Well, at the meeting, Jj and John, both pointed out a dislike for one of our fish. A foxface Rabbit. We had full tank, then it got infested (we waited to late to start the battle) The nasty little weeds, Aiptasia, took over. So it got down to starving, pulling rocks out to separtate and contain the crap, lemmon juice, calcium pellets, Needless to say, we believe our foxface picked up a bad habbit of rock grazing during the starvation period. We never saw the fat b@st@rd eating them, but everthing we read, says if unfead, they will start nipping.
Q= Will he keep this bad habbit? or Will he become
The Blackend Rabbit fish on the grill at the end of the day?
She wants to give him another chance, He has probally ate well over 50 bucks in coral,
I say light the propane. PBJ!
Any fish - regardless of “reef friendly” or not if left to starve will evetually eat something you don’t want it to.
The key to keeping them from doing it is to kep them fat and happy. Feed them everyday and they won’t pick at your corals (at least they shouldn’t). Keep in mind the mroe you feed the more fish poop and the faster your water will foul so you need to keep up to date on your water changes, skimming, etc.
The problem here is that people buy rabbit fish to eliminate aiptasia, asking it to nip one thing but not something else on the menu is like asking a jersey boy to just eat the pizza but not the cheese steaks LOL
Another point about them is even if they only want the aiptasia, they do not really eliminate it, more like keep the numbers down (if you have tons of them i mean) i bought peppermint shrimp a year ago and they ate all (or i thought all) of them visible but alas after a year i see two of them behind a rock.
He might not stop picking at the corals, hate to say it, and then if he only ate the aiptasia and fully eliminated them whats to happen to the fish then?
I’ve had luck in the past with boiling water and injecting or spraying the area the aiptasia is at.
[quote=“logans_daddy, post:5, topic:2727”]
Are rabbitfish known for eating aipstasia? Ive never heard such a thing.[/quote]
that fat b@st@rd never touched the weeds, his taste must of been higher.
We did buy Buterfly, something, he was supposed to eat it, but alas, he was overwealmed. Died of a heart attack at the sight of the tank, floated to the top of the bag, had a white towel in his fin… sigh… The cat looked at us and said, you killed another fish, Happy? The shrimp, didn’t work, long straws, send a pinch of calcium down them, little white disolving piles everywhere, death came in a 2 inch tall can.
“Before I posted , I saw tims correction, and it was a copperband that we tried.”
Wow, I only got an hour of sleep last night, but regardless I’m glad Shawn said something and I’m not the only one confused.
So what fish died in a bag and what fish do you have now that is a problem? There are many different types of rabbit fish and countless different types of butterflies.
Regardless though I have to second what Craig said that feeding may help, but watch the levels and if you still have aptasia problems the extra food may feed it as well. If it is a rabbitfish they like veggies, find it’s favorite type or throw in a mixture.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:9, topic:2727”]
Regardless though I have to second what Craig said that feeding may help, but watch the levels and if you still have aptasia problems the extra food may feed it as well. If it is a rabbitfish they like veggies, find it’s favorite type or throw in a mixture. [/quote]
We have the aptasia under control, one still pops up regulaly, we might have to just remove that one rock for a month , then reinstall it. It seems it has found a deep hole to live in. Been hard to kill the last one. But a few day before the meeting, we had just bought a soft coral Blemy family, and Maroon clown, knocks it down, we put it back, he knocks it down, we put it in a new location. We came home, it was down again, and ate down to nothing. MIA… We had been feeding the fish regularly (we thought so). So were kinda leaning towards the foxface rabbit developed a taste for coral. We’re going to get a new bubbletip for Nemo, to see if this calms his attitude. Getting tired of every night putting the rocks back in place. Next step, gluing all the rocks together. That’ll fix him…
With rabbit face one the venom and everything i have read about them as being reef safe they have yes with caution so to be and my mind set if there a chance he could i am going to do away with the chance and not have him.
I’ve got a rabbit fish (orange spot) in my tank and have never had an issue with him eating corals. Fortunately he’s also a scaredy cat and as soon as I put my hand in the tank it takes off to the other side so it’s never speared me with a spine either.
Your best best wit Aptasia is to take the rock out of the tank to nuke it. If you try to kil them in the tank and stress it it becomes more likely to reproduce and cause another plague. Animals to cure a problem are not usually a good idea as once the problem is gone you’re stuck with a fish that requires special needsa, or diet, or is something you may not want due to venom or it’s desire to nip/pick at coral.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:12, topic:2727”]
Animals to cure a problem are not usually a good idea as once the problem is gone you’re stuck with a fish that requires special needsa, or diet, or is something you may not want due to venom or it’s desire to nip/pick at coral.[/quote]
HIGHLY agree with this statement, but it can be difficult for someone new to the hobby to make sense of this.(Especially when an LFS is pushing sales of more animals) WAY too many sources point to having a certain number of snails/hermits per gallon. There is a fine line between what animals are appreciate for a well balanced ecosystem and animals that are just not a good fit for most home aquaria. I personally think your crazy to try to run a 125g reef tank with out a tang.
For a 75g tank with sand/aragonite, and an average size bioload and rock, I think an appropriately sized tang or rabbit fish, a couple of money cowries, 6-10 jumbo white nassarious, 1-2 fighting conchs, 3-4 blue leg hermits, 2 red leg hermits, couple astrea snails, and 1-2 sm. turbo snails works real well. There are tons of variations depending on how much LR, bio load, type of algaes present and a million other factors. This is just one mixture.
In that recommendation 0 aptasia killers. Go through the pain of eliminating pest anemones once and then learn to QT or repeat your mistake and throw a lot of money at something you keep cursing at aren’t enjoying as much as you could be.
STRONGLY opinionated statements in this post. To each there own.
Animals to cure a problem are not usually a good idea as once the problem is gone you're stuck with a fish that requires special needsa, or diet, or is something you may not want due to venom or it's desire to nip/pick at coral.
+2
HOWEVER, be prepared to QT EVERYTHING including corals. My tank was pest free for years until i got a frag from a fellow club member. There was nothing on the frag that was visible to the eye. By the time i had notice the aipstasia it was too late. I yanked out the frag, broke off the coral and reglued it to a clean plug. Thought i was good to go. Couple of weeks later i noticed little aipstasia sprouting up everywhere and ive been fighting them since. Although i agree with not buying animals to treat things like this im actually buying a filefish for aipstasia control tomorrow. Ive done a lot of research for natural methods to control aipstasia and the best i can tell there are only 3 sure fire animals for the job. The CBB butterfly, the Berghia Nudibranch, and the guy im getting. Ive owned a CBB before and would not be reluctant to get another becuase of their care issues but would be because ive seen their voracious appetites first hand. Mine took a beating from my maroon clown to eat the anemone that hosted it tentacle by tentacle. The nudribranches on the other hand are expensive as hell and i would likely need to breed them to get the job done. Lot of effort for an animal that as far as i cant tell will not live without aipstasia as its food source. The file fish on the other hand seems to readily take prepared food and is very hardy. There is still a chance that it might nip at corals but i dont feel the risk is the same as it would be with a butterfly.
Quite right on the Berghia nudibranch, everything I’ve read says that Nunibranch’s are specific in diet to a single animal and without them will die.
I had fantastic luck with the peppermint shrimp. When I added 3 to my old nano tank they ate every one of them including some that were quarter sized in diameter. Of course all it takes is a small scrap of an anemone to remain to make a come back.
I forgot the peppermint shrimp!!! Thanks Tim! I was actually going to go that route because i have to get a CUC for my 265g anyways. Price wasnt an issue because i could have gotten them for $3 each for the quantity i needed. My biggest reluctance is because i know that luck with peppermints are hit and miss. You for example seemed to have had great luck but i know of others that have had 0 luck with peppermints eating aipstasia. I recall reading an artical about this that claims that there are mutiple species of shrimp sold as “peppermint shrimp” that are almost identical in appearance. This might explain the mix results. Ive also heard from mutiple people that pepperments typically want touch the larger ones.
Im just crossing my fingers and praying that i dont have to try and capture a 2" fish in a 265g tank! >LOL<
We picked up 3 peppermints at the higth of the battle, Never saw them picking at it. they might have went for micro ones that we couldn’t see. As far as size, quarter eh? The first one we got, we thought, cute, wer’ growing something. after a period of time, it got monster size. 1.5 across the top, 3inches wide with tennies out. stem was a good dime size… then it droped the bomb. Within the next week, it was on ever rock. Bottom line, pulling rocks and scrubing them, scraping off with razor blades, and jamming the calcium down the holes, this ended the battle.
So the wrabbit fish is a stinger, and I had a Lion in there too, luckly I never got spiked by either of the two… lol.
My understanding is that it is less aproblem with getting the camelback shrimp, and more that other subspecies do not eat the aiptasia. The ssp. that occur in the pacific are not as likley to eat them.
