Yellow clown goby killing elegance coral

[kitkat717]

Ever heard of this? My little yellow clown goby loves my new elegance coral and sits on it all day. The elegance coral does not like this. The first few days I had it it did ok, not great, but it was mostly open, full. Now it seems to be obviously receeding with this little yellow guy sitting on him ALL day.

What should I do? Let it die?

 

[steveb013]

Mine does the same thing!!

 

[grant778]

I would rearrange things first, and see if that stops the goby. If that fails, I would frag the coral in half, hoping that the goby would take to one, and would stay on the dead skeleton, and thus you could save the other.

 

[kitkat717]

I don't think I have the tools to cut it. I've tried shooing him away. I just moved things around tonight, maybe that will help. All it seemed to do was traumatized everyone, but we shall see!

Little brat, stop killing my most expensive coral!

 

[discocarp]

They naturally do this in acropora, where they perch and lay eggs on the undersides of branches. If you don't have any large acros, they'll sometimes find something else to pester.

 

[lhm nole]

I don't think I have the tools to cut it. I've tried shooing him away. I just moved things around tonight, maybe that will help. All it seemed to do was traumatized everyone, but we shall see!

Little brat, stop killing my most expensive coral!

Fragging a elegance in half odds are you will kill it especially since it is already stressed..I would just get rid of the goby

 

[Tweaked]

anyone in you vicinity have a dead sps skeleton? worked for my wife and her two clown gobies. Also a simple small frag rack in the right spot in the top of the tank can achieve the same results. GL

 

[kitkat717]

Well it died. So much for that. Of course the yellow clown goby doesn't care about it anymore, but the clowns like to pick stuff out of the skeleton.

Everything else is doing well, so I'm thinking the shipping process and subsequent tank transplant was just too much for it combined with the incessant perching of the yellow clown. If I get another I'll get a bigger one and probably spring for one off of divers den.

Thanks for the tips guys. I never knew the yellow clowns could be such a problem for LPS.

I guess this can serve as a warning for reefers in the future.

 

[youcallmenny]

I just lost a handful of sps colonies and almost lost two giant trachy's to both a yellow clown goby and acinnomen goby. Awful fish would just harass one colony/brain until it died. Lost ared dragon colony, my Oregon tort, two slimer acros before i realized it was actually fish doing it. One by one i lost coral until last week. My wife helped me tear every rock out of the tank just to get these two pests.

I'm never buying any kind of goby again.

 

[MikeyAl]

I just lost a handful of sps colonies and almost lost two giant trachy's to both a yellow clown goby and acinnomen goby. Awful fish would just harass one colony/brain until it died. Lost ared dragon colony, my Oregon tort, two slimer acros before i realized it was actually fish doing it. One by one i lost coral until last week. My wife helped me tear every rock out of the tank just to get these two pests.

I'm never buying any kind of goby again.

Don't blame the whole goby community . Lots of great gobies that won't harm your corals. I've had my watchman for years and he is peaceful and fun to watch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sk8r]

Sad, and a good warning for those particular species. OTOH, there are at least 16 species with distinctive behaviors, and most with good manners. The several species of shrimp gobies as a class do not bother corals: they burrow. The sand-cleaners like the dragon can impact corals through sand disruption, but even of the sand-cleaning sort, the yellow watchman hardly disturbs the tank at all, just makes one little mound every few weeks.

 

[youcallmenny]

Thanks for the tip. Perhaps I'll try a watchmen out instead. Kind of same same since we have a Isaiah already. Still, Nice to know it's an option.

Sad, and a good warning for those particular species. OTOH, there are at least 16 species with distinctive behaviors, and most with good manners. The several species of shrimp gobies as a class do not bother corals: they burrow. The sand-cleaners like the dragon can impact corals through sand disruption, but even of the sand-cleaning sort, the yellow watchman hardly disturbs the tank at all, just makes one little mound every few weeks.