fish and zoa's

[NyReefNoob]

ok well here is something i havent seen talked about, have you guys encountered any fish that eat your zoa's\ palies ? ive had a couple starry blenny i have caught eating them, anyone else ?

 

[zooty]

besides angels and rabbitfish?

 

[kichimark]

I used to have a blue tang which everyone loved and had it for a while as well. I noticed one day he was nipping at some zoas probably trying to get something inbetween but I didn't want to risk it later so I caught him and sold him for 20 bucks. Sold him in like 30 min when posted haha. But due to his size of mouth I am sure he wouldn't easily fit inbetween the polyps and would "taste" a zoa.

Other than that I havn't seen any other fish bother my corals/inverts. I have 2 lyretail wrasse,flame hawk, two picasso clowns, yellow tang, 2 firefish, one green chromis, sixline, and blue spot jawfish.

 

[Friday Night]

I mean to be honest its all up to the fish. They can turn any min.. But yes there is a red flag group off the bat.

 

[XSharkboyX]

+1 on tangs... Most people dont have problems. However, there is an occasional few that nip at polyps, esp blue tangs. Angels, butterflys, some wrasses, rabbitfish on occasion, moorish idols on occasion, filefish, an occasional puffer or trigger, parrotfish, and batfish.
If it says may nip at softies, LPS, SPS ext, in a book, its probably pretty accurate.

 

[NyReefNoob]

wanting from personal experiance's, i know the so so fish, but i also had a regal angel with over 60 morphs of zoa's and palies and the regal never bothered any of them, and these are known zoa eater's, so what fish have you personally had in your tank that went after them, sorry should have made it more clear in first post.

 

[650-IS350]

Tangs, rabbit fish, large angels and some Pygmy angels
Even yellow tangs will consider your Z's and P's a delicacy
From time to time trust me

 

[NyReefNoob]

650 any particular one's you have had done it, ive owned alot of pygmy angels as well and havent had problems with any, havent had a flame angel though, potters no problem except with my clam.

 

[kichimark]

Tangs, rabbit fish, large angels and some Pygmy angels
Even yellow tangs will consider your Z's and P's a delicacy
From time to time trust me

Hmmm my yellow better dare not do anything that will jeapodize his stay. It is Lent now after all.

 

[caddydaddy]

I have a rabbitfish that prefers green button palys and close cousins.

It has chewed on some others though.

Soon as I can get the time I'm going fishing!

 

[650-IS350]

I woudn't trust any large angel,
Rabbit fish ( I know of fox face and scribbled)
Blue tang especially but I wouldn't trust any other tang
Don't know about file fish either don't know about puffers either.

Even my quarter sized yellow tang took down 2 small colonies of small zoanthids and 1 colony of sick zoanthid. He hasn't touched anything since then but he can always turn again.

 

[XSharkboyX]

wanting from personal experiance's, i know the so so fish, but i also had a regal angel with over 60 morphs of zoa's and palies and the regal never bothered any of them, and these are known zoa eater's, so what fish have you personally had in your tank that went after them, sorry should have made it more clear in first post.

No worries brother. I should have specified from the start. Everything I stated was from personal experience. I worked at a LFS for many years and we experimented with different types of fish eating corals. This was an experiment I chose to take on for a biology project, and i continued to do so for a couple years. So we would know from experience what worked and what did not. Also if we recieved a sick finicky fish that was a known coral eater, sometimes it was best to put them into the heavely packed coral tank to get them healthy and eating before they were removed and fed frozen food. One fish nipping a few polyps off of a huge tank of colonies was not a big deal, if it ment the fish was going to turn around and pull through.
However every fish is different, it just depends on the individual. I kept a large sick Pomacanthus imperator angel in the sps tank for a couple months to nurse it back to health, all the time it never once touched coral... It would only eat frozen. I have kept a blue regal tang for years with no problems. Copperband butterfly no issues, Morrrish Idol no issues, along with a few others.

 

[flyyyguy]

one thing to add is that the more underfed a fish may be, the more likely a fish that is typically "reef-safe" could turn into a softy/lps muncher, and once they get a taste for it, they seem to just be that way

personally I have seen a purple and a sailfin start to wreak havoc. But, incidentally both were back when I can honesty say I wasnt feeding them nearly as much as they wanted/could be fed.

The only one I have seen that just did it becasue it wanted to was a scribbled rabbit, the only one out of 5 scribbleds that I have had over time that were ever a problem. BUT, to throw doubt on whether or not he was somehow trained to do this, I acquired him already at a large size to start, so who is to say he didnt pick it up due to being starved at some point along the way. ?

Also had a niger trigger do it, sps included, but he also developed a taste for all fish in the system when he got larger so that doesnt really count. Still have him, and he is one of my fav's, he just now lives in the sump all by his friendly, destructive self

 

[NyReefNoob]

Thank you guys, reasoning for this was to help some of the people newer to zoa's and or the hobby, some of the real basic fish list that we or most know as coral eaters. or specifically eating zoa's-palies. knock on wood out of all the fish ive had over the years the starry eyed blenny was the only ive had a problem with myself, but then again i dont have a huge tank so alot of the fish that i know are a good chance of picking wouldnt be able to go in my tank anyways. the regal was my most worried about fish i had ever added. and had gotten it for a friends 300g that wasnt done yet, so i knew i wouldnt have it long anyways, but he was a model citizen if my reef, but i do feed my tank pretty well

 

[650-IS350]

there have been cases where the fish has been a model fish for years, fed everytime then one day they just hit an invisible switch and go ballistic on polyps.

 

[XSharkboyX]

there have been cases where the fish has been a model fish for years, fed everytime then one day they just hit an invisible switch and go ballistic on polyps.

+1 I have seen this with a Balistoides conspicillum (Clown Trigger)... Not only on polyps, but also on tankmates...