Aptasia eating Filefish

luke33 · Mar 17, 2010

Well after coming home i had to pull the coral, i mean aptasia eating file fish out : ( After eating a small colony of zoa's, then seeing the mother colony of them all closed and then noticing my nice red brain half eaten and the filefish taking chunks out of it I had seen enough. So once again, aptasia prevails. Filefish is now my sump protector.

Paul_N · Mar 17, 2010

Aw that sux!! I have some acans and blastos so I am still worried also. When I get the 220 up I wanted to get more lps like acans, scoly, lobo so I'm pretty sure when I tear this down he will be going to another tank to take care of some aiptasia. Hopefully I can pass it around here. I kid you not, mine has cut down my aiptasia population in half at least, possibly 3/4 down. My overflow box was covered and now I cannot find one. My large Maxima clam only has one left on it. I cannot see one anywhere on my glass. The only ones really left are the small ones in between the zoas, holes in rocks and under my huge purple cap. There was a monster one and it has been retracted all day so I assume he has been trying to get at it. The funny thing is I still have not seen him eat one aiptasia...:squigglemouth:

luke33 · Mar 17, 2010

I think if you have lots of aptasia they will work but i'd pull it out after it cuts them down. Like me i only have three big one's and one has been retracted all day so he did find it, but unfortunately he found corals he was more interested in first. It was worth a shot, and like many in this hobby, was to good to be true : ( Oh well, only a few nice corals dead......wait, that sux!

Paul_N · Mar 25, 2010

UH OH....

oh: He just took a big bite out of my green acans. He has got to go...:mad:

Jared, did you still want him? I am going to try and get him out and put him in the sump tonight or tomorrow morning early.

Paul_N · Mar 26, 2010

OK he is now in the sump. At least my lps are safe and he got rid of most of my Aiptasia. This fish would be perfect for anyone with an SPS tank.

luke33 · Mar 26, 2010

That stinks man! Seems like sooner or later they are going to attack your corals.

hawkfishman · Mar 26, 2010

XXL peppermint have always worked for me

raynist · Mar 28, 2010

I have Paul's File fish now in an SPS dominated tank. I will update everyone as to what transpires. There is a bunch of aiptasia I need him to eat!

Paul_N · Apr 1, 2010

Ray, any progress with the aiptasia? Just wondered if it was eating any.

jaytizzle · Apr 1, 2010

Mine still hasn't eaten any corals... aiptasia pretty much gone and he now eats pellets and frozen.

raynist · Apr 1, 2010

Paul_PSU said:
Ray, any progress with the aiptasia? Just wondered if it was eating any.

I haven't noticed a difference yet and haven't seen it eat anything else

interesting, my harlequin tusk lept to his death the day after I put this fish in. I wonder if it was a coincidence? Had the tusk for about 9 months.

Paul_N · Apr 1, 2010

raynist said:
I haven't noticed a difference yet and haven't seen it eat anything else

interesting, my harlequin tusk lept to his death the day after I put this fish in. I wonder if it was a coincidence? Had the tusk for about 9 months.

ahh that sux. I never saw it chase or harass any fish in my tank only the one time I saw in self defense with the purple tang. You never know though, maybe he just didn't like the way he looked. Mine generally hung out in the corner of the tank where the aiptasia where disappearing. Up until the day I put him in the sump I never saw him eat any aiptasia....he was real sneaky about it.

Paul_N · Apr 1, 2010

jaytizzle said:
Mine still hasn't eaten any corals... aiptasia pretty much gone and he now eats pellets and frozen.

I wish that one would have behaved like that. I actually liked that fish a lot and wanted to keep it.

raynist · Apr 2, 2010

I saw it eating mysis tonight so at least I know it is eating.

jaytizzle · Apr 2, 2010

I added an Acanthurus japonicus a few days ago. The filefish is a complete chicken now. The japonicus had been in QT for 3 weeks due to ich and not eating but he finally came on strong and was a good candidate to go into the DT. It's funny to watch the filefish now. He tries to stay far away from the tang! He also makes a better effort to camoflauge (as if that is going to help lol). The tang doesn't seem to care about him at all though. He's happy to be out of the QT and roam around a reef instead of a lonely isolation tank!

Soehl · Mar 14, 2013

Old thread but I thought I would give my thoughts.

My File Fish is eating Zoas. He really likes the expensive ones!! Anyone have a spear gun?

He DID get rid of my Aiptaisia though. I think once he ate all the Aip he moved on to Zoa. I am thinking he is the reason my Blasto and Acan aren't surviving too...