Blue Tang Gone Coral Assassin

[bphelps81]

I have had a my 125 mixed reef display for about 4 years and have had a blue tang a little over 3.5 years. He is a good size, around 4.5 inches.

No joke. He went stone cold killer overnight. Nothing has changed with his feeding regiment or water parameters. I don't get it.

I came home to several of my acans knocked over, sand covering a bunch of my chalices. I didnt know what had happened until I witnessed him blasting a trumpet colony and then over to a chalice. Nipping all of them and damaging the trumpets pretty badly.

What the heck do you about that? Just remove the fish? Increase feeding? Change the diet?

I currently do a pretty mixed bag of foods mostly pellets (several different brands with a mix between proteins and algae based) and supplement with algae sheets. About 1x per week I do frozen mysis as a treat.

 

[snorvich]

As replied in your other identical post, the tang is likely eating the Zooxanthellae from the corals because of insufficient nutrition in the provided diet. Increased algae feeding may relieve this problem, if not you have to choose: corals or tang

 

[jgalen0025]

believe it or not i have seen this atleast two times in the past year with other systems. I dont know the science behind tangs eating coral zoo but his diet should consist of mainly algae sheets and then pellets or whatever else. From what i have seen i think it is just the fact that he didnt like where you placed the coral whether it is near his sleep spot or you just dont have ample space for him to live comfortably.

 

[bphelps81]

Thanks for the responses guys. I am going to try to increase his algae intake. That seems like my best hope. Im not sure about his sleeping spot though. He started bothering corals on clear different sides of the tank from each other. Also, seems to be plenty of swimming area and caves for hiding

 

[ca1ore]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Hippo actually more of a planktivore than a herbivore? Sounds to me like an underfed fish. Mine is a coral blundered though.

 

[jda]

No tangs are 100% reef safe, especially when they start to get bigger. I have heard of nearly every species attacking coral at some point, except for some of the Bristletooths. Hippo can be the worst.

All tangs are omnivores, not herbivores. They don't just eat seaweed and other veggie matter... they will eat whatever they can get their hands on.