[dylan]

anyone kept one of these fish ? si i read somewhere u had one there's alot of mixed comments on wether this fish is reef safe ,personally i thinks it's probally not but it could be a case of being down to the individual fish , im not to bothered if it has a pick at some soft corals just dont wanna risk my sps and lps

[Dave.I]

The small filefish,grows to about 3 or 4 inches? cream,grey,brown and a bit green?
I kept one years ago.It was very peacefull,ate aiptasias..........and african blue,pulse coral and anything else that looks soft,wavey and tasty.I would think he would be fine with sps but a real risk with lps and softies with soft tenticles.I was looking at one yesterday but cant be arsed smashing the tank up if i need to get him back out.
If you could catch it easily enough i would try it as i think they are beautilful fish.

Dave

[Dave.I]

Check this out Dylan.The tread by Iris has some cracking pic's of ickle ones!
http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewfor...7c306ead50b1cb5

[dylan]

my apology's quigs was in a bit of a rush when i put the post up lol someone speaking highly of me i should have them stuffed

[dylan]

thanx for the link dave nice one id love to try him but i think im gunna have to give it a miss i do like my lps for a bit of movement in the tank

[Simon Garratt]

Here's my female




She's called 'ugly fish' whicxh isnt fair to be honest seeing as close up they are actually quite pretty in a weird way. They have an amazing ability to change colour and when looking close you can actually see the patches of pigment cells that go to make up the varying patterns that they take on according to mood and background colour.

Overal though, to be honest they arnt the most inspiring of fish, comical yes, usefull erm no (or at least not in my case) mine has never touched an aptasia. she eats just about anything i shove in the tank including nori.

As for pecking, well, she never touches LPS but she does like taking nips out of the edges of smaller clams (leaves anything over 3" alone) and she does occasionally go munching on the end of an acro branch. Nowhere near as pecky as my Emporer, but still a risk imo in smaller tanks.

The thing you have to remember about this species is that they arnt generally a reef fish as such, In the wild they inhabit lagoons and sea grass beds where there arnt that many corals bar the odd oportunistic settler, so shoving them into a mixed reef setup with loads of tempting morsels whilst not providing them with thier standard diet is a little to much to ask imo if you are concerned about your corals.....in a seagrass system though, i recon they would be a great fish to house.

Regards

Simon.

[dylan]

thanks for the feedback si the one im thinking of buying is eating aptasia as the shop keep moving it into a new tank and it's clearing them im so tempted but not convinced , does your filefish use the whole of the tanks swimming space or generally hang around the top im just wandering if i had to catch him out how hard would it be

[Simon Garratt]

Hi Dylan.

well mine uses the whole tank and quite often rests head down between the fronds of my gorgonia when not active. They are very wary fish though. Ive tried trapping mine to no avail and netting it is impossible in my system. Although to be fair, im sure that if i starved the tank for a few days and put some nori in the trap, she'd go in there eventually. Just that Id have to starve everything else in the proces and im not sure how some of the other fish would take it.


Regards

Simon.

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

They will eat Aps but once they have gone through them they can start on other corals ,If you have a tank like Si has then the damage they can cause may not be a huge problem but if the system is smaller with less corals it may be an issue


jas

[ChrisR]

Dylan,

i've got one in my tank, and yes it does eat aips but has also taken a liking to acans!!! A lovely unusual fish, and as Si says changes colour/markings depending on where it is in my tank, mines is not a shy fish and moves around the whole tank and rests head down/or upside down in either my gorg or in a formosa, which again ive seen it pick at, but not much damage so i can live with that. seems that they associate anything aip like as food, however it eats frozen and have seen it take flake one or two times.

Chris.

[mark97r1]

I have one,
eats anything i put in the tank, not got ant aptasiers, but got majanos which it doesnt seem to have bothered with yet. Not bothered with any corals that i have seen, with the exception of zoas that i can live with. I was planning on an elegance coral and a BTA but i think this would maybe being alittle too tempting. I do have a few LPS including acans and euphillias which are still doing great.

Mark

[dylan]

took the plunge and added one of these yesterday so we'll see what happens, as im working away alot at the moment useing kalk just aint workin

[mark97r1]

Just a little update on my filefish.
He has started nipping at a few LPS corals. Mainly the Acans, echniphillia(sp?) and trachy.
Quite bad on the acans, so he has been sumped. Not seen any improvement on the majano side either, maybe the corals are just tastier!

[dylan]

well mines been in for a wee while now yet to see him take aps ,the only thing ive seen him pick at is xeina which is not a bad thing in my tank , he only takes frozen so im feeding the tank just on pellet just for the moment see if i can get him hungry enough to eat some aps he was eating them in the shop i bought him from that said there were no corals in the tank !!!!!!

[Peculiar_Clown]

I was in an LFS with 4 of these fish labelled as Aiptasia eating Filefish, yep, and a rock with a huge aiptasia on it

[tommo]

Slightly related to this, Ive just ordered some oxymonocanthus halli from our private fish station as a little breeding project, I recon they will be about the same care level as O. longirostris which i have had spawn for me before and never had them not eat despite their dreadful rep, all my personal specimens have eaten either new era ocean nutrition or tetra flake too.

Tom

[mark97r1]

Hey up Tom hows things?
I was following a thread on another forum of a breeding log and how to sex A. tomentosus, they seem to make a good project.

Mark

[dylan]

my one is keeping the aps under control although he must be doing it when im out as ive yet to see him eat one

[dylan]

just an update my tank is almost free of aps this fish is munching them hasnt touched a coral he's doing a great job