dodgerblew
Team RC
Thanks for the input
How is/was your matted filefish with coral in your reef
- Thread starter dodgerblew
- Start date
mbauma
New member
Yep, cool fish, but I love my shrimp and will never put in a fish that will take them out. They are such a cool, active part of my tank and everyone who comes over really likes my cleaners.
jason2459
Well-known member
I love my matted file fish. He's one of the most active fish I have which surprised me. He had no interest at all in aptasia or any corals. He hasn't bothered my shrimp either. Could be because I do feed a lot and he eats everything I put in the tank even the Nori I put on a clip.
Added mine about two months ago, along with a copperband butterfly. I had a bad aptasia problem. Regardless of aptasia i was committed to keeping both of these fish. On the plus side, aptasia are gone, both are awesome fish, and eat any frozen food I put it, Reef Frenzy, PE Mysis, various frozen cubes. They only recently cleared out the aptasia. The file fish took out my acans about a month in, but that was due to the fact that I went away for an extended weekend and only fed pellets which it didn't eat at the time. Not sure who is responsible for taking care of the aptasia the copperband or the file fish. I believe what prompted them to eat the aptasia was being away again. was away for a week but this time I had a friend feed frozen 3 times in the 9 days iwas away. I cam home to a tank with half the amount of aptasia. They are currently slowly disappearing. Still not sure who is responsible for clearing out the aptasia. So far my duncans, mushrooms, SPS, are OK. The acan are slowly coming back, but also a couple of zoa's have disappeared. The zoas that disappeared had aptasia growing in or right around them.
dodgerblew
Team RC
Thanks everyone for the feedback
SoloChromis
New member
Looks like I'll be trying one in my 120g 
Along with a pair of tank-bred white spotted pygmies, as well as a pair of radials. Anyone know if filefish are known to be aggressive with each other?
Along with a pair of tank-bred white spotted pygmies, as well as a pair of radials. Anyone know if filefish are known to be aggressive with each other?
dodgerblew
Team RC
Looks like I'll be trying one in my 120g
Are you getting the ORA captive bred white spotted pygmies?
dodgerblew
Team RC
Picked up filefish Monday. Day 1, went to town on aiptasia. Day 2, is going to town on my acans :headwalls:
Fish trap set up and hopefully will be trapped soon before to much damage.
Well, I've had my filefish in a 29 gallon bio-cube. I've recently merged two 29 bio-cubes into a 40 breeder. I have no visible signs of Aiptasia since it has been in any of the tanks. So if I was to guess when they eat them they are gone, finished, kaput. It isn't like you are releasing spores or anything.
Mine also eats pellets, blood worms, and Mysis shrimp. So he isn't really going anywhere although he could look a bit fatter. All in all though my tank is mostly softies with some zoa's mixed in. I do have a peppermint shrimp but he never bothers it.
Mine also eats pellets, blood worms, and Mysis shrimp. So he isn't really going anywhere although he could look a bit fatter. All in all though my tank is mostly softies with some zoa's mixed in. I do have a peppermint shrimp but he never bothers it.
ajherrera2
New member
Just a question in regards to the filefish. I currently have in qt and is quite interesting to say the least. My question is should I be concerned about him possibly getting sucked into my mp60s. Just an odd swimming style and not sure if pumps are too strong for them??
dodgerblew
Team RC
In November I bought one off the ORA whitespotted Pygmy files in hopes it'd grow up and maybe like nems too but if nit just a cool fish. It was small since it was from the first release batch from ORA. It took 3 days and found it sucked into my mp10.
dodgerblew
Team RC
My matted file has been trapped, bagged and in sump and will be in new home tomorrow. Hopefully he didn't mess up any acans long term. It was a failed experiment but I don't see any nems
Mine doesn't. I don't have that type of power head but I have a pair of 850 hydors. Take a look at their tail next time. It can fan out pretty tall and wide giving it a lot of force to move when it wants. At least mine does. It surprised me the first time I saw it.
The other cool thing is that the fish as a whole changes colors to match the coral it is near. Even a piece of nori it was hiding under that got off the clip and was floating on the surface. Very interesting fish.
SecretiveFish
Member
Sorry to hear that it did not go well. I hope your corals recover quickly.
To answer your question, while the filefish was in the tank there were no visible aiptasia. However after removing him, the aiptasia is coming back strong and we are having to manually manage at least every other week. This is not surprising considering there are aiptasia in the overflow box where the filefish could not get and there must be some in the sump...
ETA: I would love to have a FOWLR someday with a matted filefish and an orange tail file fish. I had an orange tail filefish for awhile, but he was a coral/invert assassin. He was too cool though....
a healthy file shouldn't have any issues getting sucked up. I run a Gyre 150, MP40 and a Tunze 6155 in mine and he's never had any problems.
ajherrera2
New member
Thanks for the responses guys I do appreciate it!
dodgerblew
Team RC
Mine was attempting to and its gone! We all gave our priorities and mine are my acans. To difficult and expensive to replace
Jay Fortay
Uber Member
Been wanting one of these for a while. Found one yesterday at the LFS. He was being kept in their frag system for some time with good luck. I have him in quarantine now. I was thinking of testing him with some frags in quarantine, but I think it may teach him to eat coral of its the only thing for him to do in quarantine. Any thoughts?
