Black Combtooth Blenny (Ecsenius namiyei) SPS Eater

[Maxxumless]

I accidentally killed my bi-color blenny years ago when I took out a piece of LR from my tank and didn't realize he was in. I found a Black Combtooth at Liveaquaria's Diver's Den and instantly wanted him. Well, long story short, he absolutely loves SPS. He never bothered any LPS or softies and was a complete gentleman with his tank mates. I made a fish trap and put every food I had in the trap and eventually caught ever fish, snail, and shrimp EXCEPT him. So, how did I catch him, you ask? I think you know the answer, with a piece of SPS on a plug of course, and only after twenty minutes! I'm blenny scared now and will probably never buy another.

Picture of one of my poor corals... This is an FYI post for future researchers. May they learn by my mistake

 

[snorvich]

Wow. Definitely that coral was lunch. Are you running an Ultra Low Nutrient tank? I ask because it almost looks as if the fish was eating zooxanthellae contained in your coral.

 

[Maxxumless]

Tank was in it's final stages of cycling, so there was some algae, but I planned on putting pieces of LR from another tank with macroalgae rubberbanded on it for him to graze on. I supplemented his diet with spirulina flakes & frozen brine enriched with spirulina. He ate most of those things except red based algae, which I expected, but tried anyway. On day three he took a nip at some birds nest and that was it; he never stopped eating it. He began eating the algae again only after I removed the SPS from the tank.

Maybe he was after the zoox, but you'd think with several different types of macroalgae, filamentous algae, omnivore, and herbivore preparations (some enriched) he would have been sated. This blenny is just too fickle for my liking

 

[snorvich]

I have heard of (but never experienced) tangs going after zooanthelae when other algae was unavailable. But I will be really careful of this species going forward.