Tell me about your filefish!

[WIReefer]

Every once in a while I look at the tank and see him around/picking at Aiptasia so we will see overtime.

 

[danieyella]

I’ve only had luck with adult file fish who would eat the aiptasia. Anytime I get a juvenile file fish they end up dying too :/

This is exactly my experience, though the juveniles never stayed with me long enough to die - they started picking at corals and went to the LFS. My adult has cleared the tank, it struggled with the larger ones initially but eventually got around to them. I see them in the sump occasionally and hit them with aiptasia rx but have not seen any in the display tank. The filefish eats frozen, flakes, etc and only seems to pick at one of my gorgs - which luckily doesn't seem to mind.

 

[michaelmessinaglass]

I love my filefish! Named him Waldo because he’s always hiding and camoflaging in plain sight. He has tons of personality and just glides around like a seahorse. He ate all the aiptasia in my tank and also picks at algae on the sand, rocks and frags. I saw him nip some polyps on my montipora once but they retracted and he moved on. It was tricky to figure out what food he liked, he would spit out frozen mysis and reef frenzy nano. But he LOVES flake food, and when I broadcast feed he is darting all over the place chasing down flakes. He gets along with my only other fish, a yellow watchman goby, but he’ll get nipped at if he hangs to close the ywg’s cave. Doesn’t faze him one bit, overall, Im super happy I got him. Wanted to solve my aiptasia problem and he did just that while also making my tank more entertaining!

 

[WIReefer]

I love my filefish! Named him Waldo because he’s always hiding and camoflaging in plain sight. He has tons of personality and just glides around like a seahorse. He ate all the aiptasia in my tank and also picks at algae on the sand, rocks and frags. I saw him nip some polyps on my montipora once but they retracted and he moved on. It was tricky to figure out what food he liked, he would spit out frozen mysis and reef frenzy nano. But he LOVES flake food, and when I broadcast feed he is darting all over the place chasing down flakes. He gets along with my only other fish, a yellow watchman goby, but he’ll get nipped at if he hangs to close the ywg’s cave. Doesn’t faze him one bit, overall, Im super happy I got him. Wanted to solve my aiptasia problem and he did just that while also making my tank more entertaining!

Very interesting! Happy to see all this feedback! Mike loves frozen food ha

 

[AlexKintner]

Got my Biota filefish through Algaebarn about a year ago. He was about the size of a dime. I was impressed with how he easily defended himself against a trio of yellow tail damsels. He just pointed his little dorsal spike at them and went about his business.

He grew quickly and went to work on the aiptasia. keeping them in check. Recently I've noticed that he's gotten lazy... clearly preferring Rod's over aiptasia. Also likes Selcon soaked pellets. Might need to cut back on the feeding to encourage him to get back to work.