SPS crazy angel fish.

[astrea]

My little coral beauty has officially become a SPS nipper. Noticed yesterday that SPS polyps were not extending, checked parameters and finally saw the culprit. Is it really doing any damage or is just any irritant? It would be a major ordeal get him out as shy as he is.

 

[kalare]

All the colonies or just one? If its all the colonies, it may be something other than the angel. If its just one, you can leave it in for a couple days and see how it does. If not, you may just want to pull the one colony.

 

[SeanT]

My thoughts are the fish has now gotten the taste for them.
Either the fish goes or the corals will suffer.

Sean

 

[astrea]

All the colonies or just one?

He seems to be going for mostly for the acros and an occasional monti. The monti polyps come right back out, the acros seem to be taking longer to extend back out.You can see the route that he is taking throught the tank as all the Acros in his path have closed polyps. The poor acro crabs try to put up a fight by waving the claws but they are too little.So it is definetly the fish.

Either the fish goes or the corals will suffer.

I was hoping to not have to make that choice as it would be the fish that would go, which means I might have to literally take the rocks apart to catch him.

Any experience with the long terms affects of fish picking on SPS polyps. Trying to explore other options!

 

[kalare]

You may be able to put a clear container in the tank for a day or so, and start putting food in it. After fish gets used to it...out comes container with fish in it. There are other methods as well, but this has worked for me. If you can definately tell its the fish, I would pull it out.

 

[Wiskey]

Some people have had sucess with a small barbless fish hook with the angel's faverite food on it. Might save you a lot of rescaping.

HTH,
Whiskey

 

[david8956]

Perhaps you are trying to run a real "clean" tank and it's just hungry ? If you aren't doing it already, try making some Nori available for it to pick at, it may prefer that to the corals and start leaving them alone again. I have one I keep a close eye on for the same reason, been lucky so far.

Good luck.

 

[astrea]

You may be able to put a clear container in the tank for a day ........

I put a clear container with nori in it but it seems all the other fishes are intersted in it too. We will see how it goes tonight.

Some people have had sucess with a small barbless fish hook with the angel's faverite food on it.......

Certainly "fishing" my own tank will be my last resort but a good idea nevertheless.

Perhaps you are trying to run a real "clean" tank and it's just hungry ......

That is a possibility so I am leaving Nori in a container all the time, I just got home and it has been steering clear of the container but all the other fishes seem to be loving it.
Thanks for the ideas I will keep you posted on the results.