Mimic filefish

[Rjmul]

Has anyone kept one of these ? What were your experiences ? What did they eat ? How often did you feed ? Did they kill anything in your tank ?

I'm not one for impulse purchases but my wife has been begging me to get a valentini puffer, but I've never wanted to risk it. Today I was chatting with the LFS employee about valentinis. And he pointed out a mimic filefish. I bought it immediately. Since being home the fish ate some bloodworms (not something I typically put in my tank) and he is showing interest in the now empty nori clip (other fish ate it all before we got home)

Thank
-russell

 

[smlarson72]

I have a Valentini Puffer and love her. She gets clams on the half shell, Hikari frozen mysis, mega marine and spirulina. I also but a nori clip in with seaweed. She shares with our Scopas Tang, Maroon Clown, Pajama Cardinals, Damzels, Goby. Everyone gets along.

 

[mort]

I had one for quite a few years in with my valentini puffer, so it's hard to say how safe they are because any damage may have been done by the other.
A friend did have one and it was safe with most corals (they do bite onto some at night to sleep but don't generally cause any damage, mine did this with a gorgonian) but it destroyed their cuc. It was a fully grown one when it started being "naughty" however.

We did get a few in the shop I worked at and one of those came back a few times because it was nipping at corals, so personally I don't think they are really any different to the puffer they mimic except they don't need hard shelled foods. For feeding they do well with a normal frozen mix but as they have quite a small mouth I wouldn't add anything to big, or if you do, add a few pieces and let it chew them before adding a few more, or your other fish might eat it all before it gets its share. The only other thing it's standard advice of little and often and this gives you the best chance of keeping your corals and inverts safe as well.