- Location
- Rockville Centre, NY
I have heard filefish are great with apistatia especially the matte filefish... has anyone had luck keeping these in a reef without them moving on to corals when they are done with apistatia?
filefish for apistatia control
- Thread starter knutez24
- Start date
- Location
- Rockville Centre, NY
Meaning.g stock the tank with shrimp so they eat those instead??? Hoping to hear from someone that has made it work with them by getting a filefish on to a captive diet. Just scared that with some acros a recommended as a diet while acclimating
Actually, many ppl have reported that Pep. shrimp will eat some corals, (xenia, and 'octo' corals, I think) when the aptasia is gone.
I have a pair of bristletail filefish from Dom (DOTR) and they have cleared all my tanks of aptasia/majanos, in DAYS...have not bothered any corals, that I've noticed, although a previous one was 'suspected' of eating some zoas...and are presently on loan to a couple of friends to clear their tanks
They have been in my 450g tank for months, without any aptasia to eat, but immediately cleared my friends 180g, as soon as it was placed in it.
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- Location
- Rockville Centre, NY
That's great to hear. Been very tempted to get one. Just think it would be an interesting fish to add plus starting to see a bit of an apistatia mojano bloom
I personally haven't had luck with the peppermints. Tried them in a qt tank before putting in Tue display. I think the def picked some coals... and didn't touch apistatia. I have read only peppermints from a certain area eat them.
Caribbean Peps are the ones that work...but I don't think that they eat majanos. IMO these filefish are the best for aptasia/majano control.
tryed pepperment shrimp didnt work that good ... (alex and kiwi) Aquatic life direct sold me a mated file fish and you can ask them personally i was infested with them and it took a little while but iun about 2 months all is gone
- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
how big is your tank.if you have aggressive eaters in your tank once you see the aiptasia is gone your filefish will starve.your other fish ill not give him a chance.and once you give him to someone else you will see aiptasia coming back.trust me i bought one when i had my 50 and it did a great job but could not keep up with the other fish for food and died and they all started coming back.
- Location
- Rockville Centre, NY
I have a 40 breeder. From what I've read that works for the matte filefish. I have a pair of clowns, candy hog, fairy wrasse, and a tiny yellow tang. None are aggressive towards each other. The filefish would be larger than the rest also. I don't think it would have trouble getting food.
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
the bristletail or matted filefish is an excellent choice for eliminating aiptasia as noted above. IME they are reef safe with caution and will sometimes turn to other things like zoas oncw there are no longer any aiptasia present. They also eat all prepared foods pretty readily so I don't know why they would starve without aiptasia. On another positive note, they are pretty easy to catch if you feel the need to pull them.
I have almost 70 fish in my 450g DT...the 2 filefish are doing fine...
I have another filefish for almost 1 year, in a 120g tank full of damsels, and wrasses...also doing fine.
.
- Location
- Long Island
we have 2 matted filefish. one in our 180g and the other in our seahorse tank. they both clear out aptasia and majanos. they also eat frozen, especially mysis shrimp. so IMO well worth it. just keep an eye on them.
- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
a 180 is great for a filefish.i was talkng small tanks 75 and under the filefish will have a hard time competing for food especially if there are many aggressive eaters.if you have a 50 with 3 fish it may live a good life.
i did mean that yes, my buddy, also on MR, used them and they worked great. havent bothered his corals at all and he has a 28 aio system.
- Location
- Huntington
I've kept them in store coral tanks in the past and never had any issues with nuisance anemones in those tanks. I've never seen them go after zoas but that doesn't mean they some won't. The individuals I kept were all fairly aggressive feeders and were able to compete with tangs and anthias in a 220 with no issues. Fish do have personalities just like people and it's entirely possible that you could get one that is shy or doesn't acclimate well to captivity, but that goes for any fish. Overall, these files are pretty easy and hardy and do a great job of clearing large infestations of aiptasia.
- Location
- Rockville Centre, NY
Thanks for all the responses! I was leaning towards getting one and after hearing all the positive responses i picked one up today. Hopefully it works out
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
They seem to operate in stealth mode---you never see them actively picking but one day you begin to notice the aiptasia are disappearing.
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