Monocirrhus polyacanthus

[ShadowBass]

Have any of you ever gotten one of these onto anything other than live foods?
We got one yesterday and he's devouring guppies but I'd like to eventually get him onto something other than that. From what I've read it's pretty much impossible. I haven't tried anything yet, I'm just letting him fill up on guppies and put on a little weight since he was underfed.

Are there any other live foods that they seem to like other than fish?

Any other comments about their overall care or things to watch for would be appreciated.

We have ours in a 75g with my angelfish some baby clown loaches and a couple of BN's. No one seems to notice that he's even there. I'm pretty sure that he's fullgrown or close to it since from what I understand they only get around 4 inches long and he looks to be exactly that.

 

[Fish Room Plus]

Very hard to lean of live!!. Hard fish to keep alive. Need very soft, acid water. Low flow and very clean. I was never able to keep then

 

[ShadowBass]

Wow, that sucks.

I have no way of making the water extremely soft in that tank at the moment, but it is about neutral and it's softer than the other tanks. I had to mix with distilled to get it that way since I don't have an RO unit at the moment.

Hopefully he does ok. He was at the LFS for several weeks before we finally decided to buy him. We saw him when he first arrived there but didn't know anything about them so we passed. After doing some research we decided to take a chance on him since he probably would have died there anyway. They started out trying to feed him flake food , started feeding him guppies but not nearly enough to keep him well fed.

The water in that tank is definately very clean at least since the stocking levels are extremely low. There's several HOB filters but the flow doesn't seem to be bothering him since most of it is at the very top of the tank.

 

[AquataHolic420]

update?? please post pics!

 

[guppy]

Wow, that sucks.

I have no way of making the water extremely soft in that tank at the moment, but it is about neutral and it's softer than the other tanks. I had to mix with distilled to get it that way since I don't have an RO unit at the moment.

Hopefully he does ok. He was at the LFS for several weeks before we finally decided to buy him. We saw him when he first arrived there but didn't know anything about them so we passed. After doing some research we decided to take a chance on him since he probably would have died there anyway. They started out trying to feed him flake food , started feeding him guppies but not nearly enough to keep him well fed.

The water in that tank is definately very clean at least since the stocking levels are extremely low. There's several HOB filters but the flow doesn't seem to be bothering him since most of it is at the very top of the tank.

You can use Black water extract or run a small HOB filter with the media replaced with peat or spagnum moss to lower your pH.
The SA leaf fish will happily take mosquito larvae and brine shrimp, as well as scuds and fairy shrimp. it wiill also take live crickets.

 

[ShadowBass]

Sorry, I forgot all about this thread, lol.

He's still doing well, though he still refuses to eat anything but guppies, so we gut load them with cyclopeez to make sure he's at least getting a bit more nutrition.

I don't bother lowering the pH, I just keep the water fairly soft by adding some RO water to the tapwater. (I finally got an RO unit, yay!)

A few times now he's actually tried to spawn with my angelfish.
The angelfish was none too pleased about that, so I guess I'll have to find him a female. I have no idea how I'll go about that since I haven't found anyone specifically selling female leaf fish.

I'll try to get some pics today.

 

[Beastly Bichir]

I had my leaf try to mate with a gourami. I keep mine in neutral water and I don't do anything special for them. Just be careful because when they catch a disease they go down fast. Don't even bother trying to switch it off live foods. Just keep gut loading the feeders and he should be fine. If you are still concerned he is not getting enough vitamins add a suplement to the water.

I have never tried to breed, but I know they need soft water, a slow current, and plenty of live plants. Good luck.