Confirmed: filefish ate my anemones

DaveInSavannah

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I've had an "aiptasia eating" filefish that I picked up from Petco when first stocking my 75 gallon tank because it was the one fish my wife requested. I've also tossed in items from my LFS that I could almost guarantee you had aiptasia present given the state of their aquariums. I never had any aiptasia problems in the tank, and the filefish seemed keen to eat about anything in front of him. From that point I mostly ignored the filefish.

Fast forward a few months and I tried a rock flower anemone. It stayed on the move, regardless of where I placed it, until it found a rock crevice at the bottom of the tank. There it slowly died. Two months later I tried a pair of bubbletip anemones from a different vendor. They looked great the first day or two. Then they would detach and blow away in the current until they could hide under a rock. Lots of water testing occured while one and then the other slowly shrunk and disolved.

I waited another couple of months and then ended up trying a pair of maxi mini carpet anemones and a waratah anemone. (Can you tell that I REALLY wanted to pass this hurdle and have anemones?) The water was great. No fish issues. The only unhappy coral was the acro frag that likely wasn't getting enough light. That, and I went on an ebay bid fest and managed to get the first carpet anemone for $4 and change. The three new anemones all looked great at first and were all eating. Then one carpet anemone tried to run and hide. Then the other. I would try another spot that would work for a day or two, and then they would be on the move again. They were in a state of decline, with me scratching my head, until I finally caught the bugger red handed! I watched the filefish aggressively dive in and carry off what was left of one of the carpet anemones.

Maybe he was acting as clean up crew? Perhaps he was doing me a service. Then again, aiptasia are anemones. Did this mean that filefish ate all anemones? I checked reef2reef and couldn't find anything. I gave the filefish the benefit of the doubt and moved what was left of the two carpet anemones to a 15 gallon tank. This was about a week ago. The waratah looked fine at the time, and I figured his longer stinging tentacles would keep the filefish away. It seemed a better bet than moving him to the freshly set up 15 gallon. Boy, was I wrong...

The waratah, who had been constantly out and inflated, was now closed up tight. I watched him for a while until I saw the filefish float over and take up position right around the corner of the same rock. The little scamp would slowly move forward to see if the anemone had come out, and then float back into hiding. I moved the waratah with the entire rock over to the 15 gallon. That was yesterday. This evening he has opened back up. Where he used to have 1.5" tentacles, now he has 1/8" little fingers.

As a public service announcement; some filefish may eat aiptasia while some may eat your entire anemone collection.
 

tharbin

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I've had an "aiptasia eating" filefish that I picked up from Petco when first stocking my 75 gallon tank because it was the one fish my wife requested. I've also tossed in items from my LFS that I could almost guarantee you had aiptasia present given the state of their aquariums. I never had any aiptasia problems in the tank, and the filefish seemed keen to eat about anything in front of him. From that point I mostly ignored the filefish.

Fast forward a few months and I tried a rock flower anemone. It stayed on the move, regardless of where I placed it, until it found a rock crevice at the bottom of the tank. There it slowly died. Two months later I tried a pair of bubbletip anemones from a different vendor. They looked great the first day or two. Then they would detach and blow away in the current until they could hide under a rock. Lots of water testing occured while one and then the other slowly shrunk and disolved.

I waited another couple of months and then ended up trying a pair of maxi mini carpet anemones and a waratah anemone. (Can you tell that I REALLY wanted to pass this hurdle and have anemones?) The water was great. No fish issues. The only unhappy coral was the acro frag that likely wasn't getting enough light. That, and I went on an ebay bid fest and managed to get the first carpet anemone for $4 and change. The three new anemones all looked great at first and were all eating. Then one carpet anemone tried to run and hide. Then the other. I would try another spot that would work for a day or two, and then they would be on the move again. They were in a state of decline, with me scratching my head, until I finally caught the bugger red handed! I watched the filefish aggressively dive in and carry off what was left of one of the carpet anemones.

Maybe he was acting as clean up crew? Perhaps he was doing me a service. Then again, aiptasia are anemones. Did this mean that filefish ate all anemones? I checked reef2reef and couldn't find anything. I gave the filefish the benefit of the doubt and moved what was left of the two carpet anemones to a 15 gallon tank. This was about a week ago. The waratah looked fine at the time, and I figured his longer stinging tentacles would keep the filefish away. It seemed a better bet than moving him to the freshly set up 15 gallon. Boy, was I wrong...

The waratah, who had been constantly out and inflated, was now closed up tight. I watched him for a while until I saw the filefish float over and take up position right around the corner of the same rock. The little scamp would slowly move forward to see if the anemone had come out, and then float back into hiding. I moved the waratah with the entire rock over to the 15 gallon. That was yesterday. This evening he has opened back up. Where he used to have 1.5" tentacles, now he has 1/8" little fingers.

As a public service announcement; some filefish may eat aiptasia while some may eat your entire anemone collection.
Filefish are one of those 'reef-safe-with-caution' fish. Thanks for posting this, I think too many people look at the 'eats-aiptasia' and stop reading. Just about anything, except Berghia, that will eat aiptasia may eat other things as well and not always just things we want them to eat.
 

Starbuxxx

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Filefish are one of those 'reef-safe-with-caution' fish. Thanks for posting this, I think too many people look at the 'eats-aiptasia' and stop reading. Just about anything, except Berghia, that will eat aiptasia may eat other things as well and not always just things we want them to eat.
I've had an "aiptasia eating" filefish that I picked up from Petco when first stocking my 75 gallon tank because it was the one fish my wife requested. I've also tossed in items from my LFS that I could almost guarantee you had aiptasia present given the state of their aquariums. I never had any aiptasia problems in the tank, and the filefish seemed keen to eat about anything in front of him. From that point I mostly ignored the filefish.

Fast forward a few months and I tried a rock flower anemone. It stayed on the move, regardless of where I placed it, until it found a rock crevice at the bottom of the tank. There it slowly died. Two months later I tried a pair of bubbletip anemones from a different vendor. They looked great the first day or two. Then they would detach and blow away in the current until they could hide under a rock. Lots of water testing occured while one and then the other slowly shrunk and disolved.

I waited another couple of months and then ended up trying a pair of maxi mini carpet anemones and a waratah anemone. (Can you tell that I REALLY wanted to pass this hurdle and have anemones?) The water was great. No fish issues. The only unhappy coral was the acro frag that likely wasn't getting enough light. That, and I went on an ebay bid fest and managed to get the first carpet anemone for $4 and change. The three new anemones all looked great at first and were all eating. Then one carpet anemone tried to run and hide. Then the other. I would try another spot that would work for a day or two, and then they would be on the move again. They were in a state of decline, with me scratching my head, until I finally caught the bugger red handed! I watched the filefish aggressively dive in and carry off what was left of one of the carpet anemones.

Maybe he was acting as clean up crew? Perhaps he was doing me a service. Then again, aiptasia are anemones. Did this mean that filefish ate all anemones? I checked reef2reef and couldn't find anything. I gave the filefish the benefit of the doubt and moved what was left of the two carpet anemones to a 15 gallon tank. This was about a week ago. The waratah looked fine at the time, and I figured his longer stinging tentacles would keep the filefish away. It seemed a better bet than moving him to the freshly set up 15 gallon. Boy, was I wrong...

The waratah, who had been constantly out and inflated, was now closed up tight. I watched him for a while until I saw the filefish float over and take up position right around the corner of the same rock. The little scamp would slowly move forward to see if the anemone had come out, and then float back into hiding. I moved the waratah with the entire rock over to the 15 gallon. That was yesterday. This evening he has opened back up. Where he used to have 1.5" tentacles, now he has 1/8" little fingers.

As a public service announcement; some filefish may eat aiptasia while some may eat your entire anemone collection.
At this point "Reef-safe with caution" should be switched to "Not reef Safe". It's far too common for filefish to go after coral or anemone. Mines took a liking to my leathers
 

deerfernfarms

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I've had an "aiptasia eating" filefish that I picked up from Petco when first stocking my 75 gallon tank because it was the one fish my wife requested. I've also tossed in items from my LFS that I could almost guarantee you had aiptasia present given the state of their aquariums. I never had any aiptasia problems in the tank, and the filefish seemed keen to eat about anything in front of him. From that point I mostly ignored the filefish.

Fast forward a few months and I tried a rock flower anemone. It stayed on the move, regardless of where I placed it, until it found a rock crevice at the bottom of the tank. There it slowly died. Two months later I tried a pair of bubbletip anemones from a different vendor. They looked great the first day or two. Then they would detach and blow away in the current until they could hide under a rock. Lots of water testing occured while one and then the other slowly shrunk and disolved.

I waited another couple of months and then ended up trying a pair of maxi mini carpet anemones and a waratah anemone. (Can you tell that I REALLY wanted to pass this hurdle and have anemones?) The water was great. No fish issues. The only unhappy coral was the acro frag that likely wasn't getting enough light. That, and I went on an ebay bid fest and managed to get the first carpet anemone for $4 and change. The three new anemones all looked great at first and were all eating. Then one carpet anemone tried to run and hide. Then the other. I would try another spot that would work for a day or two, and then they would be on the move again. They were in a state of decline, with me scratching my head, until I finally caught the bugger red handed! I watched the filefish aggressively dive in and carry off what was left of one of the carpet anemones.

Maybe he was acting as clean up crew? Perhaps he was doing me a service. Then again, aiptasia are anemones. Did this mean that filefish ate all anemones? I checked reef2reef and couldn't find anything. I gave the filefish the benefit of the doubt and moved what was left of the two carpet anemones to a 15 gallon tank. This was about a week ago. The waratah looked fine at the time, and I figured his longer stinging tentacles would keep the filefish away. It seemed a better bet than moving him to the freshly set up 15 gallon. Boy, was I wrong...

The waratah, who had been constantly out and inflated, was now closed up tight. I watched him for a while until I saw the filefish float over and take up position right around the corner of the same rock. The little scamp would slowly move forward to see if the anemone had come out, and then float back into hiding. I moved the waratah with the entire rock over to the 15 gallon. That was yesterday. This evening he has opened back up. Where he used to have 1.5" tentacles, now he has 1/8" little fingers.

As a public service announcement; some filefish may eat aiptasia while some may eat your entire anemone collection.
Same issue. I bought 4 juvie captive bred Aiptasia-eating filefish about 6 months ago for a mostly Rock Flower Reeftank. All was fine for the first few months with the filefish readily eating flake food and mysis - and cleaning up my aiptasia problem nicely. Then about 6 weeks ago I noticed a couple Rock Flower anemones looking rough and eventually dying. Then a few days later I noticed two more with the outer tentacles clearly missing. In hindsight I realized the dead ones were also missing their tentacles. So I pulled the filefish from the tank and the injured Rockflowers quickly recovered. I moved the filefish to a tank with mostly Zoas as the coral and no anemones. Again no issues the fist few weeks when I had aiptasia present. But with the disappearance of the aiptasia, they moved on to decimate two medium size Zoa colonies and nipped all the tentacles off a Duncan coral. So now the filefish have been moved to a "cleanup" tank to cycle aiptasi-bearing rocks through!
 

saltysal

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I've had an "aiptasia eating" filefish that I picked up from Petco when first stocking my 75 gallon tank because it was the one fish my wife requested. I've also tossed in items from my LFS that I could almost guarantee you had aiptasia present given the state of their aquariums. I never had any aiptasia problems in the tank, and the filefish seemed keen to eat about anything in front of him. From that point I mostly ignored the filefish.

Fast forward a few months and I tried a rock flower anemone. It stayed on the move, regardless of where I placed it, until it found a rock crevice at the bottom of the tank. There it slowly died. Two months later I tried a pair of bubbletip anemones from a different vendor. They looked great the first day or two. Then they would detach and blow away in the current until they could hide under a rock. Lots of water testing occured while one and then the other slowly shrunk and disolved.

I waited another couple of months and then ended up trying a pair of maxi mini carpet anemones and a waratah anemone. (Can you tell that I REALLY wanted to pass this hurdle and have anemones?) The water was great. No fish issues. The only unhappy coral was the acro frag that likely wasn't getting enough light. That, and I went on an ebay bid fest and managed to get the first carpet anemone for $4 and change. The three new anemones all looked great at first and were all eating. Then one carpet anemone tried to run and hide. Then the other. I would try another spot that would work for a day or two, and then they would be on the move again. They were in a state of decline, with me scratching my head, until I finally caught the bugger red handed! I watched the filefish aggressively dive in and carry off what was left of one of the carpet anemones.

Maybe he was acting as clean up crew? Perhaps he was doing me a service. Then again, aiptasia are anemones. Did this mean that filefish ate all anemones? I checked reef2reef and couldn't find anything. I gave the filefish the benefit of the doubt and moved what was left of the two carpet anemones to a 15 gallon tank. This was about a week ago. The waratah looked fine at the time, and I figured his longer stinging tentacles would keep the filefish away. It seemed a better bet than moving him to the freshly set up 15 gallon. Boy, was I wrong...

The waratah, who had been constantly out and inflated, was now closed up tight. I watched him for a while until I saw the filefish float over and take up position right around the corner of the same rock. The little scamp would slowly move forward to see if the anemone had come out, and then float back into hiding. I moved the waratah with the entire rock over to the 15 gallon. That was yesterday. This evening he has opened back up. Where he used to have 1.5" tentacles, now he has 1/8" little fingers.

As a public service announcement; some filefish may eat aiptasia while some may eat your entire anemone collection.
I am going through the same thing myself and just realized my poor bta that isn’t hiding has been being preyed upon by my filefish. Finally captured the little **** tonight and he is now in the purgatory tank. They are such cool fish with big personalities. Mine is sulking in the new tank right now because I closed the snack bar down
 

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