Seriously!? You had one job to do!! Ever bought a fish or invert for one purpose and had them utterly fail you?

[Futuretotm]

I have a Foxface who is allergic to algae
Getting quite girthy now, despite aforementioned allergy.

 

[BadgerReefer]

It seems like a difficult balance to strike with many of these animals. If you are good about keeping everyone fed well, then they will take the easiest route and just eat what you feed (it's what any of us would do). However, if you restrict feeding, to force them to go after the pest, you run the risk that in being forced to look elsewhere, they might acquire a taste for something you don't want eaten.

I wish all of them were like berghia nudis - have one purpose in life - eat aiptasia. I was blown away by how effective they are.

 

[Bossman]

I added a Klein's (orange?) butterfly to battle aiptasia. It knocked out the aiptasia fairly quick. But all of my coral started to recede. I really liked the butterfly but it had to go. I didn't actually see it eat coral, but it was constantly picking over it.

 

[Casket_Case]

Cleaner shrimp; leftover food. He was a glutton.
Mithridax Crab: hair algae, squished Zoanthid.

 

[PacsAdmin77]

Two buggers:
1) Emerald crabs - Yes, they took care of my nuisance algae BUT then they developed a taste for my zoas so into the sump they went.
2) Acro crabs - Lazy AF. Refused to tend to the acros. Instead spent most of their time on the sand bed

 

[mcshams]

I've had a mixed bag. Sometimes I don't think my peppermint shrimp works like he should... but if I'm patient the rare few aptasia I have noticed finally get taken down.
I have a lawnmower blenny that eats until he looks like a pig.. but doesn't really eat the stuff I would prefer him to.
That being said, I'd give these guys a B+

Cleaner shrimp.. he's awesome. Looks good, interested in stuff. Constantly trying to clean fish. A

My hermits.. ok at things on ground, but knock stuff around sometimes and pick on snails. C-

Foxface rabbit fish x 2.. paranoid and don't eat anything unless we give it to them. D-

Have spirobids (not a huge issue) but bought an ornate leapord wrasse. He eats them, but not a lot. That being said, super cool fish, laid back and fun. Earns a B.

Kole Tang.. wears helmet and licks bus windows. Picks on hermit crabs and our lawnmower blenny. F

About to add a copperband. I don't have expectations for him/her as we don't need it do do anything really...

 

[ACReefer]

My cleaner shrimp bothers my acans all the time and my snails are big and act like bulldozers and knock over corals.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Lets see. I have had a copperband be wonderful at keeping aiptasia at bay only to end up eating my lps. He went to a better home for him. Miss that guy though.
The worst was my red footed conch that ended up eating two of my clams (squammy 12" and derasa 8") before I realized it was him. He is now on display with the clam shells.

 

[walloutlet]

Yellow Tang doesn't like algae, pigs out and bullies my other fish on the meaty foods that I dump in the tank.

 

[jgirardnrg]

Starry Blenny doesn't know he's a herbivore. He's FAT and goes nuts when I feed the other fish their brine shrimp... his nickname is Mr Munch. The rock he lives in and hangs out on has more algae than anywhere else. Like now, he laying in a nice soft pile of GHA watching me type this.

The Tailspot Blenny's rock has almost no algae on it.

 

[waterskiguy]

Most of the time they did it a lot slower than I wanted, but they always ended up doing what they were supposed to do.

 

[don_chuwish]

Sea Hare - grazed constantly but never seemed to go after what I wanted gone.
Wheeler's Goby and Candy Stripe Pistol shrimp - took over a year to find each other, fall in love, and move in together.

 

[SDJustin]

1) Diamond Watchman Goby - Turned the sand bed over, but also liberally spread it on corals. I upgraded into a larger aquarium and went 'no sand' and he's doing great.
2) Aptaisia eating filefish that doesn't eat aptaisia (yet at least, but he has tons of personality)
3) Tangs (Yellow, Purple, Blue) are algae munchers, they earn their keep big time
4) Astrea Turbo Snails. I bought 5 of them ~2 years ago and probably have 35-50 in my tank now. They are great grazers and self replicate.
5) Lawnmower blenny is GREAT! He chomps on anything that looks hairy/leafy on the rocks. What he doesn't actually eat get's 'trimmed down' and caught up by the filter.
6) 2x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp. Great personality, and once or twice when my blue tang got stressed out (during a tank upgrade) and had some slime coat / skin issues, the cleaners cleaned him up right away and he healed up quickly.
7) Scarlet Hermits - 4 out of the 5 I purchased two years ago and are still growing/molting & picking at Algae.
8) Dwarf Blue Leg Hermits - only 1 alive out of 10 after 2 years, although they were originally TINY. Maybe the scarlet's took them out?

 

[hans4811]

Didn’t really get them for any specific job, but kept a RBTA in my tank because I knew I was going to get a clown pair. Well, got the clownfish pair and the stupid things sit in a corner and rarely even move ! Not to mention the dang RBTA became the spawning devil ! Tank was soon overrun with Anemones !

 

[ReefNate34]

My peppermint shrimp ended up eating stylo and poci polyps among other SPS and LPS!!! Peppermint Shrimp are THE WORST.

 

[Roger D]

I've had two shipments of berghi nudibranc and the ones in the sump cleaned it out but took 6 months. 3 file fish none are aptasia. Two dozen peppermint shrimp that kept jumping when they got close to the aptasia and so all ended up aptasia food. Guess it's time to break down the 180.

 

[Blknovass]

Had a file fish for Aiptasia control did a great job first night. Next night it ate about $500 worth of zoas. Never again!

 

[ReefingFamily]

Yep Peppermint shrimp that just like to crawl over my aptashia.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Foxface for Valonia - nope! Peppermint Shrimp for Aiptasia - nada! Six-line wrasse for flatworms - Big fat goose egg! Even though they did do what I wanted, they're still pretty cool additions.

 

[scardall]

Freeloading and some negative side effects ( ate palys and coral) A rabbit fish.

He ate these.