Safety Hazard: Have you ever had a "reef-safe" tank member become unsafe for your reef?

[AlyciaMarie]

Maybe the term "reef-safe" is subjective. Some people may be able to easily keep non-reef-safe critters, while others experience pure chaos from tank inhabitants that are generally considered peaceful! Today, let's talk about our reef's easy or peaceful members that turned sour...

Have you ever had a "reef-safe" tank member become unsafe for your reef?

 

[Gtinnel]

I once had a copperband butterfly that I couldn’t get to eat, and he eventually decided he liked the taste of hammer corals. I removed him from the tank and sadly he died a few days later.

 

[JayM]

I recently added an Emerald crab to see if it would munch on some bubble algae that's starting to sprout up again. He seemed to be picking at it for a few days, then disappeared. I figured he was dead as my success with keeping any sort of crab isn't very good.

Long story short, I found him picking on my hammer last night just after lights out. I quickly chased him away with a turkey baster, but he's headed to the sump or back to the LFS if he won't stay away from corals.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Well, I thought I was “reef safe”…. I for sure need to be removed from the equation!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Not necessarily. I had a foxface that I was always nervous about getting stung. But as far as tankmates to tankmates I always tried to keep it peaceful

 

[John Neuzil]

Maybe the term "reef-safe" is subjective. Some people may be able to easily keep non-reef-safe critters, while others experience pure chaos from tank inhabitants that are generally considered peaceful! Today, let's talk about our reef's easy or peaceful members that turned sour...

Have you ever had a "reef-safe" tank member become unsafe for your reef?

whats with all the surveys. one a day?

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

whats with all the surveys. one a day?

They’re training the ai model, ha

 

[Reefer Matt]

Yup. I had two separate (large) coral banded shrimp in two separate tanks. One killed fish, one ate zoas. Both were removed.

 

[vlangel]

Yes, I had a beautiful tomini who I guess was still reef safe but not roommate safe. He resided in my tank for years and picked at undesirables which made him very valuable besides just being beautiful. Recently I bought a female redfin fairy wrasse that he seems to take issue with. I did not want him to kill her and since my tank was on the small side for the tomini I re-home him to a friend who had huge frag grow out tanks where his services could still be appreciated.

 

[BryanM]

I chose other simply because when I started I did not know that reef safe with caution pretty much means nope, not reef safe.

So I've had to rehome a mithrax, filefish, foxface, and dwarf angel.... and the last two were fat.

Theres no more "with caution" in my tank.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I chose other simply because when I started I did not know that reef safe with caution pretty much means nope, not reef safe.

So I've had to rehome a mithrax, filefish, foxface, and dwarf angel.... and the last two were fat.

Theres no more "with caution" in my tank.

To be fair, even your tank was “reef safe with caution” wasn’t it? Funny not funny, sorry

 

[timmyrules]

I have a blue spot puffer that recently acquired a taste for my montis….fortunately for him, I love him wayyyyyy too much to rehome him.

 

[LiquidSpace]

Just clownfish being jerks to other fish.

 

[kdx7214]

Do holy terror clownfish count?

 

[dank.reefer]

I caught an emerald crab sitting on my Holy Grail torch. He was staring right at me tearing the tenticles out of a polyp and just letting them go. I thought I was having polyp ejection issues as I had lost another one of the heads on that torch earlier in the month and kept seeing the polyps in the sand. Then I caught him in action plucking away "she loves me/she loves me not."

After he was sumped the torch hasn't lost any more polyps. He just couldn't choose the highlighter or hellfire torch, it had to be the HG.

 

[threebuoys]

I removed a blue/yellow bi-color dwarf angel because he regularly nipped my coral. I removed a 3 spot damsel because he terrorized the rest of the tank killing several new additions.

 

[BryanM]

I caught an emerald crab sitting on my Holy Grail torch. He was staring right at me tearing the tenticles out of a polyp and just letting them go. I thought I was having polyp ejection issues as I had lost another one of the heads on that torch earlier in the month and kept seeing the polyps in the sand. Then I caught him in action plucking away "she loves me/she loves me not."

After he was sumped the torch hasn't lost any more polyps. He just couldn't choose the highlighter or hellfire torch, it had to be the HG.

dang.

I had a rock boring urchin sumped - He somehow got in to the pump return and committed suicide, and also had me replace pumps as it stopped working.

 

[DarkReefer]

Mine is a Yes, but I haven't removed them from the tank.

My Foxface decided it liked zoas and ate about $200 worth of new stock I bought a year or so back apart from one particular frag which they left alone. I'm now testing the waters with another frag I purchased recently for cheap. I'm also fairly sure it eats duncans too..
My Copperband wasn't eating much when we first got it but apparently had a taste for a fairly large $300 hammer which it destroyed quickly. I've just kind of accepted that I can't really keep LPS anymore...

 

[BryanM]

Mine is a Yes, but I haven't removed them from the tank.

My Foxface decided it liked zoas and ate about $200 worth of new stock I bought a year or so back apart from one particular frag which they left alone. I'm now testing the waters with another frag I purchased recently for cheap. I'm also fairly sure it eats duncans too..
My Copperband wasn't eating much when we first got it but apparently had a taste for a fairly large $300 hammer which it destroyed quickly. I've just kind of accepted that I can't really keep LPS anymore...

Both the foxface and copperband are "reef safe with caution" fish. I had to re home my foxface for the same reason.

 

[design.maddie]

This lil guy, my Yellow Clown Goby after about a year decided to really enjoy the taste of my Bird's Nest and other fuzzy SPS corals. They never created enough of a problem to require capture.