Powder blue eating Torch?!?!

[nbd13]

Hey,

just got a new torch coral and my fat powder blue tang is nipping at the tentacles and breaking small pieces off?!?!

I have a few other hammers and torches that he leaves alone, but not this new piece?

I know he’s not hungry and he is about 3/4” thick.

Should I try moving the coral to another spot? Give it time?

It’s only 2 heads so I’m worried he’ll destroy it before he leaves it alone! What gives?

 

[salt2salt]

Return torch to lfs

 

[nbd13]

Anyone else?

 

[G Santana]

If you have an isolation box, place it in there and maybe it will learn it's off limits. Other than that, I got nothing!

 

[Vette67]

In my experience, once they get a taste for coral, they don’t go back. I had a hippo tang that got a taste for coral. It killed a nice elegance coral that I had. Ate it. And then started going for a frogspawn. I had to trade the tang back in to the LFS, but I didn’t admit why. I’d get rid of that coral soon and hope the tang doesn’t look elsewhere. Otherwise, you may have have to trade in the tang or keep SPS only....

But I would try to change that bad habit quickly. Hopefully yours can be retrained to not like LPS coral.

 

[kartrsu]

In my experience, once they get a taste for coral, they don’t go back. I had a hippo tang that got a taste for coral. It killed a nice elegance coral that I had. Ate it. And then started going for a frogspawn. I had to trade the tang back in to the LFS, but I didn’t admit why. I’d get rid of that coral soon and hope the tang doesn’t look elsewhere. Otherwise, you may have have to trade in the tang or keep SPS only....

I had the same experience with my hippo tang. Nipped my torches and Duncan. Also chopped up my ricordea. Sucks, he was quarantined for 2 months. He promptly went back to the LFS.