Aptasia Eating file fish

[Dilan Patel]

My reef tank has become over run with aiptasia. My LFS does not have a copperband but it does have a 3in aiptasia eating file fish. I would like to know experiences with this fish in a reef tank. I hear they are about the same as copperband in terms of reef safe like 75% of them are reef safe and the others turn into monsters. The LFS said most of them turn out to be reef safe(with corals is what I am worried about) He also told me that they are real easy to catch if needed which I think I can cathc any fish now after catching my smart *** goby lol. Plz give me a run down on care requirements or the fish as well as any worrysome or awesome things with this fish. It will be going in a 180 with probably 500 or so aiptasia. The corals I worry about the most would be the acans,scolimia,plate coral and some of my hairy sps.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

It's hit or miss as they will go after aiptasia but they can also go after fleshycorals. It should leave most SPS corals alone but I would be worried about things like Acans, Blastomussa, etc. I'm not sure if it's possible, but you could QT the fish and place rocks with aiptasia in the tank with it and "condition" it to consume the aiptasia. Personally, I would enlist an army of peppermint shrimp but I understand if that's not an option for you, they're really cheap here in Florida.

 

[Mrod]

I have had 2 experiences as tried them twice at different times to help with aipstasia. Never had any problem with them bothering corals. I did not have your corals but acropora, montis and some softies like clove polyps and mushrooms.

As far as aipstasia they definitely work but it’s hit or miss. The one cleared all aipstasia out within months and it was noticeable after a few weeks. The second one didn’t eat any unfortunately.

Good luck and hope you get one that works on your first attempt.

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

Aiptasia eating filefish have been known to nip at Zoas, frogspawns, Acans, and other LPS, some even reported them nipping at their Clams, however, since you have 500 Aiptasia, I can't recommend Aiptasia X or Kalk paste because you have too many of those darn anemones in your tank, it would be a nightmare to manually kill everything. Heres what I'd recommend, get an Aiptasia eating filefish, get it to clear out your Aiptasia, after that I'd recommend giving him back to the LFS. From what i've seen in person, they don't look like very strong swimmers, however they are somewhat "thin fish" and they could easily sneak between rockwork, so catching may pose somewhat of a challenge, but I don't think it'll be as bad as catching a goby

 

[Leadfooted]

I wish someone talked me out of it. Lost and injured a bunch of corals before it was too late and the filefish didn’t touch aptasia.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Well I would like to use pepermint shrimp but my melenarus and red coris wrasse would love the night time snack. I do keep pepermint shrimp in my sump in my frag section to keep aptasia off of my frag plugs. I do have a trap so i would probably put the filefish in a trap for a few days get him eating frozen food and stuff and than release him and keep an eye on him. If he turn sout to be reef safe then it would be a [erfect addition if not then I will figure something out to dow ith him

 

[Dilan Patel]

Really my only options are the filefish or a butterflyfish. The issues I have had with the butterfly is that they get picked on my my yellow tang and eventually die. The filefish should not pose that problem as well as they are cheaper. Maybe my best bet is to put it in my frag part if my section and see how it dose there?

 

[Turkey head]

I have a filefish in my reef. Never bothers the coral. I’m really happy I got it because it’s one of my favorite fish.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I ended u buying two small ones and giving them a shot.

 

[Mrod]

Goof luck and if nothing else they are a great fish like turkey head mentioned. So fun watching them and was also my favorite fish when I had them.

 

[Lisa Maxwell]

I have a filefish in my reef. Never bothers the coral. I’m really happy I got it because it’s one of my favorite fish.

I'm curious, how are things going with the file fish? I am so tired of trying to keep my aptasia under control - it is a never ending battle.

 

[Tobbe]

Same at my end, i got 4 filefish a couple of weeks ago but not any visible improvements yet, and i put em in frag tank to easy se if they get rid of em there but not yet , good luck

 

[User1]

Matted file fish here with great success. Make sure it is a Acreichthys tomentosus for better success. They are interesting fish and may, or may not, nip at soft and lps corals. When I had a outbreak in a 40 breeder this was the fish I used with great success. It didn't go right after aptasia upon tank introduction it was more subtle. Similar to a six line wrasse that is always swimming, hovering, eyeballing nooks and crannies for the next meal filefish behave similar and will slowly swim peaking around looking for it. While they move and change location to location you will see their body coloration also change to match the area that they are or at least get it as close to.

If I had to guess I would say it took mine a little over a month before it cleaned house. This is also while it was eating pellet, brine and mysis scrimp, and nori of all things. In fact one of its unique traits was when a piece of nori floated away and settled floating on the water surface he would actually find it, and swim under it like using it for shade. Really odd but such as it was. Mine did nip at LPS hammer corals. However, I had 4 to 5 colonies the size of softballs so that while it would nip it wasn't really doing any long term damage or that it couldn't recover on its own. It also went after some zoas and Xenia. In fact, it was the Xenia eating that had me rehome it.

I had ordered a Xenia frag and introduced it. Not 5 minutes after introduction it was all over it. It wasn't established yet so wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure and out sustain it so...fish went and Xenia stayed. Today would be a different story and I'd be fine with it. No Aptasia though... Really good fish but need to be aware there are possibilities of:

1. LPS nipper
2. Soft coral nipper
3. May not eat traditional food and starve after it finished aptasia so will need to be rehomed

 

[jsvand5]

I’ve had good luck with the CB ones from ORA. Had my aiptasia gone in a couple weeks. They haven’t bothered any corals.

 

[Lisa Maxwell]

Matted file fish here with great success. Make sure it is a Acreichthys tomentosus for better success. They are interesting fish and may, or may not, nip at soft and lps corals. When I had a outbreak in a 40 breeder this was the fish I used with great success. It didn't go right after aptasia upon tank introduction it was more subtle. Similar to a six line wrasse that is always swimming, hovering, eyeballing nooks and crannies for the next meal filefish behave similar and will slowly swim peaking around looking for it. While they move and change location to location you will see their body coloration also change to match the area that they are or at least get it as close to.

If I had to guess I would say it took mine a little over a month before it cleaned house. This is also while it was eating pellet, brine and mysis scrimp, and nori of all things. In fact one of its unique traits was when a piece of nori floated away and settled floating on the water surface he would actually find it, and swim under it like using it for shade. Really odd but such as it was. Mine did nip at LPS hammer corals. However, I had 4 to 5 colonies the size of softballs so that while it would nip it wasn't really doing any long term damage or that it couldn't recover on its own. It also went after some zoas and Xenia. In fact, it was the Xenia eating that had me rehome it.

I had ordered a Xenia frag and introduced it. Not 5 minutes after introduction it was all over it. It wasn't established yet so wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure and out sustain it so...fish went and Xenia stayed. Today would be a different story and I'd be fine with it. No Aptasia though... Really good fish but need to be aware there are possibilities of:

1. LPS nipper
2. Soft coral nipper
3. May not eat traditional food and starve after it finished aptasia so will need to be rehomed

Thank you so much for the useful information. I'm going to give it a try.

 

[authentic]

I have one and it gets a lot of attention from guests because of its looks!!!love the swimming pattern too

 

[Grapefruit509]

I ended u buying two small ones and giving them a shot.

What happened

 

[jmichaelh7]

Aiptasia eating filefish have been known to nip at Zoas, frogspawns, Acans, and other LPS, some even reported them nipping at their Clams, however, since you have 500 Aiptasia, I can't recommend Aiptasia X or Kalk paste because you have too many of those darn anemones in your tank, it would be a nightmare to manually kill everything. Heres what I'd recommend, get an Aiptasia eating filefish, get it to clear out your Aiptasia, after that I'd recommend giving him back to the LFS. From what i've seen in person, they don't look like very strong swimmers, however they are somewhat "thin fish" and they could easily sneak between rockwork, so catching may pose somewhat of a challenge, but I don't think it'll be as bad as catching a goby

I have a aiptasia file fish and when I put him in quarantine … my entire tank is covered . So I can’t wait to put him back. He keeps them at bay I wouldn’t return him