Yellow clown goby perching on new millepora frag

[paulsz]

Hi all,

 

I got a millepora frag on the weekend. Had great polyp extension on day 1. Then for the last 3 days, no polyp extension during the day. Only at night. Which gets me to believe it's because my yellow clown goby is perching on it throughout the day. Although he/she has a nice kenya tree to chill on (which it used to do before i got the frag) and a big muhsroom to sleep on, it chooses to try and hang on to a 1" mille frag. 

 

No nipping from I have seen. Only chilling on it.

 

Which brings me to my question: Will the ycg chilling on the frag stress the coral enough to kill it? I mostly ask because I know that acros and milles are sensitive, especially when first introduced.   

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, paulsz said:

Hi all,

 

I got a millepora frag on the weekend. Had great polyp extension on day 1. Then for the last 3 days, no polyp extension during the day. Only at night. Which gets me to believe it's because my yellow clown goby is perching on it throughout the day. Although he/she has a nice kenya tree to chill on (which it used to do before i got the frag) and a big muhsroom to sleep on, it chooses to try and hang on to a 1" mille frag. 

 

No nipping from I have seen. Only chilling on it.

 

Which brings me to my question: Will the ycg chilling on the frag stress the coral enough to kill it? I mostly ask because I know that acros and milles are sensitive, especially when first introduced.   

It's not going to hurt it - but you should watch your tank to see if it is actually the YCG bumping it and causing it to retract it's polyps or if it is something else. Bigger fish like clowns can rub the flesh off corals in spots from the way they treat their hosts, but YCGs and most other perching fish don't hurt anything.

[paulsz]

14 minutes ago, jservedio said:

It's not going to hurt it - but you should watch your tank to see if it is actually the YCG bumping it and causing it to retract it's polyps or if it is something else. Bigger fish like clowns can rub the flesh off corals in spots from the way they treat their hosts, but YCGs and most other perching fish don't hurt anything.

thanks! I have a clown but it doesn't approach it at all. It sleeps in the corner at night. It looks like its the YCG that is touching it only. 

 

 

[paulsz]

So i think I saw him nipping at it this afternoon. Not sure though because he looks like tries to balance on it with his fin and the flow is too strong so he jukes backwards. Which makes it look like he's nipping. But I dont see any bite marks in the corals tissue. So I could be wrong. 

 

Another question, can I move him into an inverted hob filter container? I would have the HOB filter (old aquaclear 30) on in reverse, so the container is sitting inside the tank but hanging on the rim. I would drill holes for flow and throw in a mushroom for the ycg to chill on so he isn't lonely. This would only be for a few days or a week, until I can get him a decent size "permanent" timeout box. 

 

Would that be cruel?

 

Edit: to clarify, the filter would not be on use. It's just the container being used as a temporary timeout box. 

[jservedio]

3 hours ago, paulsz said:

So i think I saw him nipping at it this afternoon. Not sure though because he looks like tries to balance on it with his fin and the flow is too strong so he jukes backwards. Which makes it look like he's nipping. But I dont see any bite marks in the corals tissue. So I could be wrong. 

Perching won't hurt, but if it's nipping the acros polyps, that's not good. Do you have any other SPS in the tank? If not, you may have hit the unlucky lottery on YCGs. I've never personally had one that nipped SPS and both mine lived with fuzzy acros, but a lot of people report they will nip SPS polyps.

 

Feed it really well and hope for the best. If it is nipping, it's not a problem that the milli being bigger will solve for a really long time.

[paulsz]

11 minutes ago, jservedio said:

Perching won't hurt, but if it's nipping the acros polyps, that's not good. Do you have any other SPS in the tank? If not, you may have hit the unlucky lottery on YCGs. I've never personally had one that nipped SPS and both mine lived with fuzzy acros, but a lot of people report they will nip SPS polyps.

 

I've had some birdsnest in the old tank that this ycg was in. No nipping there. Had some montis too, no nipping. It did nip at an LPS (cyphastrea) a few months ago. But more so on the meaty skin rather than on the polyps. 

[Murphs_Reef]

Mine will sit on most of my coral , he likes to mix it up from time to time.

What you may find is that it's not nipping the coral rather, he has seen and scoped up a pod. My YCG will hunt then during feeding, and initially it does look like nipping until you see it on other surfaces like rock and glass 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Yellow Clown Gobies are notorious for munching on SPS polyps. If your polyps are retracted, he’s probably munching on it (especially if he isn’t eating when you feed the tank). We had one, and all though adorable, we ended up rehoming him, because he couldn’t keep the polyps out of his mouth. 

[Tired]

Clown gobies will do that, yep. They often aren't safe for SPS. You may want to consider which you'd rather have, the mille or the clown goby.

 

The filter would be OK as a timeout, yes. But I wouldn't put a clown goby permanently in anything smaller than 2-3 gallons, so you'd need a big timeout box as a permanent home. 

[paulsz]

6 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Yellow Clown Gobies are notorious for munching on SPS polyps.

It's hit or miss what from what i've seen. And like i said, he never touched the birdnests i had in the old tank. Only time ive seen him munch is the meaty part around the polyps of a cyphastrea. 

 

I will give him a timeout in the filter box for a few days, to see if the polyps extend. Then i'll have to make a decision from there.