Is my Favia Evil?

[Sitarangi]

After asking my dad to go grab me some fish food on his way home from, he decided to surprise me with a nice sized frag of Favia. I placed in the center of the tank so it got adequate light. Everything was fine.... until I woke up the next morning.

When I turned on the light the next morning it was covered in white sweeping tentacles. It was like the coral shot out all of its nematocysts at once. It had one of my damsels trapped in the tentacles. I was able to free him and he was completely freaked out. When I came home later in the day, he was on the verge of death and getting beat up by my other blue damsel. After QTing him in a spaghetti strainer, he died about 20 minutes later.

I now placed the favia far away from all tankmates and my other LPS and mushrooms. Is this behavior natural? Originally I thought it was because I keep my tank pretty warm (78 degrees) and I thought it was spawning or something. I fear for all my other fish .

 

[roblack]

My guess is that the damsel was already in distress and just happened upon the favia with tentacles stretched outward for feeding at night. Normal favia behavior to extend tentacles (esp at night), can reach several inches from the corals edge. No healthy damsel worth their salt would be caught and killed by a favia. In fact, I think many damsels are at least somewhat "protected" from coral stings. I could be wrong, but I think clownfish are damselfish. Not sure how they all fare with with corals, but shouldn't be a problem with any coral. My final speculation: sick fish becomes favia food while flopping or drifting about in the night currents of your tank. Favia, innocent of any evil behavior, just grabbing onto dying fish who happens to be rubbing up against it while hungry and already looking for food. Damsels are mean and tough fish that usually terrorize the tank IME. Clear a few inches around your favia, and keep other corals tentacles beyond the safe zone, and hopefully everything will be alright.

 

[Sheol]

Favia are evil only to other corals, usually. I second that the poor fish was not long for this world. Your other damsel should be taken in for questioning IMO..

Sincerely,
Matthew

 

[Sitarangi]

Bahhhh I do like the favia, and I do not like my damsels (they keep killing every gramma I try to put in the tank), their going back to the LFS, I want firefish and other colorful beauties.

So the tentacle thing is normal behavior? Should I be feeding the favia when the tentacles are out?

 

[roblack]

Feed a couple of times a week cyclopeeze, marine snow, fish juice (not sure what that is), even flakes. I catch my corals eating all kinds of stuff. They love minced mysis and brine shrimp too. Adding bioplankton to the water at night and cutting off the protein skimmer will feed most corals. If you have some money to spend, some people swear by oyster eggs and rotifers, although usually used for acros IME. You really don't have to feed a favia, it just is alot of fun sometimes and can help them to grow faster.

Had a friend in college who fed his cichlids anything, including pizza and fried chicken. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR REEF TANKS!

 

[Sheol]

I wonder if my Favia(s) would eat pepperoni? LOL!
Yes, the tentacles are normal, especially in new introductions because they sense the other corals ( don't place too closely they do not like competition!) in your tank. Plus feeding of course.

Matthew