No No, Bad Filefish!

[RZ5T]

A friend let me borrow his FileFish to help with the eradication of aptasia. The fish has shown great interest in aptasia, but thats not the only food its craved. I have lost about half of a colony of an acan and another one entirely. At first I thought that there was something in my water column that was disturbing the acans, but everything else looks great. I had my brother take the acans to hold in his tanks until I figured out the problem. It was another reef tank mystery

.

This morning I noticed that my Scolymia looked really unhealthy. My first thought was "Great, Now I'm losing the scoly." in my frustration I took a baseball bat to the tank... I now have aproximately thirty gallons of saltwater on my floor.

Just kidding, but it did cross my mind. Anyways, I walked out of the room and when I returned I noticed that the FileFish was out from under the rocks and was next to one of the biggest aptasia that I currently have in my tank. Since the fish is so shy it scurried under the rocks when it noticed I was in the room. I figured that since it was next to the aptasia it would swim back to it and finish it off, so I waited in the corner of the room to witness it eat. The FileFish slowly made his way out of the rocks and moved towards the aptasia. It slowly turned away from the aptasia and took a chunk of flesh off the Scolymia. I instantly rushed to the tank and yes it had eaten some of the Scoly. I now have a fish net over my scoly until I can get some time to tear my tank apart to catch this guy out.

Just a heads up

 

[stunreefer]

so I waited in the corner of the room to witness it eat.

Yep, fish are like little kids! Good thinking on waiting it out... a great way to do this is by keeping the aquarium lights on, and the ambient room lighting off (at night). Walk away from the tank, and peer at it from around a corner, or well away from the tank, making your fish think you're gone. Sometimes it will surprise you what you find

Good luck getting the little bugger out!

 

[revsgirl]

Bad fishy!!

 

[treylane]

... and I'll say it one more time... aiptaisia-eating-filefish are NOT REEF SAFE. quit buying them. peppermint shrimp aren't exactly 100%, but they're a better bet than these fish.

FYI though - filefish are usually pretty easy to catch when they're asleep.

 

[RZ5T]

Thank you so much for the tip treylane! Right after I read your post I kicked my halide on and it was much like stealing candy like a baby. He'll be going back to my buddies tank tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

[Paul_N]

I had one also. It did an excellent job on the aiptasia though....:bigsmile:

I posted on Luke's thread here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f56/aptasia-eating-filefish-38434.html

 

[nolanzendler]

Yep, fish are like little kids! Good thinking on waiting it out... a great way to do this is by keeping the aquarium lights on, and the ambient room lighting off (at night). Walk away from the tank, and peer at it from around a corner, or well away from the tank, making your fish think you're gone. Sometimes it will surprise you what you find

Good luck getting the little bugger out!

Just noticed some chunks missing off my bleeding apple scoly today. Saw the filefish pooping fluorescent green excrement… Pretty clear who the perp is

 

[JoJosReef]

Just noticed some chunks missing off my bleeding apple scoly today. Saw the filefish pooping fluorescent green excrement… Pretty clear who the perp is

"Who? Me?"

 

[nolanzendler]

Just noticed some chunks missing off my bleeding apple scoly today. Saw the filefish pooping fluorescent green excrement… Pretty clear who the perp is

Banished

 

[Opus]

Just noticed some chunks missing off my bleeding apple scoly today. Saw the filefish pooping fluorescent green excrement… Pretty clear who the perp is

You replied to a thread that was 13 years old!!!! That may be a new record around here.