Reef Safe Vs. Coral Safe

[Milnita]

Is there a difference? When researching what fish are safe, I've found one website where they list reef safe on some descriptions and then coral safe on others. I actually found one description where Reef Safe & Coral Safe was listed which led me to believe there may be a difference.

 

[fallinapart]

Since Coral's are what make up a reef, I would say they are the same thing, just 2 different words describing the same thing. But keep in mind that so many different types of corals are out there and some fish tend to only pick on either LPS or SPS for example.
Of course I'm no expert and most of my information is from the "Discovery Channel" so hopefully some one else will chime in here

Norman

 

[Milnita]

That's kind of what we felt, but then when the one description showed both reef and coral I got confused.

 

[Fishboy42]

I wonder if they are trying to make a distinction between animals that eat or damage coral and ones commonly kept in a reef tank?

For instance, groupers might not be considered "reef safe" because they eat the small fishes and shrimps commonly kept in reef aquariums, but they might be called "coral safe" because they don't actually consume corals?

Pete the Puffer lives in a reeftank, and although clumsy (bumping into and fragging corals), (s)he doesn't intentionally eat/damage most corals and so could be considered coral safe, but smaller fish and invertebrates are not safe with this fish (Pete eats snails and crabs, so we don't have any in that tank (anymore)).

Just thinkin' out-loud...

Matt

 

[NeveSSL]

I think your best bet is generally to research the individual fish you want just to make sure. IE, take whatever label they put on it with a grain of salt.

Brandon

 

[crumbletop]

There are gradations of Reef Safe. Some fish more so than others. It has to do with how pesky they are with nipping at polyps, vs eating corals, etc. Some references have color grades for reef safe. I would take coral safe to mean fish that have a low probability of bothering corals. The term that is most commonly used, IME, is reef safe.

 

[Milnita]

THANKS to all for the great info!!!

 

[trueperc]

I think what the mean is that reefsafe mean all corals and inverts are fine, but coral safe means you nice clean up crew or shrimp will be lunch. There are many fish out there that will not touch any corals, ie many puffers, large wrasse, and triggers, but put some fresh snails, shrimps or hermits in and watch the freeding frenzie. I have a large blueheaded wrasse and was so happy I scored this hermit crab deal, as I am putting them in the tank the wrasse is picking them off. So needless to say my tank is very close to nature as in the clean up crew only come out a night.

 

[Milnita]

Makes sense....thanks for the clarification!