yellow tang niping my clam

[sabalough]

I have a very nice, fat,happy, well-fed yellow tang (in my reef for a little over a mounth now) tonight I saw it nip my blue maxima. the clam retracted instantly, and came out in a short while later. I dont see any damage to the clam. Is this normal/common for a tang? I hope the tang dosen't develope the taste for clam.
Steve,

 

[Stubing]

I don't expect you will see that happen again, seeing as Tangs are herbivores. Hopefully he was just investigating. Are you feeding him seaweed sheets with a vegie clip?

 

[sabalough]

yes, I feed it seaweed sheets, as well as a vast assortment of frozen and flake foods.

herbivore? shure likes bs, misis shrimp, cyclopese,etc.

seems like no one has had a problem with a tang eating corals/clams. I'll watch it closely ,but am not so woried now.
Steve,

 

[northbay-reefer]

as long as the tang doesn't constantly nipping at the clam or taking pieces off of the clam then it will be ok. I have a damsel that is taking pieces of my clam so am going to do some spear fishing tonight

 

[H^2 Salt]

a lot of times tangs will nip at the shell (just natural behavoir) and it looks like there are nipping the clam but they really aren't!!!

 

[rxdi]

You'll have to take the the tang out. I had a cleaner shrimp that was picking on my clam. So I got rid of it but the clam wasn't healing in the area. I finally caught my blue tang picking at it also. I tried putting a sheet of lexan just above the clam to protect it, but the tang got under it and keep picking at it. So I had to get rid of the tang too.

You can see the white area in the middle of the clam from the tang picking on it

 

[sabalough]

RXDI thanks for the great picture. my clam shows no signs of damage but now I know what to look for.

was your clam able to recover?
Steve,