Fish advise

nud476 · Jan 9, 2024

I'm in Huntsville and relatively new to salt water, I have a 65 gallon that has been set up for about 10 months that has 2 clowns, 1 Flame Angel and a Flame Hawkfish; 1 clove coral, and 3 little Zoa frags on an island rock

Q1. This weekend I introduced 4 fish; 2 damsels, Diamond Goby and Royal Gama and my Hawkfish LOST ITS MIND and brutally attacked everything. So, I caught him and put him in the sump... the royal gamma lost a fin, but everything survived. Do I need to try and find a good home for this Flame Hawkfish or is there a way he can be reintroduced? Its a really cool fish, but I dont want him killing everything. I think I read somewhere that Hawkfish dont really like Gobies, blennies or Gammas?
Q2. My new diamond Goby is covering my Zoa island rock. Completely covering it...its actually entertaining to watch, he works his butt off moving sand from all over. Question is can I put a new rock in there and deter him from using that rock, or would it be easier to relocate the Zoa's...Zoas kinda need light and cant get that underneath sand.

Thanks for the help, does anyone in the forum ever meet up anywhere local?
Thanks again,
Sean

vetteguy53081 · Jan 9, 2024

nud476 said:
I'm in Huntsville and relatively new to salt water, I have a 65 gallon that has been set up for about 10 months that has 2 clowns, 1 Flame Angel and a Flame Hawkfish; 1 clove coral, and 3 little Zoa frags on an island rock

Q1. This weekend I introduced 4 fish; 2 damsels, Diamond Goby and Royal Gama and my Hawkfish LOST ITS MIND and brutally attacked everything. So, I caught him and put him in the sump... the royal gamma lost a fin, but everything survived. Do I need to try and find a good home for this Flame Hawkfish or is there a way he can be reintroduced? Its a really cool fish, but I dont want him killing everything. I think I read somewhere that Hawkfish dont really like Gobies, blennies or Gammas?
Q2. My new diamond Goby is covering my Zoa island rock. Completely covering it...its actually entertaining to watch, he works his butt off moving sand from all over. Question is can I put a new rock in there and deter him from using that rock, or would it be easier to relocate the Zoa's...Zoas kinda need light and cant get that underneath sand.

Thanks for the help, does anyone in the forum ever meet up anywhere local?
Thanks again,
Sean

Probably yes. Flame hawks if they had horns would be a relative of the devil. At a time, I always wanted one. Finally found a nice one and it went after my anthias, flame angel, ate all my shrimps and tried to steal all the food - Never again for me

KrisReef · Jan 9, 2024

The sump is the home for the "devil."

My sand sifter casts sand everywhere. If you move the island and it doesn't bury them in the new location I think you should try it? Otherwise, find a higher location for the zoa's with more current to prevent/deter the burial fish from working in that location and let the water currents clean the zoa's if the fish can't be deterred in his vulgar spitting habit.