Green coris wrasse wreaking havoc??

[ladybug5234]

Is my neon green coris wrasse eating corals? On Tuesday I got a clam and saw my green coris wrasse sorta "cleaning" it. I did some research in case it was hurting it, and it said that they were good fish to have around clams because thay ate pyramid snails, which can be harmful to clams. But when I got home from work Weds. the clam looked a bit detached from its shell and it was semi-closed. The wrasse was still picking at the shell but I didn't see that he was really bothering the clam itself. The clam died by Thursday.

The weird part is that I bought the clam, a yellow figi leather, some zoas and a rock with 5 rics from a local guy tearing down his tank last Saturday. Everything was fine in his tank and now all that is left from what I bought is the zoas and they dont even open up all the way! First it was the leather, which withered and began disintegrating within 2 days. I took it out to be safe. The rics were fine for a week then the mouths disintegrated yesterday. I know the wrasse had nothing to do with the leather's death, but I'm not so sure about the rics. After I found the rics with just the rim left this morning I've been wondering... was it this guy's tank or the coris wrasse? BTW, my tank's params are ok and everything I orginally had in there is fine. I guess either way it doesn't matter because I can't catch the dang wrasse! But I would like to know what you guys think and if anyone's has had a similar experience with a coris.

 

[SDguy]

Sounds like you just had some losses. I don't see the wrasse as a suspect here.

 

[njudson]

How did u acclimate the new stuff? Sounds like only the hardiest thing (zoas) made it. I doubt your fish had anything to do with it.

 

[iamwrasseman]

i have never seen a coris wrasse actually eat a coral . yes they will possibly nip and even flip them over in an attempt to find critters on the underside . i really dont think that they like to eat corals but at the same time they can be extremely boisterous as they are sometimes aggressive in their attempt to find food under corals and in many nooks and crannies .
to catch them traps are somewhat stressful to you and your fish as it usually takes many tries to get the right one .i would suggest that you get a #13 fly fishing hook and remove the barb along with dulling the hook end itself . get some line to fit it also and go fishing for a few minutes as the coris usually will go after it along with a piece of PE mysis or krill on the hook it should be quite irresistible . you have to be ready and keep tension on the line when he hits it so it doesn't fall out of his mouth . do it fast and have a bucket of water ready for him to go in . they are tough to trap but suckers for a hook most of the time . good luck

 

[cakemanPA]

I would suspect that the wrasse was not the issue at all.

 

[ladybug5234]

How did u acclimate the new stuff? Sounds like only the hardiest thing (zoas) made it. I doubt your fish had anything to do with it.

I didn't acclimate the corals. The fish and clam I acclimated over 2 hours by putting in a half cup of water every 20 minutes, and taking out a half cup. They were aerated throughout acclimation.

I thought about the test kit being old and had the water checked by a LFS. It gave me the same results my test gave. So I know it wasn't nitrates or ammonia in the water... but maybe something else undetectable by SW tests. I did a water change and found a screw that apparently had landed in the sand and burried. It was rusted. A rusty screw has crashed my tank before (it was a nano), so I don't think it would have crashed it, but I am glad I found it when I did. I still think the wrasse picked at the dieing stuff though. He is viscious! I added 100 Nassarius Vibex today and he nearly killed them all! And I noticed that out of the 100 or so blue leg hermits I had in there, there isn't ONE left! Lots of empty shells though.