Coral Beauty nipping here and there.

My coral beauty I purchased a month ago has started to nip at some of my soft coral and SPS. It leaves the LPS alone and my Zoas and mushrooms, but has started to nip at my Acro and Sinularia. What should I do? the nips are far a view between and it will just take a nip and keep moving. I would say nips atleast 3 times a day. The nips dont seem to cause much dmage but I dont want to keep her if they are causing damage. help

 

definitely keep an eye on it. dwarfs come with the nipping caution. if it keeps it up, it may have to go. unfortunately

 

I bought a Coral Beauty a month or two back. I have had one in all my reef tanks. Never had major problems.

But this new one got a little nippy when I threw a monster montipora digitata directly under the light in his cruising lane.

I began to wonder if he was just irritated that I was cramping his style. He would just nip now and then - maybe not enough to kill it, but I could see that it was not happy with his nips and he didn't seem happy to have to stop on a dime not to run into it.

So this is what I did, that has actually worked for me to get him to stop recently...

I took this monster digitata and I fragged the heck out of it into about 5 little frags.

I took these little frags and I placed them up out of his path on rock arches near the water surface where it would be difficult for him to swim up to. Beyond the difficulty, I thought there would be safety in numbers by having multiple frags so that if he still nipped, he would have to spread it around.

Everybody is happy now.

I took the frags and I placed them up out of his cruising lanes and he doesn't touch them.

Food for thought. Maybe you can do something similar.

matt

 

I have a lemonpeel and a flame angel and they nip all day at rocks. My lemonpeel however nips every so often at a Kenya Tree coral that I have. Its not happy....it closes up all the time.

I am just hoping it stops...we'll see.

Just keep an eye on things....if it does major damage it may have to go....or you can try to move things around like Matt said

 

I caught my tailspot blenny nipping my duncan. I gave him a good, stern talking to. I caught him doing it again and got so frustrated that I took him out and gave him a spanking. I felt so bad that I locked myself in the bedroom and cried for hours at what I'd allowed myself to do in a fit of anger. I gathered my faculties and I apologized. Later and told him it was me that had a problem. We talked all night long, just as we did when we first met. We were able to reconcile and we've been moving forward with our relationship amicably.

 

Matt's idea isn't bad, but it seems very context specific. You should have bought the angel with the idea in mind that it could nip, it's what they do. I've been lucky enough in that my CB hasn't nipped at my corals yet. It's a risk that you need to weigh, the beauty and joy of the fish, or the fact it nips.

 

Yes I purchased with the nip disclosure in mind, however aware of the risk I was always fully commited to the fact that if the risk became/becomes realitiy then the risk will have to go. simple as that.

I do not intend to frag my acro becuase I am limited on space. and I dont beleve this acro is in her running lane but perhaps I may just move the acro around. (but that still leaves the Softies)


I have came up with an idea that I hope will work.

I pull up a chair and wait. just as more Coral Beauty gets into nipping position of my Acro or Sinularia, I startle her abruplty by knuckling the glass. Leave her alone as she nips along the live rock then repeat.

I got her trained to know when its feeding time by tapping a spoon on the bottom of the tank so maybe JUST MAYBE I can train her to know the corals arent her food. We will see.

But as I said before even if not, Im not sure the lite and occasional nips she is taking is enough to cause damage. This is a question I still dont have the answer to. ?

 

How often are you feeding and what are you feeding? You may want to consider upping your feeding to help limit nipping, it may not solve the issue, but it is worth a shot.

 

I trained my cleaner shrimp to not walk on corals at feeding time, and to show up at a certain rock if it wants to get fed. I just used the turkey baster I was using to feed it to scare the bejesus out of it. I imagine a angel will be easier to train than a shrimp, so the plan might work.

 

Try placing some nori on a clip in the tank. The coral beauty will likely nip preferentially at the nori rather than on the corals. I have found that if you keep angels well fed throughout the day, they are less likely to bother your corals. Just my 2 cents.