So why is it that orange spotted file fish, once believed to be obligate correlatives, don't devastate reef tanks like Aquarius once feared? While we long known these filefish to exhibit a strong dietary preference for Acropora millepora, researchers studying reefs after coral bleaching events discovered that Oxymonacanthus longirostris has an extreme preference for their favorite coral almost to the point of monophagy (only tolerant of one type of food).

The orange-spotted file fish would still attack bleached A.millepora even if healthy corals of other species remained high. In coral communities where A.millepora has died out, this study concludes that the dietary preference is so strong that O.longirostris may choose to starve to death instead of eating other corals.

Orange-spotted file fish appear to be reef safe with caution, but not if you like keeping Acropora millepora. Questions still remain about the long-term viability of weaning highly specialized feeders onto different foods and why these picky feeders in nature will adopt novel foods in captivity.