Hello, I have a 225 display and have an endless aptasia problem. reading About the captive bred biota aptasia eating filefish. Does anyone have experience with these in a mixed lps sps tank? Any risk of Coral nipping, especially my acros? Also I see that they are recommended one for 30 gals. How many would you recommend? I have tried everything including 20 Berghia and still have a problem. Thanks!
Biota aptasia eating filefish - coral compatibility
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Aiptasia eating filefish can be from heaven but also from hell. IME - its a individually and age problem. Some can´t resist zooas and some LPS - some does not bother. Some show no interest in anything else than aiptasia - some change behavior with age. Short - you can never know but I have never seen (or read) about some bother acros.
Test - it is the easiest fish ever to take out from a tank. At night they prefer corners high up in the tank or in macros (or soft gorgonias) as sleeping place. A flash light - find its sleeping place - and a net - done
Sincerely Lasse
Test - it is the easiest fish ever to take out from a tank. At night they prefer corners high up in the tank or in macros (or soft gorgonias) as sleeping place. A flash light - find its sleeping place - and a net - done
Sincerely Lasse
I would agree that it's an easy-enough experiment; they very often get their 'spikes' caught in a net-- after about 10 minutes I had to cut away at a net once to untangle one-- but they are so slow that you can usually scoop them up with a large plastic kitchen strainer to remove them from your tank.
Mine leaps out of the tank as soon as a net is sighted.
He also eats cleanup crew and won't touch aiptasia.
He is an absolute joy to watch roam around the tank trying to blow over snails and blowing in to the sand to see what tasty snacks he may uncover.
I would not recommend getting one for aiptasia as they are very hit or miss and can be a little destructive (again - he loves shrimp and if a snail isn't attached strong it's probably going to get eaten).
I'm pretty sure the goof ate the berghia I bought as well but I can't tell for sure. He was way too interested in them when I added them to the tank and, even though I added 20 of them to a 120 gallon tank, I never saw a dent in my aiptasia population.
He also eats cleanup crew and won't touch aiptasia.
He is an absolute joy to watch roam around the tank trying to blow over snails and blowing in to the sand to see what tasty snacks he may uncover.
I would not recommend getting one for aiptasia as they are very hit or miss and can be a little destructive (again - he loves shrimp and if a snail isn't attached strong it's probably going to get eaten).
I'm pretty sure the goof ate the berghia I bought as well but I can't tell for sure. He was way too interested in them when I added them to the tank and, even though I added 20 of them to a 120 gallon tank, I never saw a dent in my aiptasia population.
U
Biota aptasia eating filefish owner here. Er, previous owner I could clarify. I purchased it from Pacific East Aquaculture (they are really amazing btw) and it arrived in the most excellent condition. Upon opening the box I was gifted with a pretty little file fish about the size of a US dime 
Yeah, pretty small. I acclimated it and then placed it into the display (I do not QT). Too much flow and over the overflow it went and ended up in the sump. I thought maybe it was a fluke but the second attempt same thing. It stayed at the surface of the tank and not lower so back into the sump it ended up. I was going to leave it there but I have 3 pumps (skimmer, 2 return pumps for redundancy) I decided it wasn't going to work. Threw together a 5 gallon bucket, small water changed, used that water, added some substrate, and that was its home for a week while I setup a 5 gallon nano for it.
It stayed in the nano for about a month or so and in the time it lived there I introduced small rubble I had with Aiptasia on it. It would eat it so I knew it was going to do the trick. It preferred the smaller size first so figured the larger would take a while to get rid of. I have the pest in my over flows and sump mostly. Few in the display. Anyway I introduced it again to the sump this time and it was fine. Everyone got along and I thought I was off to a good start. However, about a few days later I saw it munching on my Duncan coral. So much that it left it with only the base disc left no tentacle or arms if you will. Next up was a newly introduced frogspawn frag. It went right for it. Grabbed a bit chunk of it off chewed it up and then spit it out. I thought maybe it was a test but nope. Later that day it did it again so much that only the skeleton was left. That was pretty much it for me.
What was interesting is that it left my larger torch and hammer corals alone. It picked at zoa's, the frogspawn, Xenia, and Duncan. I figured that was enough so actually traded it in last week to the LFS for some food. The frogspawn is now coming back. The duncan I'm not sure - it looks ok but not seeing much growth. Aiptasia is also coming back with one very large one that it kept in check.
TL; DR - they are hit or miss. This is my second one and it ate corals. My first one did not. I personally believe if you have established colonies it will be fine because they can handle the picking. Smaller frags not so much and thus the damage.
Best of luck.
Yeah, pretty small. I acclimated it and then placed it into the display (I do not QT). Too much flow and over the overflow it went and ended up in the sump. I thought maybe it was a fluke but the second attempt same thing. It stayed at the surface of the tank and not lower so back into the sump it ended up. I was going to leave it there but I have 3 pumps (skimmer, 2 return pumps for redundancy) I decided it wasn't going to work. Threw together a 5 gallon bucket, small water changed, used that water, added some substrate, and that was its home for a week while I setup a 5 gallon nano for it. It stayed in the nano for about a month or so and in the time it lived there I introduced small rubble I had with Aiptasia on it. It would eat it so I knew it was going to do the trick. It preferred the smaller size first so figured the larger would take a while to get rid of. I have the pest in my over flows and sump mostly. Few in the display. Anyway I introduced it again to the sump this time and it was fine. Everyone got along and I thought I was off to a good start. However, about a few days later I saw it munching on my Duncan coral. So much that it left it with only the base disc left no tentacle or arms if you will. Next up was a newly introduced frogspawn frag. It went right for it. Grabbed a bit chunk of it off chewed it up and then spit it out. I thought maybe it was a test but nope. Later that day it did it again so much that only the skeleton was left. That was pretty much it for me.
What was interesting is that it left my larger torch and hammer corals alone. It picked at zoa's, the frogspawn, Xenia, and Duncan. I figured that was enough so actually traded it in last week to the LFS for some food. The frogspawn is now coming back. The duncan I'm not sure - it looks ok but not seeing much growth. Aiptasia is also coming back with one very large one that it kept in check.
TL; DR - they are hit or miss. This is my second one and it ate corals. My first one did not. I personally believe if you have established colonies it will be fine because they can handle the picking. Smaller frags not so much and thus the damage.
Best of luck.
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We agree with everything above. We had the same issue in our 300 office display and threw a pair of them in there. They took care of the aiptasia after about a month but ended up eating up one of our duncan colonies and nipping at a pocillopora.
But one night after I was at the office late at night they were huddled together in the top corner and I was able to snag them out. The aren't the fastest or smartest fish but they do get the job done.
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