Yellow tang nipping at my acans!

[jmreef]

I have a hungry yellow tang who has made it a habit to nip at my acans. I watched him swim down and nip at several acans today. I noticed a few were not opening up. Could he damage them? Is it time to 86 him back to my lfs?

 

[4FordFamily]

Yeah it is well documented that every once in a blue moon tangs get a taste for coral.

Other times they're picking at slime that looks like algae coming off of the coral or actual algae growing in and around it. Unfortunately I've not heard of this getting much better over time.

I had a purple tang that picked at clam mantles until it killed my clams. I had a 10" and a 6" maxima!

 

[jmreef]

He hits the flesh. My acans get pretty fat and the other problem is he attacks them when spot feeling. I have to talk to my lfs and see if they'll take him if this continues. Even my firefish tells him "not a good idea to be messing with his acans"

 

[eatbreakfast]

How often do you feed? Do you provide algae sheets for grazing? Tangs are grazers by nature, so not having food to graze makes it more likely they may nip. Also, corals host symbiotic algae in their tissue. Not getting enough to eat makes it more likely they will nip.