Tassle Filefish & Aiptasia

[sody2001]

Hi,

I was told by someone on the posts that tassle filefish eat aiptasia anemones, I have a mini outbreak in my tank which I am gradually removing with elimi-aiptas, but my filefish doesn't take any notice of them. If they do indeed eat these pests waht can I do to make him notice them, do i need to rearange the rock, or should I just continue with anemone busting???

Ta

Andy

[bony]

i am not sure if a tassle file fish will eat aips but i know you can get an aiptasia eating file fish, i am not sure of the latin sorry.

[pavlo]

I dont think many people have kept one of these, they are not commonly available. I dont think there is much you can do other than hope that one day it takes a liking to them.

[sody2001]

I'll just take em out rambo style then.

[Classy Chick]

I have never heard of the Tassled filefish eating aiptasia. I think the one that you are thinking of it the Bristle Tailed filefish ( SeaGrass file fish)- Acreichthys tomentosus.

I've got one and I have never seen any Aips in my tank! ;)

( although I am not willing to introduce them to put it to the test! :D )

[andy j]

The fish your after is a green sargassum file fish,

they do eat manjano's but be careful when he'd run out he took a liking to all my brains and lps in fact in about an half an hour he stripped 3:mad: .

[sody2001]

Thanks for the info, I did think it a bit strange as I've had my Tassle for about 9 months now and whenever aiptasia has bloomed he's never looked twice at them. The chap giving me advice must have been generalising thinking that all filefish were the same, but hey ho theat the beauty of these forums, you get a pretty good answer.

Many thanks

Andy

[SpanishTony]

I thought the aiptasia eating filefish was Monacanthus hispidus, correct me if I'm wrong

[Classy Chick]

I thought the aiptasia eating filefish was Monacanthus hispidus, correct me if I'm wrong

I've not heard of that ( definitely not saying you are wrong though ;) )
I've just a quick search on the Bristle Tail File Fish and on TMCs website it says:

"Acreichthys tomentosus (Linnaeus 1758), the Bristle-Tail Filefish, is the "Man of the Hour" if you have the ultimate Aiptasia/Glass Anemone woes... it is reputedly the predator par excellence of these noisome pests. Indo-West Pacific in distribution. To four inches maximum length. One in the Waikiki Aquarium, Oahu, Hawai'i."

[SpanishTony]

The ones I've seen are for sale in my lfs labeled as Aiptasia eating filefish.

They won't guarantee that they will eat Aiptasia, but say that two of their large display tanks have been cleared of aps after 2 of these fish were placed in each tank.

[steveofthereef]

The fish your after is a green sargassum file fish,

they do eat manjano's but be careful when he'd run out he took a liking to all my brains and lps in fact in about an half an hour he stripped 3:mad: .

The smae thing happend to me, when the aiptasia are gone he took a liking to my cataphylia and open brain :eek: and did quite alot of damage in a matter of hours until I noticed. thankfully they are slow and easy to catch!

Steve

[jonifive]

I have an aiptasia eating file fish who is obviously allergic to aiptasia!!! He only eats frozen food and having read the last post I now know why my open brain looks so poorly!

Back to the LFS soon I think!

[andy j]

Acreichthys tomentosus is def the file fish your after, they seem to be every where at the moment ,mine loved frozen brine etc, but also hunted manjanos down too, mine just seemed to be hungry all the time and that seems to be when they start to pick, to be honest mine had prob been picking for months but i had just not spotted it , then one night i saw it pulling strips of flesh of a brain.:mad:

oh and mine moved quick enough not to be caught for a week, i got lucky one night when in the dark i found him up in the corner of my tank by touch light

i think like any fish they can be a bit hit or miss, but will do what there meant to ,just watch out when they've cleared your tank;)

[dazzeling]

yeah i know the ones you mean

[nigeljk]

The Tassled filefish doesn't eat aip's, They do however eat just about anything else! I had one from very small sub one inch, in one year he grew to over 8 inches in length! He took to eating my feather dusters, so he went to the LFS for aFO setup.
Nice fish, shame about the habits!