fish nippin at coral, any ideas?

[rhidien]

I've got a bi-colored blenny that seems to like the taste of my orange cap. as well as another plate coral I'm not sure the name of? They have both been in my tank for a few month and showing signifigant growth till he started at them.
Right now I'm waiting for some aragocrete rock I made to finish curing, before adding more live rock to the tank. I've only got about 60 pounds in a 80 gal tank of fiji as it is. Hasn't been a problem, as I'm stocking it low and slow till that rock finishes and has some time in the tank; anyway I'm hoping he'll then have more distractions and leave it alone. For now I strapped it to a powerhead and moved it up to the top of the tank, he doesn't really venture to far from the rocks, so it seems okay...less bite marks anyway! I'm hoping it won't bleach, but only having pc's should be okay.
I guess what I'm trying to get at; does anyone out there have any better ideas, besides catching him and either parting with the little bugger or heaven forbid, starting up another "softie" tank! Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[mojoreef]

Thats a tough one Rhidien, Nikki just went through the same thing. Usually once they get the taste for them they dont stop. Probibly best to return him now before it gets harder to catch him.


Sorry ...no good news.


Mike

 

[bc_slc]

i have no personal experience with this, but i have seen lots of people that banish the offending fish to their refugium for a week or two. Once returned, they may stop the nipping.

 

[NaH2O]

Sorry rhidien! As Mike said, I had trouble with one (and have heard similar stories). He started off fine, but developed a taste for the M. digitata I had in the tank. After that, he moved onto my Acro. I had plenty of algae in the tank for it to eat, too - 140 pounds of live rock in a 120 gallon. Not much I could do but catch him, which wasn't all that easy. He sat at the trap door and wouldn't go in....grrrr. Eventually though, he was captured, and now resides in a nano tank with softies and a small LPS.

 

[Beckmola24]

I have a bi-color blenny that i WAS planning on putting in my new tank.... I had him with numerous types of SPS and the only one I ever noticed him nipping at was a M. digita. Does anyone else have a problem with this???

 

[rhidien]

Dadgumit...hehe...was hoping there would be some sort of fish behavior schooling solution I was overlooking! Perhaps a slap on the fins with a ruler will teach him some obedience!
Well....lets just say I decide to set up a second "nano" tank for the little guy... 10 gallon tanks are cheap and if I just put some xenia and shrooms in there with him, shouldn't need a whole lot of light..but with such a light load, do you think it would be okay skimmerless? The idea of buying more live rock is hard enough, dread the idea of buying another skimmer...plus if I did it, it would be at the tattoo shop I work at, so not much room for a lot of extra equipment.
thank-
bryan

 

[NaH2O]

It should be fine skimmerless. My 12 gallon is skimmerless...you just have to keep up with waterchanges.