Aiptaisia eating file fish hazards

[jamie C]

So I have had two little Ap nems popup in my show tank. I decided that the file fish might be a great solution in my tank. He never once tried to eat the nems but went straight to eating my trachyphilia coral and my acan lords. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it. Literally was plucking the feeding polyps right out of their mouths. It wasn't like he picked a single head to mess with. this fish literally went after all 10 I own. So if anyone is keeping trach's and acans maybe avoid this fish as an addition. my two cents. he now resides in my sump until I can return him to the LFS. Neat fish I hate to see him go but heck no leave my acans alone!

 

[fishguy242]

hi try a couple of peppermint shrimp

 

[fishguy242]

or if you can put the rock w the nems in sump

 

[Mical]

That's odd. I suppose it depends on where & what kind you got. I had 2 tanks infested w/aiptasia, I ordered 2 pairs of ORA aiptasia eating filefish from LA. After about 10 days (on sm tank) and 2 weeks on larger - it was like overnight aiptasia vanished.

From what I've observed - they're very shy and eat mostly at night, but once they get the taste of aiptasia it's like an "all you can eat buffet" for them.

Sorry yours didn't solve your issues - there's about 20 different types of filefish and from what I've read not all are aiptasia eaters.

 

[fishguy242]

imo matted files are the best,easy to get out if prob,sleep up in corner at night

 

[jamie C]

he was really chill during the day. The only reason I haven't tried peppermint shrimp is that I had another reef keeper get them and they started eating his higher end zoas. As I am a zoa junkie I can not take that risk., I am going to try and do the Kalkwasser feeding method and see if that will kill the ap nems. removing them would be very very difficult due to the being attached to my main rock structure.

 

[dwest]

So I have had two little Ap nems popup in my show tank. I decided that the file fish might be a great solution in my tank. He never once tried to eat the nems but went straight to eating my trachyphilia coral and my acan lords. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it. Literally was plucking the feeding polyps right out of their mouths. It wasn't like he picked a single head to mess with. this fish literally went after all 10 I own. So if anyone is keeping trach's and acans maybe avoid this fish as an addition. my two cents. he now resides in my sump until I can return him to the LFS. Neat fish I hate to see him go but heck no leave my acans alone!

Mine liked acans too! I took him back.

 

[fishguy242]

yep burn em

 

[skiwez]

Yup definitely witnessed the same with my filefish. Eventually he led to his own demise. As mentioned above they sleep in a corner of the tank. That cam be a problem if you have 2 mp40s not too far away from where it sleeps

 

[najer]

They seem very hit and miss, I tried one and it was straight on my lps, current one is a little trooper, I have a tassel as well and that doesn't eat aips but also doesn't touch my corals.

 

[piranhaman00]

Peppermint shrimp also love acans do be aware of that!