Blue tang turning to the dark side?

[noahreefer]

Recently I’ve noticed that my blue tang has been taking bites out of my torch. He hasn’t touched anything else in my tank only interested in the torch. I keep him fed well with nori every day along with mysis everyday. Anybody ever heard of this and if there is anyway to make him stop besides removing him?

Thanks

 

[FoxyFace]

Yes. I have a friend this happened to. His hepatus tang’s face turned black and it started to eat all types of coral.

 

[hybridshrimp_]

Well i'm not an expert but i guess i'll try to help. Probably it recognizes it as an algae/seaweed, try moving the torch coral to other parts of the tank. And maybe (not very sure) it wants you to feed it more. Hope it works.

 

[Jesterrace]

There are the occasional rogue tang stories out there as far as corals are concerned, it just depends on the individual fish. Have you tried LRS Reef Frenzy? It offers mysis plus a much more in a diversified diet. My Yellow Tang did well between it and seaweed.

 

[noahreefer]

Well i'm not an expert but i guess i'll try to help. Probably it recognizes it as an algae/seaweed, try moving the torch coral to other parts of the tank. And maybe (not very sure) it wants you to feed it more. Hope it works.

I guess he could be recognizing it as some type of algae but I mean he steals most of the nori from the other fish and is the most aggressive eater of the bunch so I’d be surprised if he’s just still hungry

 

[noahreefer]

There are the occasional rogue tang stories out there as far as corals are concerned, it just depends on the individual fish. Have you tried LRS Reef Frenzy? It offers mysis plus a much more in a diversified diet. My Yellow Tang did well between it and seaweed.

I haven’t no i just feed him lots of nori, mysis, and the occasional feedings of pellets. I’ll look into that thanks!

 

[tdileo]

Mine killed a trachy once. Never bothered any other corals though.

 

[ourcoralreef]

Ive had one that used to eat Zoathids didn’t touch anything else

There are a bunch of stories of hippo tang’s eating random Corals and sticking only to that coral

 

[Reefer Rod]

I just had to take mine out of my 265. He decided he likes to snack on my Scolys! :-(

 

[Michael Naegeli]

Ive had one that used to eat Zoathids didn’t touch anything else

There are a bunch of stories of hippo tang’s eating random Corals and sticking only to that coral

That’s Horrifying news. My Hippo a straight up Brute. Haven’t seen him attack my Zoa’s but they’re all ticked off rt now. Never heard of them attacking Zoa. Now I’m skeptical. Hmmmm

 

[Blaine C]

I had to remove mine when he decided to eat zoa’s, constantly pick at my trachophyllia to the point I thought it was dead and on many occasion pick at my acans. He started this behaviour when he got to be a about the 4” - 5” mark, which was consistent with the research I found on line. He was well fed including nori everyday, he looked fat and happy. It took a while to realize that he was causing the problems with my unhappy and disappearing corals but it was definitely him. Now my trachy is fat and happy and I can keep zoas again.

 

[vetteguy53081]

had to evict my hippo. Was the greatest and bluest fish in my tank and suddenly became a super jerk and was pulling and tossing my coral frags/plugs and that was the last straw

 

[4FordFamily]

I’ve never had a tang eat coral but had a purple tang kill a giant maxima clam. I was not happy.

I hypothesize that tangs are more likely to do this if they’re not supplemented with a LOT of nori each day. They should have enough to graze on the clip for at least half of the day.

 

[hejjo]

I have a fat pig of a hippo tang, a bottomless pit. It likes to snack on zoas.

 

[Lukeh]

My hippo used to always eat euphyllia corals of any type. I tried different ones, hammers, frogspawn etc. he always ate them within a couple days.

 

[Macrochick]

Had to get rid of my yellow tang, it was eating anything with a polyp and all the other tangs watched and learned that behavior. All the others purple tang, lavender tang went for zoas and a welso. I had to get rid of them all. They were all 4-5 inches when it happened. I think if there’s no algae they will graze on no matter what. No matter how much nori you give them when they are older they just graze be it algae or corals

 

[Old Man]

Have had many tangs over 40+ years and had to remove only one for eating coral and that was a power blue that after many years developed a taste for acros. Even though he was beautiful and like an old friend, he had to go. Had to get the owner of my LFS to come out as my tank was filled with Tonga live branch and base and I couldn’t catch him. Had one each(only way to go) of hippo, purple, Red Sea sailfin, yellow, aMoorish Idol and of course the powder blue. These were all very large and some were over 20 years old. Had to go through more than one hippo and RS sailfin because they grow the fastest and exchange them for younger ones. They all eat a tremendous amount of nori so I bought it in the notebook 2” thick size packs from an Asian grocery store and they also were fed meaty food and formula 2 with garlic. Lots of garlic! A purple will eventually get LL disease without garlic but you can cure him very easily with it. Some people may not agree with me on the huge feedings of nori, but they all got along with each other and stayed disease free. That was mainly because a fish never entered my tank without a freshwater dip 10 minutes.
As far as tangs, the best way to a happy tank is a “fat and sassy” fish and lots of water changes for your coral. Ha

 

[ourcoralreef]

That’s Horrifying news. My Hippo a straight up Brute. Haven’t seen him attack my Zoa’s but they’re all ****** off rt now. Never heard of them attacking Zoa. Now I’m skeptical. Hmmmm

From what im seeing im not the only one
I never thought of tangs as a reef safe with caution but now im starting to see it

 

[Cabinetman]

My powder blue which I’ve had for years just went to the dark side and is now eating my big umbrella coral. She’s like my favorite fish but I like coral more so the trap is going in

 

[Bigzman]

Here is my evil hippo tang

 

[Bigzman]

Here is my evil hippo tang