Nipped Acro Frag

chrismhaase

chrismhaase

Active member
I have an ORA Blue Tort that I noticed was nipped and somewhat shorted. I know for a fact that nothing had dropped on it, nor has it been dropped. As for live stock this is what I have;
- Purple Tank
- Masked Rabbitfish
- Mated Pair of Saddleback Clowns
- 3 Chromis
- Turbos
- Scarlet crabs
- Cucumber

I have not noticed anything even relatively close to even pick at it. All other acros look fine.

Here are some pictures....

Water View
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t296/chrismhaase/coral001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

Top Down View
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Anyone have any ideas??? This is the weirdest thing ever!
 
Yes it is a new tank but it has been in there for 2 or 3 months I would guess. I have not noticed any rock crabs as I QT all the rock before putting it in there. Not to say there isn't a chance. Don't you think that if there was a rock crab he would have acted up before this??
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10793054#post10793054 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Marko9
Looks like a new tank. How old is your live rock? Possible a rock crab.
Click to expand...

I have had the live rock for about 6 or 7 months.
 
I recently found a rock crab and it has been close to two years since I set up my reef. That is the only reason I thought of it.
 
I will have to look into it. I have never noticed a rock crab, but I also dont know what they look like.

Anyone else with any ideas??
 
Keep an eyes on your rabbit fish... My friend has the rabbit fish in her reef tank and it nibbed on her SPS....
 
I thought about that, but he has been in there before any SPS, and plus I think I overfeed my tank. I feed normally twice a day. I have a purple tang that is rehabbing from lateral line. I got her and she is almost back to 100%, so with that being said I feed my guys a lot.

That however was my first though, so I will pay attention to him. Do you think a rabbit fish has enough strength in his teeth to nip and break off pieces of SPS? It looks as though there is a 1/8" missing!!

Here is the possible culprit.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t296/chrismhaase/newprogress030.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

He is a masked Rabbitfish.
 
Here is the pre-nip photo. It is the frag on the left
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t296/chrismhaase/1monthprogress810.07014.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

And here it is post nip
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t296/chrismhaase/coral001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

I put this comparison just so people don't think I am an idiot and think that it is a sign of new growth.
 
I'm the one REEFER714 is talking about. I have had my Fox Face (Rabbit) for 5 to 6 yrs now. I had him in a lps and softie tank for a while. And then converted to a 225 and went with acros, I had the fox face before I did acros. I transfered all to a 550 and the past 4 mos, I noticed I was having some nipping going on in my tank. Turns out it was my Fox face rabbit fish that was the one doing it. So I had to trap him out of my tank, but not before he worked on just about all my acros, so tank is recovering.

Just recently added several new fish, and one was a pretty Powder Blue tang. The Powder Blue is now nipping my Tyree M. cap. So looks like I'll be going fishing again.

I'd keep a close eye on the Fox Face, the bigger they get the more nipping they do. He never messed with any of my chalices or LPS, but sure liked to nibble on acros.

I won't ever add another Fox Face to my sps tank again. Note to myself. :)
 
I forgot to add, I feed my fish well. All are so fat, they steady eat nori. The Fox face would still nip my acros, no matter how much I fed it.

No fish is 100% reefsafe in my opinion. It's always a 50/50.
 
Wow, I never had a problem with those guys either. I had a foxface before and now I have the masked rabbit. Still from the same family, hmmm.... maybe he will have to live in my 100 gallon sump and take care of algae in the fuge. I will have to watch. Did you notice him nippling at any certain times of the day?
 
I pulled a masked rabbit fish out like yours also. He would nip ocassionally. But would eat zoos if I put them in the same tank. I had to remove all small zoos. He wouldn't eat the larger zoos. So it was time to pull him also. I decided he would get bad just like the Fox over time. So no Rabbit fish of any kind in my tank. They are not really reef safe fish.

They are both in my sump to go to the LFS for trade ins.

Yes, the fox face nipped the whole time my lights were on.
 
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