My Matted Filefish

I added a Matted filefish a little over a month ago to combat my aiptasia problem. My LFS sells a lot of these guys and said that he had yet to have anyone come back and report that the fish went after any of their corals. Well, i will have to report differently. i have seen the filefish go after aiptasia but his food of choice appears to be my Kenya trees. Fortunately, this doesn't bother me a bit since Kenya trees are even more of a nuisance in my tank than the aiptasia. Luckily, for the little guy, those corals drop branches daily and he is getting rather fat (i don't know about happy because he doesn't say). I know all fish of the same species are not the same but i just wanted to let people know that some can go after corals in case they were thinking about adding one. The good thing is that i don't think mine would be hard to catch and remove if i wanted to. It doesn't seem to show a lot of fear and i could probably catch this guy with my bare hands if i tried ( i haven't tried).

On a different note, it is an interesting little fish. its movements are very deliberate as it slowly swims around picking food off the glass or polyps off the kenya trees. i especially like watching it when i feed. it will hover until it spots a mysis or brine and then shoot across the tank chasing that one piece of food while getting blown all over the place by the powerheads (mine is only around an inch or inch and a half in length). My other fish completely ignore it. it must look so odd that the others don't recognize it as a fish.

Anyways, i didn't really have a question. i just wanted to comment on the fish......carry on.

 

Need to follow up this post with some pictures IMO
picture of the fish followed by pictures of the forrest it is feeding on

Steve

 

Glad you're enjoying him! I'm toying with the idea of adding one, but just can't quite commit. To be honest, they creep me out a little bit. :/

 

Same here. Every time I see one, healthy or not, they look emaciated.

Thank you, SAY, for the heads up though!

 

Ask and you shall receive....

 

......and his food of choice.

 

Yes, mine was pretty thin when I bought him.

 

He is a little odd. Actually, something about him reminds me of a seahorse. Especially when he is hovering in the Kenya trees picking off polyps.

 

well, i was fine with him going after my kenya trees but now he is eating on my duncans. Not too happy about this. i like the little guy but he might have to go back to the LFS. On a positive note, there is a definite reduction in the aiptasia......but at what cost.

 

Yes "frank" my matted filefish just attacked my duncans,never touched anything else.Got rid of the duncans and kept the fish.He's too cool to get rid of and eats everything,pellets,freeze dried,even nori with the tangs !! Lol here's a pic of "frank"