A.m.P Posted November 9, 2019 Share Posted November 9, 2019 So I recently had a bit of a tank crash, during this crash most of my sps rtn'd or started to stn pretty aggressively. During this time I noticed a bit of an oddity with my springers damselfish, it actively attacked and ate any flesh which was loose. In the aftermath one of the euphyllia I had ended up with brown-jelly and sure enough it was eating the polyps of that animal as well. During this time I've also seen it nip at, but leave visually-undamaged the surviving montipora, haven't noticed it going after the remaining, healthier euphyllia either. Leading up to the crash I did notice that a stylophora was missing polyps, never saw the fish go after them and assumed it was stress from having Dino's in the tank, now I'm not as certain. My question is, will most carnivorous fish go after dying coral flesh if they have the opportunity? Or is this behavior something to be concerned about, potentially warranting the capture and removal of the fish as a cause of stress and possible predator of the corals in the tank? Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 Damsels aren't carnivores, they're omnivores. They kinda just pick at whatever's available. If yours learned that the loose flesh was edible, it might have gotten a taste for what it found was easily available. If you've seen it picking at corals, it may be a problem. Some fish, even when they're usually reef-safe, will learn that something is edible it didn't know about before. 2 Quote Link to comment
A.m.P Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 I appreciated the response, got a few PM's too, I knew just about any opportunistic-predator could be conditioned to eat coral or whatever is available but figured I would wait it out and see if I caught it doing anything odd. It was ripping tentacles off a fully-extended alveopora and eating them, did the same thing to a frogspawn. Damn, out of the tank it goes, what a shame. Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 That's crazy.... Mine doesn't touch coral. 1 Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.