Im sorry for mistyping Acropora and blamdos are a term in Spain! So if you haven't got any viable opinions keep them to yourself on that note I now have this fish which is eating mastick, frozen and pellets. You call me not experienced enough..
Latin names are the same worldwide, I don’t know that I buy your blandos/‘blamdos’ excuse, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.
I gave you an opinion based on the very limited information you provided. You are very clearly not an experienced aquarist, there is nothing wrong with that, everyone was inexperienced at some point. The reason I brought up your inexperience is that we are talking about living animals, when you don’t have a lot of experience, taking on animals/specimens that are considered to be advanced, that don’t have a track record of doing well in captivity is irresponsible and unethical. Jumping into species or setups that are way above your experience level is just gambling with living animals.
In a hobby where you are responsible for the husbandry of living animals, it is best practice to slowly build upon your experience. It’s the same reason I don’t recommend sharks, or sea horses, or NPS corals to people who have been in the hobby for just a few months. I apologize if my comment was maybe a little snarkier than it could have been, but I stand by the underlying sentiment. I hope your OSFF does well, I really do, you’ve acquired the fish, so that’s all I can say.
But again, I stand by suggesting that you not try to keep species vastly outside of your experience level, and should this one meet the same fate as the last one, I would recommend against trying another.
With this new OSFF are you quarantining? Did you go fallow after the last ich outbreak? Did you quarantine all the new corals you’ve since added? Have you added other fish since? Depending on mastick alone isn’t viable longterm nutritional plan, I would definitely recommend getting some of this:
You should offer a variety of foods throughout the day (the need multiple, like 6-10 feedings a day). The Panta Rhei was not available the last time I tried to keep one of these (not was mastick), but I have heard fairly good things about it. Like you, I didn’t have a large, grown in SPS dominant reef, and while they (I had two) ate, and were fed a variety a minimum of six times a day, they only lived 4-5 months, and died of what I assume to be malnutrition or some sort of nutritional deficiency. Prepared foods (at the time at least) just weren’t adequate, and while the options are certainly better now, I don’t know that I’m convinced that OSFF can be kept healthy long term on prepared foods alone. I had around ten years of experience in keeping reef tanks at the time, and ethically was probably too inexperienced to be keeping them.
I understand that there have been advancements in the types of food available and in the collective understanding of these fish, and that they’ve been kept in captivity longterm, but that still doesn’t make them a beginner, or even moderate friendly species.
Many people without experience with a specific fish seem to feel the need to provide input based solely on anecdotes they may have read from others, or even to just repeat something someone else said who is just repeating something someone else said ad infinitum. In that situation, it is best if the person at least prefaces with “I don’t have personal experience, but what I have heard is…,”.
Definitely best to get first hand and current experiences if possible. What wasn’t possible 10 years ago might be commonplace now. My experience with these fish is that, as long as you are prepared to train them to eat prepared foods (Masstick seems to be irresistible to them) they are actually very hardy and easy fish. Frequent, high volume feeding is then really the only ‘special’ care requirement ongoing. This can easily be facilitated using an auto-feeder for those unable to feed frequently during working hours.
I have kept this species. I don’t think it is ethical to recommend advanced or difficult species to hobbyists who are very clearly inexperienced (especially species that have just recently started to be successfully kept long term in tanks that are not mature, grown-in, large SPS dominant reefs). It just strikes me as odd that no one recommended to the OP to maybe pump the breaks and consider the suitability of this species for their experience level, current setup, and/or the ability to provide the specific care requirements this species requires. It just seems like there is a trend in the hobby lately where husbandry and the longterm well-being of the animal takes a back seat to the wants or whims of the keeper, which IMO is backwards.
