Aiptasia-eating Filefish Experience

[Cjtabares]

I have had an ongoing fight with aiptasia, and am thinking of getting an aiptasia-eating filefish. I introduced 2 peppermint shrimp about 2 months ago, saw them pick at a few aiptasia, but have not seen them since, and I have not seen a reduction in aiptasia. I have also added nudibranchs multiple times and they also don’t seem to be helping. I do have a Carpenter’s flasher wrasse, and read they might eat both of these, so maybe they have become a meal for the wrasse.

So now I am thinking of getting a filefish, and am wondering what peoples experience has been with them. I have a micromussa, zoas, a hammer and frogspawn, and a few frag/colonies of sps. How likely are they to pick at or kill any of these in your experience?

An other option I am considering is trying to raise nudibranchs, and adding a bunch every so often, but that will probably take a little time to get setup and going.

 

[Bao]

I have one—big, fat, and clearly thriving. I’ve never actually seen it eat Aiptasia, but over the past couple of months the overall number in my tank has definitely gone down. That said, I don’t think it’s capable of fully keeping them under control. On the bright side, I haven’t seen it nip at any corals either.

 

[Duds]

I had one it picked at some aiptasia then turned to zoas didn’t even finish the job first.

The wrasse ate your nudibranchs 100%, peppermint shrimp are very good hiders they might surprise you one day/night and pop out.

For me I would catch the wrasse put him in another tank/rehome and get some more nudibranchs. Nudibranchs take months to work. It’s also claimed that peppermint shrimp eat them, but that was not the case in my tank.

Good luck!

 

[MarkSzy]

The file I had ate all the aiptasia but then moved on to my Zoas and then acans.

+1 on Duds comment about the wrasse eating your nudibranch

 

[nickeg79]

Mine eats zoas when I don’t feed frozen daily. It completely removed all aptasia. I’ve owned several. They all removed all of the sptasia.

I’ve had other filefish not eat zoas. I used to only feed frozen as a food source. I now do flakes and feed frozen 2-3 times a week.

Filefish are voracious eaters. They love seaweed sheets on a clip. The one I had before the one I own currently I had to rehome to a member here. I had a sandbed in my last tank and it blew sandstorms in my tank hunting for pods. I’ve never had one do that before.

I’ve had 2 other ones that jumped out of my tank. I used to have a deep blue 80 galllon so it was shallow. Both times it was overnight.

Filefish for me have been great at getting rid of aptasia. They have also had some setbacks for me. If your main priority is to get rid of aptasia you should get one. I’ve had nudi’s and they do work but they die once most of the aptasia is gone and I had aptasia sprout back up after they died. The filefish will constantly pick around for it in my experience

My daughter has named my current one Brownie. She will feed the fish and pet him so I have to keep him. They actually are very interesting creatures. Brownie killed about 300 dollars of designer zoanthids before I figured out he was eating them. I got a test frag of fur and ice zoas from sea creatures and I put it in the tank and left my house for 3-4 hours. He cleaned 10-15 polyps off before I came home. He also barely eats flakes. He knows if he holds out other stuff will be available.

Just sharing my experience because I’ve never had problems with them until these last 2 I’ve owned. I think you have to basically overfeed them frozen before they decide to eat your zoas. They are not aggressive but they won’t backed down from tangs or angels either. They are honey badgers. Honey badgers don’t give a f***

 

[mlivvy]

I've had them twice in the past. Both destroyed all aiptasia but then turned to zoas. Had one eat an entire gmk colony in 1 night. To me, it's a trade off. I'll be willing to get some zoas eaten over no aiptasia.

 

[Reefer508]

At different times I've tried Filefish, Peppermint shrimp and nudi's with no real positive results. The Filefish seemed to be interested in them but never did any damage to them. Then the Filefish started picking at zoa and LPS. I'm guessing the nudi's got eaten by something in tank, probably the same with the shrimp, I haven't seen them. That's when I read about Australian Stripey, OMG did it do the job and FAST. I still see a few Aiptasia that the Stripey can't really reach, but I'd say over 90% reduction. That tank had been getting overrun with them but now only a few here and there, very manageable. I don't see the Stripey picking at any coral and seems to get along fine with other tank mates, Foxface, Sailfin Tang, Gobbie, Dragonets, and Blennie. The only problem is they are not readily available. Mine has been in my tank since April 2025 with only positive results.

 

[Cjtabares]

Thanks everyone. Guess I will have to decide between possibly the zoas or the wrasse. Also, reading they don’t like high flow, not sure my tank is high flow, but it is set up as a sps dominant mixed reef, so there is flow.

Think my tank is too small for an Australia Stripey.

 

[Cjtabares]

No really high end zoas, I also forgot about these? Would they eat mushrooms?

The zoas all seem to be getting pissed off by the aiptasia anyways.

 

[MarkSzy]

If you don’t have a lot of Zoas and don’t mind loosing them to get ride of the nems it might be worth it. By the look of those pictures a filefish has a lot of eating to do before it will go after the Zoas anyway. I have my file in my sump if you want it, just PM me.

 

[Cjtabares]

If you don’t have a lot of Zoas and don’t mind loosing them to get ride of the nems it might be worth it. By the look of those pictures a filefish has a lot of eating to do before it will go after the Zoas anyway. I have my file in my sump if you want it, just PM me.

Ok, sounds good. Yeah, it is really bad, I have been trying to fight what I can with F aiptasia, and with everything I listed above. It just keeps getting worse.

 

[Chrisnnemo]

I had a filefish that crushed the aptasia, he didn’t touch my Zoas or hammers, peppermint shrimp always did a number to the aptasia too. I should add that I’d only feed my tank 2-3 days per week

 

[Cjtabares]

I was not too concerned for any of my corals, and really of the aiptasia so took @MarkSzy on his offer, thank again. It seems to be going after the aiptasia, but this fish really do seem to be weak swimmers, it can not handle all my powerheads, even when turned down to 10%.

Also spotted these a few days after adding the filefish.

 

[MarkSzy]

I was not too concerned for any of my corals, and really of the aiptasia so took @MarkSzy on his offer, thank again. It seems to be going after the aiptasia, but this fish really do seem to be weak swimmers, it can not handle all my powerheads, even when turned down to 10%.

Also spotted these a few days after adding the filefish.View attachment 229337

There alive!!! Haha

 

[Duds]

I was not too concerned for any of my corals, and really of the aiptasia so took @MarkSzy on his offer, thank again. It seems to be going after the aiptasia, but this fish really do seem to be weak swimmers, it can not handle all my powerheads, even when turned down to 10%.

Also spotted these a few days after adding the filefish.View attachment 229337

Careful filefish are known to eat them. Me personally I’d remove the filefish and let the nudibranchs goto work.