Can fast growing or other coral survive with non-reef safe fish?

[Trever]

I'm considering a FOWLR down the road, so I can have the spectacular species I admire (I don't have a list, but).

One hears "that fish will eat coral, not reef safe".

Ok, I get that, but I'm wondering if things like zineas and other "weed" corals can grow faster than they get consumed? Or are there some coral that even coral eating fish won't touch (will zoas poison the fish?)?

Is it not possible to have coral at all in a FOWLR? (I realize that by definition, it doesn't have corals, but trying to understand the ecology that might be possible or impossible in a tank.)

I don't really like the idea of a tank with just a bunch of rock and fish... and artificial corals and what not give me the creeps.

 

[Afaylenerich88]

Okay so. Let's make one thing clear. There is no such thing as *reef safe fish* it's just a term we use for what ever confusing reason. It's either your fish will eat the coral, pester them, or leave them alone *reef safe* or not.
My Clow fish had purple stylo for dinner a few night's till I cought them. So it's a 50/50% on this one bud. All I can say is try it out. Take it slow. And watch your tank closely.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I'm interested to see what others have to say but I'll elaborate that reef safe can mean different things- for instance things classified as not reef safe may just mean they eat your CUC but not touch your corals, or in the case of lionfish they don't bother corals but are not safe with other "reef fish" that can fit into their mouths. Fish that are Invert safe, coral safe and fish safe are the species I think of when someone ask for something reef safe but its definitely a bit of a grey area. The good news is most of those weed corals are pretty cheap so theres some room to experiment!

 

[Afaylenerich88]

Lfs near me has 3 frags for 30$ could find some good things hidden in the eye candy. If macroalgae interests you. Would be cool to have some feather colurpa, or red dragon. Maybe a gargoainan? Let us know how it turns out.

 

[ca1ore]

Reef safe simply means that a fish likely won’t eat the inverts in your tank .... not 100% though. Some listed as not reef safe are because they’ll eat corals, others because they’ll eat shrimp or snails. Some fish are noted as ‘with caution’ meaning they are likely to do some damage. Fish listed as not reef safe are usually obligate coralivores. Unlikely that any coral grows fast enough to avoid being wiped out by the latter .... unless you have an absolutely massive tank.

 

[mort]

It's quite an open question that really depends on the fish you want to keep and the corals you are willing to try. Some fish only go for certain corals and you can have good luck keeping them with other coral species, whereas some fish will just eat anything.
Zoas tend to be one of the most popular corals to eat and even if you had a tank full of them, you could see them dissappear overnight. Other things like mushrooms and soft leather corals, xenia etc are quite noxious and foul tasting, so you might have luck with them.

You would likely have some success if you had a tank full of weed type corals before you introduced the fish, just be prepared to lose some of them.

 

[Sallstrom]

You'll need are really large tank if you want to have corals that are in certain fish's diet. We had 2 organge spotted filefish in a 10000 litre reef tank at my work, and it worked well. But then we had a lot of corals in there. A butterflyfish in a 2000 litre tank with a Galaxea sp, a colony the size of two basket balls, didn't work in the long run for example.
But if you figure out what fish you like, then you can start searching for corals suitable for the tank. Montipora species are a category I don't think many fish graze upon for example. Unless you want parrotfish maybe

Then, like mentioned before, a fish like lionfish work fine with corals but not with small algae grazing fish or shrimps. Finding fun algae grazers for a cuttlefish tank isn't easy, if you don't settle for just sea urchins in the CUC. Cuttlefish do great with corals otherwise.

So it's just to do a lot of research on forums like this when you decided what fish you want, to see what it eats and not.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

I bought my 300 specifically to keep an Emperor, Blueline, and Blueface; had the same question as the op. I stocked the tank with a few different Xenia species, GSP, blue clove, Kenya tree... pretty much every coral that can be considered a pita. Let the coral grow/spread a bit before adding the angels. The angels definitely do some damage but the Xenia and GSP grow fast enough to sustain the damage. The angels wiped out the Sinularia, palys, and Discomas but ignored the Rhodactis. Kenya Tree and leathers are still there but not thriving like the others. Angels will nip any nem that doesn't have clowns protecting it.