Biota Radial Filefish eating corals

[Fritz05]

I wanted to let potential buyers know that my Biota captive-bred Radial Filefish does eat soft corals, in particular Xenia. I was surprised by that, as I read they lived symbiotically with certain Xenia and I had two different types in my 65g, both of which the fish ate. It also nips at the toadstool mushroom. I have not seen it nip any of the LPS or SPS. I am not complaining, as the fish is fascinating and the species is known to nip at corals, but interested buyers should know this. I put it in my other tank with fewer corals to be safe, and it likes it there.

 

[Buckster]

I think I'll pass on this fish. I value my corals more and the majority are softies!

 

[Fritz05]

And it went to town on the Green Star Polyps in my other tank. Let's see if they can outgrow its appetite!

 

[damsels are not mean]

It eats them? How much damage? I know they will bite the polyps to hold on. I want some of these some day and as long as they don't eat LPS probably not a problem for me. If they trim the xenia back I wouldn't mind.

 

[Fritz05]

Well, the polyps are no longer where they should be and are not floating around in the tank, so I assume it has eaten them. I had a small Xenia (about 2 inches), and I am not sure it will recover (I moved it to another tank). The filefish is in the tank with the Green Star Polyps for only a day, so I do not know how bad it will get, but there is a noticeable number of polyps missing of my 5 by 3 inch patch. I have not observed it being interested in my LPS or SPS, but would not bet on them being safe. My hunch is it may go after other corals in the absence of its preferred softies, but that is not based on observation.

 

[Fritz05]

It eats them? How much damage? I know they will bite the polyps to hold on. I want some of these some day and as long as they don't eat LPS probably not a problem for me. If they trim the xenia back I wouldn't mind.

Update: The Xenia are gone, reduced to stumps. So if you need Xenia control this may be the solution...

 

[Jmp998]

It depends on the individual fish-mine from biota sometimes tries to sleep in the Xenia but has not nibbled so far. The tank it is in also has gonis, zoas, and star polyps which it also doesn’t eat. I do feed 3-4 times a day though which may a mitigating factor.

 

[IKD]

do you all see active aiptasia control? Would like to see the success rate from folks

 

[Fritz05]

Luckily aiptasia has not been an issue for me (yet). Also, mine is a radial filefish, not an aiptasia-eating filefish. I absolutely agree that it depends on the individual fish, but I wanted to post my experience, as the description on the Biota-website suggests that the species is reef-safe, which mine is not. I think in this hobby very few absolute statements can be made...

 

[IKD]

Luckily aiptasia has not been an issue for me (yet). Also, mine is a radial filefish, not an aiptasia-eating filefish. I absolutely agree that it depends on the individual fish, but I wanted to post my experience, as the description on the Biota-website suggests that the species is reef-safe, which mine is not. I think in this hobby very few absolute statements can be made...

Thanks. I’d like to do a pole but don’t think there will be enough participants to get results.

 

[FeliciaM]

I wanted to let potential buyers know that my Biota captive-bred Radial Filefish does eat soft corals, in particular Xenia. I was surprised by that, as I read they lived symbiotically with certain Xenia and I had two different types in my 65g, both of which the fish ate. It also nips at the toadstool mushroom. I have not seen it nip any of the LPS or SPS. I am not complaining, as the fish is fascinating and the species is known to nip at corals, but interested buyers should know this. I put it in my other tank with fewer corals to be safe, and it likes it there.

This is an interesting topic! I recently wrote an article about Xenia for CORAL magazine and wrote a bit about the Radial Filefish, but I couldn't find a lot of information about them. Early reports of their eating Xenia hosts are now thought to be the interesting behavior they exhibit of biting down on the coral to rest so they aren't carried away by the current, being poor swimmers. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if these fish prune dead material from their host or harmlessly munch on the coral mucus, since that behavior is fairly common among coral hosts and their symbionts (some corals produce mucus specifically for their symbionts).

Any time I find someone who has radial filefish with Xenia, I ask them about their observations. I have not heard other reports of these filefish destroying their host, even when people are keeping them with medium sized frags.

My guess in your situation is that one of two things happened -

1. the Xenia was dying (this can happen rather quickly with Xenia), and was "pruned" by the fish in an instinctual effort to save the remainder of its (nonexistent) colony.

2. maybe these fish DO consume a small amount of coral flesh, or at least the coral mucus, and its activities stressed the frag because there it was so tiny.

If anyone else seeing this thread has more to add, please let us know!

 

[areefer01]

Just some notes from owning both matted and radial filefish from Biota.

Matted filefish - Acreichthys tomentosus - does indeed eat all forms of Aiptasia. I've now owned 2 from Biota and 1 from my LFS so of unknown origin. All three are tomentosus and all cleared my display of Aiptasia. All three have similar traits as noted above by their selection of sleeping quarters. Basically they find a soft coral, gently bite, lock on, and tuck in for the night. This protects them from currents thereby using less energy. It is rather interesting to watch but also makes them extremely easy to rehome should you want to. Mine prefer my Corky Sea fingers - Briareum asbestinum over the rest of my corals.

First Matted I owned, sourced from LFS, was good in my mixed reef. One day I introduced a small, very small, frogspawn LPS frag. Within 2 minutes the matted filefish went up to it and took a very large bite. Ripped the flesh right off. I shooed it away and it went back and tore another piece off. Mind you I have a very large hammer pushing 10 years old and it left it alone. Even would sleep inside of it from time to time. Frogspawn though - went after it. I needed the frag to recover so I rehomed the filefish.

Second matted sourced from Biota. Arrived about the size of a US $0.10 dime. Had to move to my refugium for 2 months to grow. Inside there I have Xenia, fuzzy lobo, and purple cespitularia. Seems to leave them all alone. Sleeps more in the fuzzy lobo. Moved to display after frogspawn grew and it is fine. Sleeps in corky seafinger. Leaves everything alone but not uncommon to nip at things but nothing destructive. Left my maxima clam alone. Gave away to a fellow reefer who had a bad aiptasia issue.

Current matted sourced from Biota. Similar as above although it went right into display. Still in the tank today and again sleeps in the corky sea finger. Nothing exciting but will keep as I have aiptasia in sump and refugium so need it to stay in display in case anything shows up. I move it from time to time to the refugium to clear it out then back to display. Very peaceful fish.

Radial. Purchased from biota - the combo package (forktail and starry goby). Started in refugium due to size but moved to my display. Leaves everything alone. Sleeps in my GSP on the back wall. Doesn't appear to eat any of my soft corals but does nip and tuck. Does not eat aiptasia nor was it bought for control of it. That is the matted's job and known source of food. Radial is reef safe with caution in most cases. As with the matted they sleep in similar ways by latching onto soft or leather corals so very easy to catch at night and rehome.

My Xenia and cespitularia are cleared by my Zosters and Pyramid butterflies. Also my gold lined rabbit fish (mostly the purple cespitularia). The filefish, both, didn't do anything to the soft corals. Below is an example of how they sleep. Not sure if this helps at all but just know going in that they do nip, and sleep, in the soft corals. One of mine did go after the frogspawn. Once it grew out I added one back and it is fine.

Hope this helps - all the best.

 

[bnord]

Interesting and timely topic for me. I just pulled two big batches of Duncan out of my display That had retracted and I finally caught the lil booger in the act. Digging seriously at the retracted polyps.
The filefish had been a perfect gentleman
in a 180 display for the longest time, and all small nagging little bits of Aptasia that were there, and now are gone.
I now have the fish trap in and he will be going to a tank that is overgrown with Xenia. Let’s see if he does a job there.

And as others have said, I think it’s the individual and what else is going on in the tank. I had one for over a year that never touched a Duncan and would only pick at a certain clade of Zola and leaving the vast majority the rest alone. My experience is they are great at what their name implies but that when they get through with all of that they get a wandering eye. Not too surprising.

 

[IKD]

Are they generally easy to catch if needed?

 

[areefer01]

Are they generally easy to catch if needed?

Every aquarium will be different but if you look at my post above, #12, you see it napping in my GSP (green star polyp). 9 out of 10 times I can catch mine within 24 hours as it sleeps clutching to my Corky Sea Finger coral. Lights out. Low light, spot fish, gently net out.

Honestly they sleep biting/holding onto a coral, soft, and tuck their body in it so the current doesn't thrash them. Pretty consistent location. So very easy to catch with no stress to hobbyist or fish.

 

[IKD]

Every aquarium will be different but if you look at my post above, #12, you see it napping in my GSP (green star polyp). 9 out of 10 times I can catch mine within 24 hours as it sleeps clutching to my Corky Sea Finger coral. Lights out. Low light, spot fish, gently net out.

Honestly they sleep biting/holding onto a coral, soft, and tuck their body in it so the current doesn't thrash them. Pretty consistent location. So very easy to catch with no stress to hobbyist or fish.

Thanks! Just hit the purchase button!

 

[bnord]

Are they generally easy to catch if needed?

I actually caught this guy once b

Are they generally easy to catch if needed?

i caught this guy once already with a trap…

he picked up a blib of CAS glue after i placed a frag

waited few days and had to catch and excise

and he is fine

 

[areefer01]

Luckily aiptasia has not been an issue for me (yet). Also, mine is a radial filefish, not an aiptasia-eating filefish. I absolutely agree that it depends on the individual fish, but I wanted to post my experience, as the description on the Biota-website suggests that the species is reef-safe, which mine is not. I think in this hobby very few absolute statements can be made...

Sort of correct. They actually list it as "reef safe - with caution". I have both matted and radial and both more or less leave my soft corals, clams, alone. I've had one nip at a small frogspawn frag a while back so I removed that filefish. Once it matured colony wise I introduced another matted and it is fine. My radial sleeps in my GSP patch on the back wall. My matted sleeps latched on to a corky sea finger.

Of course each fish is different so your mileage may vary.

 

[131696]

Everything in this world is wide ,the fish is only trained to eat certain foods before the instinct takes over and they go back to be wild again.. Even a house cat goes back to acting wild again and chasing mice after 48 hrs if being outside and never had to do it ever .it's an animal they will act like animals just like humans we are humans also killing humans it the nature of the universe. Blame God don't blame the fish..lol

 

[old_lady_4am]

I wanted to let potential buyers know that my Biota captive-bred Radial Filefish does eat soft corals, in particular Xenia. I was surprised by that, as I read they lived symbiotically with certain Xenia and I had two different types in my 65g, both of which the fish ate. It also nips at the toadstool mushroom. I have not seen it nip any of the LPS or SPS. I am not complaining, as the fish is fascinating and the species is known to nip at corals, but interested buyers should know this. I put it in my other tank with fewer corals to be safe, and it likes it there.

I have a non biota radial file. He ate my small zoas colony (15), nipped my gsp almost to death (they recovered) and I’m watching him nip away at a new clove polyps colony I just added 20 minutes ago as I type this… but I like him so i’ll just deal with it.