Matted Filefish not eating Aptasias ???

C

Curtis1

New member
Well, I just got a nice little Filefish in this week. It is in great condition, seems very comfy in the tank. No one messes with it. It just cruises around picking pods from the rock. Loves feeding time with anything frozen, tries it all. So far I have yet to see it eat an Aiptasia ??? Good thing is, I have not seen it pick at any corals what-so-ever. I have even seen it get down in between polyps to pick a pod or something. I intentionally bought a small fish, it is only about 1-1/2" long. So do the smaller ones have to learn to eat the Aiptasia ? I even killed a bunch of them with the Aiptasia X, hoping that maybe he would start picking at the leftovers, but no ??? So when They start actually eating them, do they just casually swim by and sneak a quick bite as they come close to them, or do they just move in and start eating the whole Aiptasia till it is gone ? I don't see how they could eat them all if they are retracting into holes and crevices ??? Otherwise, it is a really neat little fish. Very unique. Fun to watch, changes colors constantly to match the background and surrounding area. Can you have more than one ? How long should I wait for him to come around ?
 
Smaller ones might take some time to start eating the anems. If you feed your tank less and make the filefish work for food, you are more likely to get the fish to eat anem. It's the same thing with peppermint shrimp, when the tank is well fed they are much less likely to eat the aiptasia
 
I had a really bad aiptasia problem. I tried peppermint shrimps and never had any success. I added the filefish and in all the time I have had him I never saw him eat an apitasia. In a few days I started to see a difference, in two weeks I was aiptasia free. I struggled for months with kalk and solutions. The filefish in my case did the trick. You may never see the fish consume the aiptasia. Give him a few days to a week and you may start to see a difference.
 
I never saw my filefish actually eat an aiptasia either. She must've been eating them though, because I had a number of them and they were getting worse, and now they're gone.

She is active at night, wouldn't surprise me if she was eating them then.
 
It would be SO NICE, just to see it tear into one though !!! I have been watching the Aiptasias too, I keep looking at certain ones to see if they are still there. I guess that they eat the large ones too ???
 
DavidinGA ,,, don't say that too loud !!! Mine hasn't tried them yet as I can tell,,,, Do you still have Aiptasia ???
 
I had a couple aiptasia that were over 1" tall and they're gone now, so she must've eaten them.

I forgot to mention the bad news...my zoas haven't looked so good since she went in the tank. I also saw her picking at my rock flower anemones, although she seems to have quit doing that now.
 
I put a file fish in my 240 that had a ton of majano's and some aptasias. Over a 6-7 month period I never saw it eat one once, but eventually it cleaned them all out.
I didn't notice much of a difference for 2-3 months, so give it time.
 
I have a ton of zoos and palys. If the Filefish will keep the Aiptasia at bay, I think that I could live with it. If it's not too bad. Do they also eat Palys/Shrooms ???
 
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