Pygmy white spot filefish eating vermatid snails

[Turkey head]

I thought this may be of interest to some. I bought an ORA bred Pygmy white spot filefish last week. So far it hasn’t bothered anything such as corals but I have seen something interesting. I observed it eating vermatid snails. Not sure if it gets enough of a bite to kill them or not but it definitely has been finding them and taking a bite off them.
It usually swims around the rock work taking bites of whatever it’s finding. It hasn’t bothered any corals that I have seen though. Time will tell for that.

 

[Big G]

Cool fish. I like them a lot. Just keep an eye on your corals. Have a plan B for re-homing if necessary.

 

[Uptowngirl]

Bringing up this older thread because I’m interested to see if you have seen him nip at corals or inverts yet

 

[sixline]

Eating vermetid snails?

::swoon::

 

[Turkey head]

I’ve never seen it nip at corals at all. I have both sps and lps. I haven’t seen it eat vermatids since that day but I do have less of them for sure. Of course the tubes are still there but not nearly as many putting out their webs at feeding time. It picks around the live rock all day but never coral. It eats frozen mysis, brine shrimp, and flakes. I’m happy with the filefish

 

[hotdogmj71]

I have one that will occasionally nip a Kenya Tree.

 

[Hincapiej4]

I have one that used to hunt pods all day. It stopped doing it after I switched tank (I had so many pods, you could see them in the water column during the day), and now it only eats prepared food.

 

[CoralNerd]

I have a Pygmy Filefish in a sps dominated tank and he doesn't nip or eat any corals. Likes algae pretty cool fish. I've never seen mine eat vermatid I bought a bunch of bumblebee snails for that problem

 

[Smarkow]

Filing this away for later

Thanks for sharing

 

[Oldcoder]

My Mexican hermits eat vermetids as well.

 

[Turkey head]

I don’t have any soft coral so I can’t comment on those

 

[If_Only]

Bumping this as I'm curious how they are doing? (The fish and corals) I'm very interested in ordering a pair off divers den. I LOVE file fish but have never really kept them do to them not being reefsafe.
Any general advice/tips or i guess warnings on these guys? Id love to try one out.

 

[Turkey head]

Mine is still a perfect tank mate. Never nips at coral etc. I haven’t seen it eat vermatids in a long time though. It may still be eating them when I’m not around. It eats the fish food well. I do see it picking around the rocks all the time though. It’s gotten a darker color and the spots are hardly there. Great fish.

 

[If_Only]

Mine is still a perfect tank mate. Never nips at coral etc. I haven’t seen it eat vermatids in a long time though. It may still be eating them when I’m not around. It eats the fish food well. I do see it picking around the rocks all the time though. It’s gotten a darker color and the spots are hardly there. Great fish.

Ahhh, thanks a ton. Lets just say I'm very tempted to order a pair of DD! Ive heard they like lower temps? What temp do you keep your homie at?