Do you have a Foxface?

[Conrad Noto]

I've been fish keeping 30+ years, reefing for 10 years and have never had a Foxface. I want to add one, can you post photos of yours and tell me about them. Good with other fish? coral?

 

[Tahoe61]

Love them, but skittish. Non aggressive, great algae eater.

 

[Cassian]

I've been fish keeping 30+ years, reefing for 10 years and have never had a Foxface. I want to add one, can you post photos of yours and tell me about them. Good with other fish? coral?

I don’t have a pic right now, but I’ve had them for about 8 years. No problems with fish or coral and they are amazing algae eaters. I wouldn’t have a tank without one

 

[Dave Cureton]

Have had a few over the years. I really like the magnificent fox face the best. They can be skittish and can be bullies as they get bigger. They are great algae eaters. Occasionally you will find one with a taste for zoanthids.

 

[Ryan Wolf]

I've had a foxface in the past. Peaceful. But very difficult to do maintenance with its spikes abound. Be aware.

 

[Albertan22]

I’ve almost always had a foxface lo in my tanks. They’re big puppy dogs. Mine hangs out with my scopas tang all day. They follow each other around everywhere. They’re great algae eaters, I’ve seen them nip at some LPS but only if you haven’t fed nori in a few days. They can and will get cranky if you don’t feed them enough. I have found that an auto feeder with pellets and a sheet of nori every other day makes for a fat, happy and healthy foxface.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Bought one small, grew him large, my most lackluster / least favorite fish. Traded him back in to my LFS after a couple of years of watching him hide from his own shadow, and never yellowing up. Looked drab in same tank as a beautiful bannerfish whose yellow really popped. Sorry for the negative report.

 

[Zionas]

Getting a One Spot for my tank once it’s set up. Looking forward to having a great algae eater along with my Yellow Tang (which will be introduced afterwards).

 

[Vette67]

Bought one small, grew him large, my most lackluster / least favorite fish. Traded him back in to my LFS after a couple of years of watching him hide from his own shadow, and never yellowing up. Looked drab in same tank as a beautiful bannerfish whose yellow really popped. Sorry for the negative report.

My experience is exactly the same. Afraid of it’s own shadow. If I walk into the room from a distance and the foxface doesn’t notice me, I might be able to catch a glimpse of it while it is still yellow. But as soon as it sees me, it turns brown and freezes like a statue, until it can’t stand my presence anymore and makes a hasty escape behind the rocks. If it wasn’t such a voracious valonia eater, I would have taken it back to the LFS. Been this way for years. I was hoping it would “grow out of it”, but nope.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Mine looked like a bruised banana 95% of the time, extremely little open swimming. For the size of the fish (bioload), I could replace him with two others.

 

[Vette67]

Mine looked like a bruised banana 95% of the time, extremely little open swimming. For the size of the fish (bioload), I could replace him with two others.

Bruised banana. Very accurate description of the color when scared..

 

[Zionas]

How resistant are they to disease / how hearty are they when tolerating less than optimal water conditions just in case the owner screws up?

What’s their hardiness overall compared to Tangs?

 

[JumboShrimp]

Mine was hardy, I’ll give him that. Made it through therapeutic copper (along with all the other fish) more than once.

 

[najer]

My cowardly lion.
I have two scopas tangs that it gets on really well with.

 

[Scottmac]

I added one yesterday and it is very skittish, and when stressed changed its colour to a mottled white/brown/grey pattern. This is how it arrived yesterday and I thought they had sent me the wrong species of fish:

I do like it when it shows its yellow colours and it has an interesting shaped face. It is supposidly a good algae eater (the reason I got it) but I have not seen it pay any attention to the sides or rock work yet. It does come out and join in feeding from flake and liquid food with the rest of the fish.

 

[GaryE]

How resistant are they to disease / how hearty are they when tolerating less than optimal water conditions just in case the owner screws up?

What’s their hardiness overall compared to Tangs?

Mine got ick and never recovered. Did a fresh water treatment then copper. He stopped eating during the copper treatment and withered away.

 

[GlassMunky]

Every rabbitfish I’ve ever owned has grown at least 2x as fast as any other fish in the tank.... got my current on at maybe 3-4”, about the size of my female angel, and less than 6 months later it’s easily 7-8” and bigger than my male angel.
Just something to keep in mind

 

[Zionas]

Ouch, really sorry to hear that. Thought their slime coats would offer lots of protection. Do you know the source of the ich, and which species was it?

 

[GaryE]

Ouch, really sorry to hear that. Thought their slime coats would offer lots of protection. Do you know the source of the ich, and which species was it?

No

 

[psumms]

My one spot ‘Rocky’ is a real character! Has a fantastic appetite, doesn’t bother corals and gets on well with everything else - but a total coward! He can sense a glass clean from a mile away, you’d think he’d be used to it by now!