In just a couple of days its done what took my butterfly two years to do. Yikes! What a ravenous fish... The good news is that FOWLR tanks infested with aptasia seem to be pretty common in the area. You shouldn't have a problem selling him if you decide to. Will it eat Acropora?

I have kept many of these fish. Problem is they don't completely eat the aiptasia it seems to come back much faster with these fellas than butterflys. They seem to only like the clams,zoas and lps from my experiences never them touch a acro in my tank. But as you stated Russell it is a very "ravenous" fish that seems to be driven by hunger anything is possible.

There's always a compromise. We're never able to keep absolutely everything that we want together in the same glass box... plus its highly unnatural in most cases to try to do so. :razz: Hopefully you can find some middle ground with the filefish. I think it will be worth it to be aptasia and flatworm free.

Ya I really cant complain on the progress. Hes doing his job and then some. Im not going to sell him. I told myself that I was getting him and if he happend to pick on some corals well, then I would have to work around this. I see a large FOWLR in the future with a few corals in it so I can keep my dream fish and he will be a good addition to that tank, I will keep a small reef, something like what I have now and maybe try something else, peppermints again maybe, to keep up with the problem. Not sure yet. No SPS picking yet, and not all LPS......Yet. Watching like a freakin hawk though.


And Im feeding twice a day. He eats mysis, pacifica plankton, and well anything that hits the tank really well. Just you can tell, the attitude and way he moves around the tank, hes constantly on the lookout for food so I dont think hunger really matters.


I agree. I think it might take some time and experimenting but I belive that him and I can come to a nice conclusion.

I've gone through two of these. In both cases lost them to jumping. So be wary of that, they do jump.

Both mine did some terrible damage to LPS in the end after the aiptasia was gone, although the bubble coral was never touched for some reason. But the acans and blastos sustained damage. Didn't seem to touch the couple SPS frags I had though.

Neither mine didn't touch them. I think cloves must taste terrible, I have a pair of ulietensis butterflies in another tank and they eat absolutely EVERYTHING ......... except cloves. Grrrr! It figures. :lol:

Thanks for the heads up, they are really slow till spooked so i can see that happening. Im ordering some netting for a screen top here soon as i would like to get the firefish but wont till theres a net. That and a coral goby will round out the fish for this tank. As I said before no ones perfect.

The minute my green coral goby starts bothering the elegance again you can have him. I was able to get him back into the toadstool by removing him to my QT for a few days and then returning him to the frag tank. But I'm not sure if the placement will last or not.

You never know, you may have given him a lesson. Im not in a huge panic. With a small system like this i want to take it slow to make sure the bio load doesnt go crazy. Thanks though.

Well at this rate it seems it would be better to set up another tank just for him as there wont be much left pretty soon. Favia seems to have a nip in it but doesnt seem too upset so im going to monitor, also the frogspawn doesnt seem to be fully expanded. Hmmmm.

Well with not being able to find a suitable solution with the filefish and funds not being available for a second tank, unfortunately we had to part ways. It wasn't what I wanted but I really had no choice. Luckily it didnt take long. The LFS actually bought him back quite eagerly to clean up all there liverock. So its a win win this time. On the upside all the corals are doing better but as BlueTang<3 noticed with his the same is happening with mine. The aiptasia are coming back quite quickly and with a vengeance. Im zapping what I can but hoping the peppermint shrimp I got for the tank will help me out. I know my last one I had in another tank ate them but it took them a while. Had to get comfy first. Tomorrows a water change and mow my xenia colony down to the rock again. Have to do it about once a month otherwise it gets a little crazy. Also noticing some sweet colors coming out of my acan. I have to figure this picture thing out. My montipora is getting some nice color in it but I couldn't take a picture of it to save my life. Oh and thanks to whatcaneyedo! A nice coral goby has made its way into my tank from him. Wouldn't leave his elegance alone as above noted. I've got the last rock I have planned for my aquascape in a tank right now going through a cycle. Im glad I did it this way as the water reeked and I can only guess as to what the ammonia level was. Hopefully that settles down soon so I can finish the rocks and start some permanent placement of a few things. I think i'm going to have to find me a wet tile saw soon as some corals are getting a little big already. 20gal worth of real estate is tough to work with. No more huge colonies for me. Im going to stare at a red scooter again tomorrow. Why oh why cant I just be that person and get it and ignore everything that is wrong with what I would be doing? Unnnllllesss someone has an objection from that statement????? hahaha... had to try.

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