"Matted" or "Aptasia-eating" Filefish Experiences?

[OUsnakebyte]

I hate aptasia.

 

Yes, I nuke them with Kalk paste and Aptasia X whenever I see them, but there are always some that I can't reach.

 

My stupid wrasses eat nudibranchs.

 

Peppermint shrimp get so well fed that they refuse to hunt anymore. Plus, the wrasses do a number on them too.

 

My concern is not corals - don't have too many of those left these days - but my anemones (Magnifica, haddoni carpet and two rock/flower anemones) and two clams. Has anyone tried these fish for aptasia control?

 

My magnifica is my favorite piece - really don't want anything to harm it (there are no resident clowns to defend it). The blue haddoni carpet can take care of itself - more afraid the filefish will get eaten if anything. And yes, I'm also attached to my two tridacnas.

 

Thoughts?

 

Cheers

Mike

[Der ABT]

hmm if not for the clams i would go with a butterfly....

if you have zoa's be VERY careful with the file fish..

 

havent had my Copper banded butterfly in the main with my clam yet and am technically afraid to...but after the nudi's took care of 99% of the aiptasia...the few little guys left were taken care of by the butterfly.

 

ive seen the file fish desimate aiptasia but also zoa;s and some other stuff..

 

i would think they would be easier to catch than some other fish though.

[epleeds]

I had a huge green rock anemone and my file fish ate it. Then it went to my red table and started eating that. If u like the anenome's I would pass on one. Or at least watch it very closely.

 

Or try to get a nice copperband butterfly.

[Hilary]

I had a tank absolutely full of aptasia. Also have a couple of clams, two rose bubble anemones, two Borneman anemones and a couple of zoa frags. I absolutely love my filefish. It took out all of the aptasia within the first month or so (which I frankly thought was an impossibility), hasn't touched anything else, eats frozen like a pig, and is an interesting fish to watch. Now if it would only start eating the mojanos..... I'm about to introduce a smaller anemone (a "not really a beadlet") and am not sure if it will leave it alone, but so far my experience has been great with this little fish.

[tightline]

got 2 file but neather will touch the aptASIA grrrrrrrrr

[OUsnakebyte]

Hmmm... sounds about like other fish (angles being "reef safe" for example) - no guarantees....

 

Okay, thanks all for the input. I'll think about it, but for now... I'll just keep manually slaughtering them.

 

Cheers

Mike

[Grav]

Mike,

 

We love the green / bristletail filefish. We have never actually seen one eat a mojano, but we have seen tanks that were full of them erradicated. I've actaully considered the possibility that they are not eating them, but killing them some other way.

 

Those that have them and are not seeing results, give it time. Also try lightly dusting a large area of aptasia with Joe's juice or similar... not enough to kill, just soften em up a bit. This has been seen to increase the interest the filefish and may lead to them eating the pest.

 

Phil

[dbartco]

I noticed the inability to keep zoanthids in my frag tank after I added.

[ctenophore]

Mine ate just about every invertebrate they saw including aiptasia. Unfortunately, that included 4 large RBTAs and a sebae (H crispa I think). All but 2 RBTAs recovered but it has taken awhile. No more filefish for me. If I put another aiptasia control fish in that tank, it would probably be a baby H. acuminatus or diphreutes. They eat zoas, aiptasias, and majanos IME, but leave sps, clams, most LPS, and large anemones alone. My large one (5") that lives in one of my coral tubs leaves all zoas alone, but ate them as a baby.