Bubble Coral ate my firefish

[elryry]

Checked my tank last night to my firefish being consumed by my bubble coral. The firefish was healthy (swimming around, darting, eating) early in the day.

Should I be worried about losing other fish to this coral? Should I just pump pellet food into it to keep its appetite down? I’d really have to lose my juvenile yellow tang to the same fate :confounded-face:

 

[blaxsun]

Unless the firefish died and got carried into the bubble coral? But yes, if the coral is large enough it's a possibility. There's nothing you can really do with stupid fish... (tangs aren't the sharpest)

 

[elryry]

Unless the firefish died and got carried into the bubble coral? But yes, if the coral is large enough it's a possibility. There's nothing you can really do with stupid fish... (tangs aren't the sharpest)

This coral is about 6” x 4”. I assume it could potentially take down most any fish in my tank

 

[blaxsun]

This coral is about 6” x 4”. I assume it could potentially take down most any fish in my tank

I lost a naso tang to an elegance and a clown tang to a condy anemone (both were smaller than that). Outside of those two fish I haven't lost anything else to corals. Tangs can be really stupid sometimes...

I'm assuming if you've had the bubble coral and yellow tang together for a while that the tang has worked it out.

 

[Reefering1]

I have a similar sized bubble coral. I don't see how it could hold on to a healthy fish trying to get away. It does catch and hold food with tentacles, bringing it to mouth. But, many times, I've watched that food get taken or blown away in the current.

 

[Reefering1]

My tangs are jerks, they take the food from bubble coral. I could see anemone being different story

 

[exnisstech]

The fish probably died first or couldn't swim. I've had a bubble coral for 6 years that's almost as big as a socker ball and it struggles to catch mysis and eat it.

 

[exnisstech]

Should I just pump pellet food into it to keep its appetite down

It's not like it's going to start stalking and capturing fish.
I haven't target fed mine in years. It gets a lot of light and whatever it can catch when I feed fish

 

[elryry]

The fish probably died first or couldn't swim. I've had a bubble coral for 6 years that's almost as big as a socker ball and it struggles to catch mysis and eat it.

Unfortunately it did not die first. It was very much alive while being eaten.

 

[exnisstech]

Unfortunately it did not die first. It was very much alive while being eaten.

So you watched it being eaten alive and didn't try removing it?
I have serous doubts my bubble could devour a fish that size as I've seen the size of the mouths on it but mine may be a different type or I'm just lucky :thinking-face:

 

[elryry]

So you watched it being eaten alive and didn't try removing it?
I have serous doubts my bubble could devour a fish that size as I've seen the size of the mouths on it but mine may be a different type or I'm just lucky :thinking-face:

Yeah, I don't know what your point is here. The fish was half consumed and very much damaged from the encounter when I came across it. Should I have pulled it out to feed it to my toilet instead?

I do, however, appreciate the anecdotes that this is uncommon and I shouldn't be too worried about recurrence.

 

[Doctorgori]

Might be a missing variable here, IME bubble corals never seemed that dangerous to me … you sure?

 

[elryry]

Might be a missing variable here, IME bubble corals never seemed that dangerous to me … you sure?

Yeah, I am positive the fish was behaving normally when fed earlier in the day yesterday. The only variable I can think of is one of my storm clownfish injuring it, but they've been together for a year or so.

 

[exnisstech]

Yeah, I don't know what your point is here. The fish was half consumed and very much damaged from the encounter when I came across it.

You said it was very much alive while it was being eaten yet now you say it was half consumed when you came across it.
So I guess my point is I have serous doubts as to a bubble coral catching killing and eating a healthy fish that size and if new people to the hobby see this thread and believe that it may scare someone from getting a wonderful coral to add to their system. The fish was probably half consumed by cuc or other fish and drifted into the bubble. But this is your thread so I'll bow out and hopefully I didn't affend you.

 

[Lavey29]

The fish was probably sick or injured and very weak near death when it drifted into the coral or maybe even tried to hide from a fish attack. What you observed was probably its last moment of fighting for survival like any animal does. Bubble corals just aren't designed to capture and kill fish that size but certainly would take advantage of a floating injured fish that can no longer swim with enough strength to get away. Additionally fish know typically not to swim into potential predators but some occasionally do probably looking for left over food bits. Mine never swim near my torches or gonis or plate coral but peck food out of easy corals like acans.