Aiptasia Eating Filefish. Does anyone know something about it?

[Zionas]

1. How readily are they available?

2. Are they a very hardy fish?

3. What’s their diet?

4. Are they really good at controlling Aiptasia?

5. How long do they live?

6. Are they reef safe?

7. Are they jumpers?


I would be curious to know more about this little fish. It looks pretty cool.

 

[Ron Reefman]

1. How readily are they available?
Yes at some online sellers.

2. Are they a very hardy fish?
Yes.

3. What’s their diet?
Aiptasia and meaty foods. They are carnivores.

4. Are they really good at controlling Aiptasia?
As good as any other control animal.

5. How long do they live?
No idea but I suspect they have a life span of at least 5+ years.

6. Are they reef safe?
Yes and no. IMHO it's really a 50/50 flip of the coin.

7. Are they jumpers?
Mine didn't jump.

 

[Zionas]

Would be glad if this is a fish that can do 10+. I suspect they can live fairly long because they’re closely related to triggerfishes which can live for pretty long. I’m looking at getting one of these guys.


They’re carnivores? LA says they’re omnivores and Reddit says they’ll eat pretty much anything.

 

[DanConnor]

What Ron said, but regarding reef safe: it may be eating zoanthids and sympodium in my display tank, as I can grow elsewhere in the system. I say "may" because there is also a copperband. All other soft corals and all hard corals untouched

 

[DanConnor]

They are mostly carnivores, but mine enjoys nori

 

[moz71]

Omnivores they do eat everything. Mine actual started eating algae sheets with text of fish. And unfortunately some corals if aquire taste

 

[DanConnor]

Aside from that they are awesome. Very cool fish.

 

[moz71]

My family loves this fish. So I am keeping him. Wiped out all aptasia that I could see so what I am going to do is test which corals I can keep. Right now not touching touch, hammer, monti, he did wipe out my acan though.

 

[Zionas]

Awesome. Hearing lots of good reviews so far.

Here’s my planned stocking list:
x2 Ocellaris Clownfish

x1 Aiptasia Eating Filefish

x1 Yellow Watchman Goby + Tiger Shrimp

x1 Basslet or Wrasse

x1 Basslet (or Wrasse if I have a Basslet) / Dwarf Angelfish (Coral Beauty, Atlantic Cherub, Flameback, Rusty, Half Black, maybe Flame but heard they’re more fragile)

Basslets: Royal Gramma, Yellow Assessor, Swissguard being considered.

Wrasses: Yellow Coris, Yellow Candy Hogfish, Melanurus, Adorned, Christmas being considered.



73 gal tank. 32”x22”x24”.

 

[lmm1967]

Mine started out great - tore through a small bit of aptasia - THEN...

Decided it's much better to eat the frozen we feed, nori, SNAILS (if a snail is flipped over it's got about 30 seconds before the filefish tears it out of the shell) - and I'm fairly certain likes to nip at SPS here and there. I'm pretty certain he ate the 2 peppermint shrimp I put in the tank within 12 hours.

Great fish from an entertainment and character stand point. Not afraid of anything - investigates my hand when it's in the tank but has never bit me. Does exhibit food aggression - all fish do - but the filefish will actually pull food out of my clownfish's mouth (clownfish loves to grab larger pieces of food and feed his anemone).

And - no longer is interested in Aiptasia.

Bottom line - we love the fish but he's not doing what we intended for him to do and he's becoming destructive to the point that he may end up in a sump (don't worry - our sump is a 125 gallon tank with no baffles)

 

[dwest]

Mine ate my acans so I removed him.

 

[Reaper603]

I had two in my fowlr tank one got spooked and jumped out of the tank onto the return box and died the other I still have but banished to the sump currently until I can get him to the lfs. I had them for about a year and decided to start getting into corals. First coral was a hammer and scoly the filefish decided to nip at the hammer until it fully retracted it's coming back now that he's out of the display I had never seen it attack until I got a new acan frag right after I put the frag into the sand I see him coming and I could literally hear the crunch through the glass. Corals cost more than the filefish so I decided he had to go. I would say not so reef safe and fed mine multiple times a day to keep him away but didn't work.

 

[Zionas]

So they’re jumpers, huh. I’m still looking at getting one but I pray it’ll be nice to the corals.

 

[jd371]

Mine ate my acans so I removed him.

That's the same for me, those and Gorgonians were what it nipped at so I moved those to another tank. I still have Aptasia but it's in the hard to reach places that it can't get to like in crevices and caves.

 

[NanoDJS]

I have noticed a huge shipment of really small copperbands that has been coming in , they are THE aptasia eater besides a nudibranch , If you could get one of those its Unicorn fish and youll be looking at 10 yrs with a copperband that eats , filefish are hit or miss when it comes to the aptasia , its actually a pretty new suggestion to use them for this purpose , just when you couldnt get any copperbands that were not huge in the last 6 years

 

[Opus]

Mine ate over $500 worth of zoas that I got at Aquashella last year.

 

[GeoSquid]

Mine loved eating LPS coral! I had a bad aip problem and got one of these. Once it was done eating all the Aiptasia, it ate all my coral.

 

[drawman]

Mine does a great job at eating aiptasia. As others have said it is also good at eating LPS for me it was Euphyllia. Doesn't seem to eat SPS and Ricordea and can't comment on much other coral. Very cool fish overall.

Mine did jump into the overflow in a previous tank so they definitely can. It gets very close to the waterline to go after algae.

 

[PatW]

I have an aptasia eating file fish.

They are pretty available. I believe ORA is raising them in captivity. Any good LFS can get them in.

My fish is hardy and active.

My fish eats everything: nori, frozen mysis, frozen brine, pellets and aptasia. Has left my corals alone.

I don’t know the life span.

Reef safe. Mine has been good. I have acropora, montipora, birds nests an acan, some euphyla and some favia. So he has a limited offering.

I assume that all fish jump and have a plastic mesh screen over the tank. But he is not a great swimmer so I think he is a poor jumper.

So far mine has eliminated the small aptasia. The big ones are more resistant. But I have been pleased with his work. And he is a surprisingly personable fish.

 

[User1]

They are not the typical jumper, no. I've had two Matted Filefish both in open top tanks and neither jumped. All fish are different though so your mileage may vary. First was in a 40 breeder send one is currently in my 210 gallon tank.

Again, focusing only on the "matted filefish" they will eat Aptasia. They will also be opportunistic depending on how you feed throughout the day. Both of mine have picked on corals to include:

LPS (Hammers, Duncans)
Soft corals (Xenia, Kenya Tree)
Zoas (all)
Clams (Maxima's blue, gold)

If you own a reef tank my personal advise is this. If this is a fish you want to own due to it looking unique or for pest control then it is up to the hobbyist to draw a line of what is an acceptable loss and/or risk. Plain and simple. These fish will nip and eat corals but as I noted above every fish is different but so far I'm 2 for 2. My experience as noted above it isn't if they will nip or eat but rather when.

What I've personally seen the Matted Filefish eat:

Aptasia
Mysis / Brine shrimp
Nori (both green and purple)
Fresh algae (tang heaven red, yellow, and green
Pellets
Flake

Also note I've picked my first Matted from a LFS. Although I don't know the age it was a pretty large size so my guess is 2 years old and wild. My current one I picked up from Pacific East Aquaculture and it was captive bred/raised from BIOTA. Came in the size of a dime. Anyway I had it in a 5 gallon grow out until it could handle my flow. It is currently in my display. Point is - one wild the other captive bred and both behave the same.

TL;DR - great utility fish known to control Aptasia. Hobbyist must know corals are at risk and draw a line what is an acceptable loss. If there isn't an acceptable loss then this fish should be avoided in a reef tank. Enough data is out there to support this.