Orange spotted filefish

Orange spotted filefish
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Tetraodontiformes
Family:	Monacanthidae
Genus:	Oxymonacanthus
Species:	O. longirostris
Binomial name
Oxymonacanthus longirostris (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

The orange spotted filefish or harlequin filefish, Oxymonacanthus longirostris, is a filefish in the family Monacanthidae found on coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Oceans. The orangespotted filefish is a different species and refers to Cantherhines pullus.^[1]

The orange spotted filefish is pale blue with about eight longitudinal rows of orange-yellow patches. In the wild it feeds almost exclusively on Acropora polyps.^[2]

In the aquarium

It is often offered for sale in the aquarium trade, but few specimens survive long in captivity.^[3] It is difficult to maintain in an aquarium unless it is provided with live corals. The fish must be kept in a species-specific tank, or a tank with very passive tankmates such as seahorses or pipefish.

References

1. ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Cantherhines pullus" in FishBase. April 2006 version.
2. ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Oxymonacanthus longirostris" in FishBase. March 2006 version.
3. ^ "Filefishes, Family Monacanthidae". The Marine Center. http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/fish-invertebrates/filefishes.asp. Retrieved 4 July 2006.