Aiptasia Eating Filefish

Facts about Aiptasia Eating Filefish. "Sientific name for Aiptasia Eating Filefish is Acreichthys tomentosus". The Aiptasia Easting Filefish is also called the leather jacket, seagrass file fish, bristle tail filefish, matted filefish, matted leather jacket and a few other names. The primary source of the name is the fact that this file fish species readily eats aiptasia, a type of anemone. The aiptasia anemone is a member of the Anthozoa class and usually lives on hard substrates like the Pacific coral reef.

Region of the Aiptasia Eating Filefish

The Aiptasia Easting Filefish species is native to the Indo-pacific, stretching from the Australian coast to East Africa to the southern Japanese islands.

Features of the Aiptasia Eating Filefish

The Aiptasia Eating Filefish come in a wide range of shades of green and brown, from pale green to dark green to brown. Each fish has a unique mottle pattern that helps it hide among algae covered rocks.
These fish are usually two to three inches long at sale. Their maximum length is six inches. Males are larger than the females. They are thin fish. The filefish has an elongated dorsal fin like a triggerfish.

Diet of the Aiptasia Eating Filefish

The Aiptasia Eating Filefish are hunters. One of the best foods for them are mysis shrimp. They can eat meaty foods like krill, shaved shrimp and squid if cut small enough to fit in their mouths. Aiptasia Eating Filefish are omnivore, (definition-they eat both other animals and plants), so periodically give them frozen algae. They will sometimes nip at yellow polyps, fan worms, bristle worms and other invertebrates. Conversely, algae grazing fish sometimes nip at file fish.

habits of the Aiptasia Eating Filefish

Aiptasia Easting File fish are non-aggressive except sometimes against their own species. This is rarely an issue where each file fish has sufficient space. Individual filefish are shy, prone to hide instead of fight.

Aquarium of the Aiptasia Eating Filefish

Use caution when placing the file fish in a tank with large angel fish or eels. They don’t have problems with dwarf angelfish. Don’t put them in tanks with sharks, rays or groupers.

The minimum tank size of the Aiptasia Eating Filefish is 30 gallons (113 liters). The average temperature is 72 to 78 F° (22 to 25 cel), dKH 8 to 12, sg 1.020-1.025. The maximum growth size is 3 1/2 (8.9 cm).

Aquarium care Aiptasia Eating Filefish

Test the water when preparing your tank for your Aiptasia Eating Filefish: You will need to purchase a liquid tester so that you can test for Nitrates and Ammonia. The strip-style test kits are unreliable and a waste of money. You should use a dechlorinating product to remove the harmful chlorine from the water. Test for nitrite, ammonia, and proper pH pH 8.1-8.4. The ammonia should always be 0, the nitrite should be 0, and the nitrate should preferably be below 20 ppm. If it's at or above 40 parts per million (ppm), you have too many fish or are not changing the water often enough. Cycling your tank is important, Follow the steps to cycle your tank. This establishes healthy bacterial and chemical levels.
Remove 30% of the water from your Aiptasia Eating Filefish tank each month with new water, or a 15% water change every 2 weeks is ideal for keeping nitrates lower. With corals in the fish tank, then 20% water change every month, or 10% change every 2 weeks.