Damn Filefish is a catch 22

JaiWiz · #1 05-18-2011, 01:40 AM

Ok so i had a giant aipetasia problem so i purchased a matted filefish to clean it up fair enough he is starting to slowly clean it up but at the expense of him also nipping at my hammer coral and my devils hand they use to be thriving the hammer coral was turning from one head into two and the devils hand was growing every so freely until i put this guy in the hammer is always looking deflated and the devilshand never has its polyps out now. is there anything i can do shor of getting rid of one or the other ?????

fishytime · #2 05-18-2011, 01:44 AM

they do have a tendency to sample things

........could ask if any local reefer could babysit your coral while the filefish does his job?.....

The Grizz · #3 05-18-2011, 02:45 AM

That is so weird my filefish never touches my leathers or hammers. You can always bring them out hear to see if it is actually the file fish.

zum14 · #4 05-18-2011, 05:18 AM

I tried and was bitten by the filefish as well. Didnt lose any pieces but a wellsophyillia took a hard hit, acan as well. Lost almost 1/2 my zoas too. The thing with the filefish is I would in an instant get one again if it was a FOWLR as he zipped up all flatworms and mowed aiptasia down too. BUT there not really a cure to them. I removed him when I couldnt bear to see more coral get eaten and sure enough some of the aiptasia poked there heads out of the rocks again and 2 months later the flatworms are making a small appearance. In short, if your plan is to control with a filefish, I would say you need to stick with him and have a very limited coral selection. If you chose to go without, be prepared to find other methods of control as he will not get every last one while hes in there and they will come back. Its just too good to be true I think.