Aquascaping for Tasseled Filefish
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Room dimensions
Tassled filefish at first and foremost is big, or will be such in a very short time.
In my experience, the 90g tank, as a bare minimum, will require a lot of ingenuity to free the space for its swimming.
The tank width should allow to freely turn around for the 10-12" (25-30cm, including tail) long fish. Add the space for a live rock. The length of 90g tank - 48" (1.2 m) - what is 4-5 fish lengths, is too small for free moving.
No sharp discomfort, but I had to clear significant part of available space, moving removed LR to the refugium.
If you also have a small tank, like my - 90g, then you may have to remove everything, including the voluminous live rock and the high corals, more than 1" to the sump and refugium, or try to exchange the medium-big corals to a low growing (through LFS, club, classifieds or personal connections).
Finction, not fashion
This fish is quite active (if you stay away from the tank, it's very shy), likes to swim, splash, make a sudden burst along the tank, and really doing better, if has caves to hide, ledges to rest its chin, terrace gardens as a safe place to sleep and a place to see something new, and hide under it time from time, and vertical stones in different places for hiding behind them.
Quiz - find Fuzzy on this photo:
Particular places for particular needs.
Needs, not NEEDS - fish will survive in their absence too, just will stand still at the top of the tank. We will try to make its life a little more tolerable.
On the left - resting or sleeping position, fish could face left or right, but it is always left top side of the tank, protected by the some object from the top and side, unless the early morning sun bothers it, and the file tries to prolong it's sleep in the darker area, moving farther at the same level.
Next, on the left - ready to sleep. The shade is casted by the lightweight shelf, placed above the tank for this purpose. Perch-like preferences. If there is no shelf, overhanging powerhead will work too.
One really need the place of peace and quiet
Because of this, the tank that started in the usual way, was enhanced by the cave, which was immediately occupied (see on sidebar). You can do it in a more natural way, and the basket terrace could be replaced by a flat rock.
Multifunctional finding:
Terrace - the handing gardens for my Semiramis, at the modest scale.
It works as an overhang, for secure feeling (images are on the left), and as a place to visit and sleep, safe and secure from everybody else.
The filefish goes there for a sleeping, or just visiting to check how the life between corals is going - may be find something new and tasty.
For a grown fish
As the filefish grew, it no longer fit in these spaces, plus it clearly required more place to be able just turn around.
I had to disassemble all the hiding places and remove significant portion of the rock to the sump and refugium.
Eggcrate wall
The rockwork was flattened at the back - I made the flat hang-on back wall, made from eggcrate with LR rubble zip-tied to it.
This technic was described and successfully used here. It may work well for a high light tank, but not for a low light one - it takes too long for the corals to grow, they shade each other, and zip ties are visible for the months. Apart from that this is a very heavy construction, and it has to be held in verticel position somehow.
I hate the look, even covered with coraline it doesn't look better. A. Blundell posted at the blogs of the frags.org the better solution - the back wall, created before setting tank. But it was too late, if the tank was already set.
On the bright side, this wall perform additional function: as the safe breeding ground for the pods, for mandarin and scooter.
Planned to cover all back wall, instead of half of it (should be separate because of the central brace), but the fish - tassle file and lion - strongly disapproved this. Ended with half of wall covere, half - not. The fish prefers the empty part.
Frequent crubbing coraline algae from the back glass appeared to be impractical - all fish get scared each time. Left as is. I had seen a lot of tanks with coraline on the glass - they were looking not so bad.
Narrow pillar for other fish
Tried to make a narrow pillar in the corner, as a perch for a lion and the hiding place for the chromises, but it wasn't accepted.
More of this, in reduced visible free space:
- the clown went berserk, attacking chromises
- the hunted by the clown chromises went hysterical
- the very high tolerance of the lion came to the end, and the irritated fidh with a long venomous spines is not a good thing in the narrow spaces. Nobody hurt, so far.
- the filefish doesn't looking where it's going, sometimes directly onto the lion's spines.
Had to remove pillar. Everybody breathes easier. Peace was restored.
Flow
This fish prefers to live in slow diffused flow areas, but the sources of flow (like Seio 620, that replaced Maxi-Jet 1200) have own uses - as massaging shower, only if and when fish wants it. Another small pleasure of life - jacuzzi, the source of air bubbles - in-tank protein skimmer Visi-Jet. The limewood/basswood air store gives the same effect. Fuzzy spent a lot of time, hanging in the bubbles.
Entertainnment
As was said, provide some space to rest an eye, window, in my case. Aquarium wallpaper was disliked. Corals will work just fine too. Some corals will be sampled after introduction, but no major was damage done.
Grazing
And, the last, but not least: this fish grazes on live rock, just like valentini puffer. If you can, rotate part of LR with refugium, so fish will have something new to taste.
Next page: Feeding