Ocellaris eating my flowerpot

[bromion]

One of my Ocellaris clowns has started eating my flowerpot coral. What the heck? Any advice? This seems unusual.

 

[redvipe2010]

Do you have an anemone that the coral may be too close to? I've seen clowns nip at corals when they were too close to there home.

 

[bromion]

No anemones in the tank.

 

[redvipe2010]

Do they host something else close to this? I would try moving the coral and see if it continues.

 

[bromion]

They don't host in anything, just free swim. I moved the coral and the culprit hasn't found it yet. Very strange... it's never eaten corals before.

 

[redvipe2010]

Yes, very strange.

 

[stykthyn]

is it eating them or just "mouthing" the coral

 

[bromion]

It really looked like eating to me, but I guess it's hard to tell. The fish was also not particularly interested in food today (also unusual) after bothering the coral, which led me to believe it was ingesting something there. Either way, the flowerpot polyps were not happy.

 

[stykthyn]

no, I would think not. most clownfish will cause the demise of a flowrepot, but this is usually gue to hosting issues. I have seen many clown "mouth" or "bite" on coral polyps. sometimes from their host and sometimes from another coral. hard to say what the determining factor is. could be anything from and infection of the mouth to another one of the clowns unusual quirks. I would try moving the coral to another part of the tank. I know this will stress it even more, but hopefully the clown will not follow it.

 

[bromion]

I moved it. I've also read a lot more on this coral and will probably give it away. Someone basically gave it to me when emptying a tank for moving, and I didn't do my research first. Tsk tsk to me!

 

[stykthyn]

yeah, they are hard to keep. I gave up trying to keep animals like that. it was really ruining my reefing experience. try and trade it for a decent frogspawn. they are very hardy and clowns love to host them. my onyx have taken residence in mine. I have had it for almost 7 years now. it's the first coral I ever bought and its roughly the size of a basketball now.