alex gonzales
New member
I read somewhere that you could add a tusk to a reef tank with caution, what would he damage in a reef tank, besides cuc?
Harlequin tusk
- Thread starter alex gonzales
- Start date
alex gonzales
New member
What about anemones, will they go after them also?
sps_reefer
In Memoriam
they will be ok. i had a juvi as well and it was a model citizen. it was bery small, less than 3 inches, and it left the cleaner shrimp alone.
DanK13
New member
The anemones should be ok. Here is my experience with them as I stated before.
I had a client a few years back insist on a juvenile harlequin tusk for its colorfulness against my advice. I actually told him that I refused to purchase and add it so I told him that if he wanted it he had to introduce it himself since I guarantee fish and corals for life that I add. As expected, the bigger it got the more it ate. It picked at 2 Tridacna clams resulting in them staying closed and eventually their death, killed the entire cleaning crew of emeralds, hermits, sallylightfoot crabs, all the snails apart from the nassarius snails that stayed buried in the substrate and a few lucky turbos, blood and cleaner shrimp, damaged many LPS, xenia, leathers, buttons, took a few chunks out of the tangs, etc. the list goes on. The only thing it did leave alone were the SPS corals.
I had similar results years before this which is why I wont add them to reef systems anymore. Its not easy pulling fish out of larger systems not to mention a waste of my time hence my reservation against them. If this was an isolated event for me I would have chocked it up to it being a rogue fish but its not.
In a reef Harlequin's are a risk and aren't worth it. The older/larger they get the more bored they get. A bored fish with teeth is dangerous. Im sure there are some out there that do ok in a reef system but like I said they are very risky. I have a few clients that have them but they are ONLY in FOWLR systems.
I had a client a few years back insist on a juvenile harlequin tusk for its colorfulness against my advice. I actually told him that I refused to purchase and add it so I told him that if he wanted it he had to introduce it himself since I guarantee fish and corals for life that I add. As expected, the bigger it got the more it ate. It picked at 2 Tridacna clams resulting in them staying closed and eventually their death, killed the entire cleaning crew of emeralds, hermits, sallylightfoot crabs, all the snails apart from the nassarius snails that stayed buried in the substrate and a few lucky turbos, blood and cleaner shrimp, damaged many LPS, xenia, leathers, buttons, took a few chunks out of the tangs, etc. the list goes on. The only thing it did leave alone were the SPS corals.
I had similar results years before this which is why I wont add them to reef systems anymore. Its not easy pulling fish out of larger systems not to mention a waste of my time hence my reservation against them. If this was an isolated event for me I would have chocked it up to it being a rogue fish but its not.
In a reef Harlequin's are a risk and aren't worth it. The older/larger they get the more bored they get. A bored fish with teeth is dangerous. Im sure there are some out there that do ok in a reef system but like I said they are very risky. I have a few clients that have them but they are ONLY in FOWLR systems.
Last edited:
alex gonzales
New member
Thanks again for the input.
Similar threads
