: 
Egg Count: 

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 
Hatch Time of Day: 
# Days after Spawn: 
Larvae Description: 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Larval Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Additional Information

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



You will be required to provide photographic or video evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports. PHOTOS AND VIDEO S MUST BE PLACED IN ADDITIONAL POSTS, NEVER IN THE FIRST POST IN A JOURNAL.

No spawning yet, but this pair has been with me for almost a year now. No signs of breeding yet, I really need to fatten them up. The female is fat, but the male is still a bit thin. Healthy, but not in breeding condition. Any tips on foods to get them in breeding condition? Also, they have caulerpa in the tank, but they might need something else to spawn in. Any suggestions there? This pair eats everything I give them. Check out the video below, click to play.

Man, that male is really thin. Good luck with them!

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Thanks! The male does look thin in the video. Has looks fatter now. I'll get a more recent video today.

You might want to check out Matt's journal: http://www.lsmac.org/smf/index.php?topic=140.0 Lots of great info.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Thanks Tal. There is lots of good info there. I'll have to try soaking their food in Super Selcon like Matt did. Hopefully that will help. I also need to find some gracilaria like he had. It looks like they preferred that, but there is also a pic of eggs in the hair algae. I have some red dictyota in their tank that might work if I ever get these guys spawning.

Honestly, if he is eating the foods you list above, I'd worry about an internal parasite. He ought to be fat and happy on those.
 
And what I forgot to say before: The female looks like she's ready to spawn so if you aren't seeing it then I'd put it down to the male not having enough reserves.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Thanks for the reply. I always wondered why he never gained weight and she did so easily. Aren't there anti-parasitic foods available on the market? Do those work? Here is a video I took a few minutes ago
http://www.youtube.com/wa...ure=player_profilepage

PraziPro - you can "worm" 'em' if you're concerned about internal parasites at all.
 
Gracillaria...I could bring some next time I head to Chicago...I'll try to remember.  I think you could honestly get away with a "spawning mop" made of acrylic yarn like they use for Killifish breeding.  I say that because the single spawning report from the breeder's registry had them "digging in the sand with their noses"...in reality, I translate that to be the "thrusting" behavior, and using sand because there was no better substrate to spawn on.  A clean tank with a spawning mop - 95% sure they'll spawn in the mop!

I would go with Matt's recommendations on this. I'm just not terribly good with the medical side of the hobby.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Thanks for the reply Matt. I'll definitely put that into consideration. Didn't you try the spawning mop yourself? What did you observe?

Also, if I do treat the male, should I worry about the other tank inhabitants? Should I treat them as well?

It shouldn't hurt the other fish in the tank at all but you want to use it as a food additive (like selcon) to target the internal parasites. You can treat the water but it's not as effective.
 

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

OK gotcha. Thats easy. I didn't know it was safe for the display tank. I'll pick some up on thursday when I got to work.

One more video- shows the rest of the tank a little more.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...e=youtube_gdata_player

I picked up some prazipro, but now I am hesitant to treat because I am seeing flutter dives and displays from the pair. The female also looks very fat. Perhaps gravid? The male has been "flutter diving" for the past few days around 9:00-10:00pm, but he is doing it today around 6:00. Cross your fingers! Here is a quick video. Please pardon the algae on the glass.
http://www.youtube.com/wa...page&v=bYR37wsiEdY

One more observation...Matt states in his journal:
     "The female in this aroused state becomes pale in some of the areas that are golden (i.e. in the face / forehead)."
 
This has occurred with my female as well. You can see the pair side by side toward the end of the video. The female has clearly lost color in ares that were previously bright yellow.   I'll try to get some comparison pics.

The female has taken a strong interest in this patch of algae. She picks at it often, but doesn't dive in to it like I have seen in Matt's videos.

 
You can see the female's faded yellow color here, which is also a subtle change that occurs during courting.

And a quick shot of the male

Interesting observation last night. I turned the main lights off and only left the actinics on, and the pair immediatley began to "flutter dive" and display themselves to each other. Here is a quick video I got. You can see a great "flutter dive" around the 30 second mark.

Yep, she also has the "leaf curl" (I'm sure there's a name for it, but that's what I made up) submissive display, too. I would continue with an actinic period right before lights out if it were me. Get ready, though. Once they get going, there'll be hours of display and then about one second for the actual spawn. What always clued me in was the male's behavior just post-spawn. He floats up in the water column completely motionless--as if there's no way he's ever going to move again--for several seconds.
 
By the way, the male is looking much better in the video and your photos above. Maybe just a bad camera angle on the photo at the top? Or just a bad day?

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Thanks Andy. They court each other on and off randomly throughout most of the day, but it seems to really pick up in the evening. I'll continue with the actinic period as well.
 
To be honest, the pictures of the male at the top were months old, and the video was pretty old as well. I took that video when they first started eating pellets, and now that they have it has really helped me bulk them up (along with 4 feedings of nutramar and cyclopeeze a day)

I bet it has. Mine never took to pellets. Congratulations!

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Thanks!
 
Exciting news here-They had a false spawn today! They were courting like crazy for about an hour leading up to the event, and all the sudden they dove toward a powerhead that has been turned off and has grown algae on it and hovered there  side by side for a second and then swam away. It was just like how I saw it in Matt's videos. I didn't find any eggs, but at least they are practicing. Hopefully it's only a matter of time now!

Very cool! Next time have the cam ready.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Thanks Tal. We had another false spawn last night. They went through the motions but no eggs. This time it was on a piece of live rock with no algae. I tried to take a video, but every time they saw me they stopped. I'll keep trying...Hopefully they will get it right soon!

Another false spawn tonight! I captured this one on video from a distance. I'll post the video tomorrow.

Here's the video. Like I said, it's from a distance, but I didn't want to interrupt them!
 

Here are a couple pics I took of the pair today:

Last photo = "Give us food."
 
Congratulations! Good luck!

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Thanks Andy! Haha, yeah they are like little puppy dogs as soon as the pumps go off; they start begging for food almost instantly.

Another spawn a few minutes ago. Still no eggs! This is so frustrating.

Dude, the eggs are TINY and green/clear.  There's no way at this point that they're not laying eggs.  Try harder.  Next time they go  into a patch of algae, turkey baste out at least a half gallon of water from that algae patch.  If you put it into a clear container and really look closely at the bottom, I bet you'll have eggs.  They'll be hard to see because DETRITUS sticks to them too.
 
Oh and Andy, the proper name (since I named it first) is "Curtsey", not "leaf curl"!

Thanks for posting Matt. That explains why I haven't been able to find any eggs! I've been looking for green eggs, not detritus covered ones. I think I might have seen them last time I sucked out the area where I saw them spawn. They literally looked like detritus to me. I really should invest in a microscope...
 
We had another spawn yesterday as well. The power was off here for 6 hours and it didn't throw them off. I observed lots of courting tonight, but so spawning. Chances are high they'll spawn again tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find!

When you get them, you'll know. But I never was able to reliably collect them, even when I knew the general area of the spawn. You do have an advantage: You are watching the spawn live and I was watching it over a webcam. Be sure to separate the eggs from _every one_ of the amphipods. They'll tear through them like butter.
 

 
See? I knew there was a name for it. I was calling it that because it's the same body shape that the bristle-tails get when they are trying to imitate a leaf in the water. But I knew that it was just a nickname.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

My pair never engages in any courtship behaviour,at least when I´m there.Prude guys!
Do they spawn at any special time of the day?.

Thanks for the tip Andy.
 
Luis, they have been spawning in the evening. Usually between 8:00-10:00. I believe tank temperatures can influence when they spawn as well...My tank runs around 80*F.

Mine were the evenings as well, usually within an hour of lights out.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Thanks.So sex de soiree,we have.Matt P.´s fish too?.
Which is a problem if my fish spawn and I don´t notice.I must get infrared goggles and peep at night,or get a videocamera
I imagined I could see some daytime interaction,to give me a warning. 

No, mine were in the hour before lights out. Sorry that I didn't specify.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Same here. They have been spawning when the actinic lights are on. Not when the lights turn off.