aiptaisa

[asylumdown]

My copper band will only eat small aiptasia, there seems to be a magic threshold that, once passed, he stops seeing them as food. He would be no good at cleaning up an aiptasia problem, but has been pretty effective at stopping one from coming back. I say this to illustrate the point that even with known winners like CBBs, there can be significant variation from fish to fish, so it's difficult to say how either of those two fish will react in your tank. On the upside, mine leaves ornamental clams and corals alone, while others have been known to tear in to tridacnids like they're on a sashimi special.

I think a file fish will be a more reliable predator of aiptasia, but I've also heard they're much more likely to eat other polyps like zoanthids too. If you don't have any/many zoas, this might not be a problem for you.

And I think all mystery wrasses can and will eat shrimp eventually, small crustaceans are a normal part of their diet. Adding the shrimp after the wrasse exacerbates this risk.