Sailfin tang eating corals ?

[SaltISlife]

I have a really big sailfin tang in my tank. And im starting to notice he is biting my corals and eating them.

I feed them 2-3 times a day. Nori and marine flakes. Hes really fat so it isnt like hes starving.


Hes been eating my wellsophyllia coral. He just went to it for the like 5th time in the last week and took chunks out of it.

Ive jad him for 2 years. I was given thr fish by a guy getting out of the hobby. And this is the first time ive spotted him doing this. Only to this coral so far.. However ive also noticed more aggression in him as time goe by. Not physically attacking fish but he just seems (too comfortable) if that makes sense.

Do sailfin tangs eat corals ? Is this normal ? I have another tank i can put him in. But its a 60g hexagon. Vs the 135 gallon hes in. And with fish prices the way they are. Im not just giving a 2-300$ 7-8 inch sailfin for free to a local store lol

 

[Oiva]

No fish is really «reef safe» from my experiance. But reef safe fish rearly are seen eating or picking on Corals.

I have seen a tang, i think it was either sail or scoopas that ate/munched on Zoa’s. I have seen my old powder blue eat on my sarcophyton.

maybe get a 3D printed or acrylic cage for the coral, he might forget and loose interest.

 

[Anthony Scholfield]

I have a large desjardini sailfin and he definately munched on a trachy i had which ended up perishing. No more trachys in my tank Ive seen him nip at some other things but nothing like the trachy.

 

[Timfish]

My suspicion is there was a problem with the coral. I've seen tangs go after an acan colony that ate some obviously damaged polyps but left most of the "healthy" polyps alone when it got knocked over onto the sand. Here's a video of a heniochus eating a damaged frogspawn polyp, it's left all the other polyps alone since this happened last summer.

 

[SaltISlife]

Na the coral is super healthy. He just eats the top layer of flesh off. Seems to only be this coral too. Welsophylia is a type of trachy coral

 

[austibella]

I have never seen my sailfish which is about 8 inches and fat eat any coral but he is getting a bit aggressive i have a 180 gal and all my fish are getting so big I am seeing a bit of aggression .I need a bigger tank around 350- 400 gallon just ust can't afford one right now.

 

[Timfish]

What is your feeding schedule? This sailfin was very aggressive after rehoming to this 240. Whenever he saw his food container get picked up he became very active and everyone else in the tank when into hiding. Adding two autfeeders at each end of the tank feeding small amounts at the same time multiple times a day in addition to it's normal feeding helped calm him down quite a bit. This paper might give you some insights as to when a fish needs to be rehomed

Stereotypies as animal welfare indicators

ZAWEC (Zoo Animal Welfare Education Centre – Centro de Educación en Bienestar de Animales de Zoológico) ha sido creado por una iniciativa conjunta del Zoo de Barcelona y del grupo de etología y bienestar animal del Servicio de Nutrición y Bienestar Animal (SNiBA) de la Facultad de Veterinaria de...

www.zawec.org

 

[bud217]

I had one at one time that did the same thing. No matter how much he was fed, one he got a taste of coral he kept going back.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I have a sailfin in my tank about 2 months now. This past week end I caught him nipping at my gorgoinias. So much in fact that the polyps are not coming out now

 

[michael23]

Is it because of target feed? the smell that attract them? that what reef shop told me as it happened to my two yellow tang. Since now yellow tang become "gold tang" , it easy for me to let go and gain some extra $ to buy other fish