Anyone ever had a sailfin tang nip corals?

[JeffersonReef]

Yesterday I picked up a load of frags from Laverda... including some green/ yellow polyps, gsp, a hammer coral, etc etc etc... I get everything home... acclimate it all... and finally get to place everything nicely in my tank. No sooner were my hands out of the tank when my large Sailfin Tang takes a nip at one of the yellow polyps!! I think it is a fluke at first... he was just curious... then.. BAM!! He nips at em again. I moved the yellow polyps to another location. Then, I watch as the tang systematically patrols the tank, and is nipping all of the new corals I bought! Before I could get him out... he completely consumed most of the GSP and the hammer.... put a hurting on the yellow polyps. Has anyone ever had this happen? These are really the first soft corals I have added to the tank... I should mention that the tang is very well fed... a variety of flakes, frozen food, caulerpa, and tang heaven. Anyone ave an idea why this happened? For now, I placed the culprit in the sump, and plan to take him to the LFS to trade for something less destructive. BUmmer though... this is my oldest and biggest fish. LMK what you think!!

 

[818]

Fish are fish. I've seen blue tangs, certain clownfish, and some "reef safe" wrasses do the same....You just got very unlucky with yours.

Yet there are some fish that arent "reef safe" yet they dont touch a thing..

Yea. Best thing is to trade him for another, or another fish.

Good Luck

 

[NALCOMIS]

mine eats xenia finger tips. maybe the sailfin is underfed?

 

[JeffersonReef]

well.... i feed twice a day usually. I also give them caulerpa/tang heaven every now and then during the week as a snack. Theres no way it is underfed. I think maybe that the previous owner may have underfed... and it got a taste for corals in his tank. Oh well... back to the LFS he goes! Too bad though...

 

[HenryTran]

it may just be nipping at algae on the rock that you just don't notice, tangs will do that all day long. it may be that the polyps are in the way. if it did not nip at the corals you had before that, then the case is, the new corals have tiny algae on the rock.

 

[All Delight]

My buddy has a maroon clown that just ripped apart a zoo colony. we watched him go at it. It was like a dog ripping aprart a stuffed animal.

 

[loc01]

My sail tang(red sea) doesn't bother any thing but I just put in a Majestic Angle because of its vivid colors, some people said it's kind of hit amd miss thing. Let me tell you it's a BIG mistake. This fish is so curious he nips almost every corals in my tank. I will wait a few day to see I will get him out of my tank some how if damage is getting servere.

Loc

 

[JeffersonReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8396898#post8396898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by All Delight
My buddy has a maroon clown that just ripped apart a zoo colony. we watched him go at it. It was like a dog ripping aprart a stuffed animal.

That is exactly what it felt like... lol. I watched in HORROR. This was my first soft coral/ polyp purchase, so there really was nothing to compare the fishes actions to. I can only assume that it will consume any and all soft corals or polyps i place in the tank. Some good news though: The GSP seems to have survived. There were 4 or 5 open polyps yesterday afternoon. SO, the death toll has been reduced the the yellow polyps and the hammer.

Thanks all!

 

[laverda]

Tony I have some more yellow Polyps and another hammer frag I will give you.

 

[JeffersonReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8397732#post8397732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by laverda
Tony I have some more yellow Polyps and another hammer frag I will give you.

Thanks steve. Thats really generous of you. I will give you a holler later this week.

Also... I have a frag that you may be interested in... (or maybe not)... I got a really nice sized Montipora Digitata... If your interested I will bring it with me and you can frag a piece. LMK.

-TJ