Purple Tangs

[chinchalice]

Anyone ever have a purple tang nip at lps??

 

[DrSoussou]

I had a purple tang in my 150 gal reef tank for about 5 or 6 years. He shared the tank with a yellow tang of barely a smaller size and a relatively aggressive powder blue. We had some lps but we never saw any of our tangs nip at them because they were regularly fed and had plenty of algae to graze on as well as algae clips to feed from. If you're struggling with nipping behavior, try feeding more frequently and adapt your tang to feeding from clips

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Yes, frogspawn. Not sure if that can be corrected if they do it a few times.

 

[alton]

Anyone ever have a purple tang nip at lps??

I had a PT for a couple years once and since he got mean I sold him to a LFS who resold him to an individual and in a week it ate/killed $200 worth of coral. No fish is guaranteed reef safe.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Any algae grazing fish can nip at corals if hungry. It is going after the zooxanthallae which is algae. Try feeding more.

 

[snorvich]

Any algae grazing fish can nip at corals if hungry. It is going after the zooxanthallae which is algae. Try feeding more.

Exactly. Tank size can help this a bit since there is more naturally occurring algae, but with a smallish tank especially, feed more.

 

[jda]

Over the years, I have personally seen nearly every tang in this hobby eat coral at some point. Only exception is Chocolate Tang, but I suppose that is just a lack of quantity. Most start to get bad as they get bigger and are not getting fed as much. This can happen with Rabbitfish too.

Years ago, I got a call from a friend who just purchased a black tang that was eating his coral in the first week - tough for him to just give it away, but it was in my FO a few days later.

If you want true coral safe fish, then Damsels, Anthias, Genicanthus Angels, X Triggers and Leopard/Fairy wrasses are your best bet, IME.

 

[andrewkw]

I never would have believed mine atr my huge Aussie elegance many years ago. That was until I saw him swimming away with part of it in his mouth.

 

[chinchalice]

thanks all. I feed frozen food at night and my fish get a clip everyday. He is the only tang in the tank. Should i Just make sure the clip always has seaweed?

 

[CoralsAddiction]

I personally like seaweed pellets more than nori sheets because they don't mess the tank water up as much. And if you have cleaner shrimp they just tear that thing up to the point of nori sheets floating everywhere.�� So I would look into that if I were you ��