Cant tell if my flame angel is eating my corals

[carlos413]

I have a Flame angel and I see him nip at my open brain from time to time. My question is when dwarf angels nip at coral do they actually eat the coral? Or do they just nip it as they do the rocks while looking for food? The reason I ask is because he don't seem to bother my other corals. I have a mix of lps sps and softies and I don't see him nipping at the others outside of my acans. The corals just deflate and come back minutes later.
I been contemplating on getting a trap and get him out but I am not totally sure that he's hurting my corals.
:hmm4:

 

[Toddrtrex]

If its behavior looks anything like the following... They striped the coral clean, all of my dwarfs love fleshy corals.

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[carlos413]

Kind of he just swims around nips leaves it alone for a while. Not as often as yours, I am not seeing any flesh being removed from the coral.

 

[rssjsb]

You will. Once they've started that behavior, IME, it's only a matter of time before they start doing damage. Brain corals are irresistible to most angels even if they ignore other corals. I had an otherwise perfectly behaved dwarf kill a brain coral through occasional nipping. The coral seemed ok until one day I saw skeleton. I removed it, but it died.

 

[carlos413]

Out he goes… Now to find a way to get him out. Any suggestions?

 

[Wolverine]

You will. Once they've started that behavior, IME, it's only a matter of time before they start doing damage. Brain corals are irresistible to most angels even if they ignore other corals.

I agree with both these points.

 

[Wolverine]

Out he goes"¦ Now to find a way to get him out. Any suggestions?

How quickly do you want him out? If you have time, you can train your fish by putting their food in a net, sticking the net in the water, and letting the food drift into the tank. Over time, the fish will associate the net with food, and will often swim right into it for you (works the same for a specimen container).

If you want him out right away, sometimes you can sneak in with a red flashlight and night and net them when they're asleep. Other two options are fish traps (good LFS will often let you rent or borrow one) or, if you're not in love with your aquascape, you can go with the brute force tear everything apart until you have him (depending on the size of the tank).

 

[Winwood]

I advise purchasing a fish trap. I did a long time ago and it has been invaluable over the years.

 

[jim.crunk]

+1 on the fish trap! I believe that if anyone keeps corals and fish a trap is an extremely valuable tool.
I didnt buy one, I built mine litterally with left over acrylic from other tank projects.

 

[carlos413]

I am going to try the food/ net. If that dont work my LFS has a trap for $35. Are all traps basically the same? If not what kind should I be looking for? Thanks.

 

[schoi]

I had a six line wrasse that was terrorizing my tank. I used the 2 liter soda bottle trap and caught him within a couple of hours. Search Youtube and you can see how they make the trap. I am officially Six Line free!!!

 

[TigeBell]

I had a six line wrasse that was terrorizing my tank. I used the 2 liter soda bottle trap and caught him within a couple of hours. Search Youtube and you can see how they make the trap. I am officially Six Line free!!!

I had to do that same thing 2 weeks ago with my Six Line also.

The first attempt with the soda bottle, I caught my Diamond Goby and Dwarf Angle at one time. I got them out and tried again the next day and caught the Six Line.

I guess you have to test to see which fish is more active at certain times if you want to catch them. It just so happen to be that my Six Line was more active in the morning while the other fish were active later in the day with the lights on.

Now my Dwarf Angel is nipping at my zoas... My wife is going to be upset if the angel goes... I might have to convert to a FOWLR tank to keep her happy. She loves that angel......

 

[HarrisonMG]

I've got a flame and only a few corals. He nips the acans, not the hammer or the trumpet or the GSP. At one point I was contemplating which to get rid of--the acans, or the angel. And I decided that if I rid the angel I will feel like I should reward myself for my loss with lots of corals.....so my wallet will inevitably be much smaller!

That's my input, and my LFS prices corals sky-high; we're talking $100 for an acan frag w/3 polyps, but fish aren't too bad.

 

[steallife904]

I gambled on a flame Angel once............ he destroyed my LPS, some colonys I had for years but when he got my acans.... and I had some real nice rainbow acans that hurt and was the final straw. Broke the tank down to get him out. I will NEVER try a 50/50 fish again!