CBS tearing up coral and RBTA

[errand]

I have had my CBS for about 4 months, MacGregor we called him. He's beautiful, very active, molts usually every 6 weeks I think, goes all about the tank with his hands feeling for snacks, and knows when its feeding time as he jumps up and grabs the feeding tube.

The orange clownfish likes to hassle him - nip at his antennae then dive back into his nem, when MacGregor lunges back at him. And repeat. The nems are on top of the rocks, MacGregor's cave is underneath.

Anyway he was fine until this week, and I caught him lunging at sneaky clownfish who bolted back to his RBTA - and Macgregor actually grabbed a tentacle in his big claw and stretched and nipped it off, then stuffed it into his mouth, spat it out. I can tell you he nearly had a short trip back to the fish shop on the spot. But i thought, I'll watch him for a while.

Then yesterday, i caught him take a determined nip of my hammer coral and pinch off some of the polyps, stuff them into his mouth then violently spit them back out, and try to clean his antenna and hands.

I have actually noticed little bright green balls collecting on the sand in some places, and thought maybe the hammer was dropping them off for some reason - one of the heads has been a bit shrunken a lot of the time.

Tonight I come home from work and first 2 minutes of gazing into the tank, he does it right in front of me again - makes a big swing at the hammer with his claw, stuffs the bits in his mouth and then quickly spits them all out, almost like he's coughing and spitting.

I thought these guys were reef safe?? He usually is so gentle with the corals, he goes all over the tank feeling in stuff with his little white hands, never nips anything - well never used to.

 

My only thought was something is wrong, he's not happy with something and I can't work out what it is since he seems normal/healthy apart from this ghastly behavior. The tank only has him and the two clowns in it, I've been feeding them all double lately in case he was just not getting enough food [mysis and brine shrimp every 1-2 days plus mussels], and the orange clownfish has always been a little jerk and teased him. Mind you at night Macgregor stalks the little orange clownfish for hours right next to the nems, they don't seem to get much sleep from flicking their tails and shooing him away.

 

I have set up a smaller frag tank that I'll have to put Macgregor in if this continues - I can't have something tearing up my coral and absolutely not my RBTA who cost about 6 times what Macgregor cost.

 

Anyone who has had CBS know what could be wrong with him or anything I could check to make him happier?

 

 

[j.falk]

It's what they are known for doing.  Mine used to rip the tentacles off of all the anemones I put in with it.  I finally got tired of it killing things and got rid of it.

 

 

[Tired]

He'll kill your fish if he gets the chance. Take him, or them, out before he does.

 

Probably he happened to taste a coral and realized they might be edible. Or he just got to a size where he feels confident going after them.