Could moving a coral stop a fish from picking at it?

[muzikalmatt]

So I have a bicolor blenny that likes to nip at corals occasionally. In the past I've witnessed him chomping at blue stylophora, a platygyra brain coral, and most recently he's been nipping at a green slimer frag.

I placed the green slimer in a spot on the top of the rockwork where he typically likes to perch (as blennies do). I'm wondering if moving the frag away from his "spot" might get him to leave it alone. The polyps are remaining retracted and I'm assuming it's due to his constant nipping at it and brushing up against it by trying to sit in his "spot".

I added a couple of stylo frags hoping he might go after those to give the green slimer a break, but I'm still not seeing good polyp extension on it yet. (Meanwhile, the stylos both look great.) I was curious if anyone has experience moving a frag to get a fish to leave it alone and if that's been successful. I guess it couldn't hurt to try at this point. The frag isn't receding or dying, but obviously it's not going to grow well and thrive without proper PE. (Not to mention the shaggy polyps are why I bought it.)

Any thoughts or suggestions other than removing the fish? I'm actually working on setting up a 10 gallon bedroom tank and thinking of re-homing the blenny there eventually (assuming I can actually catch him), but I'm willing to try other suggestions in the meantime. Thanks in advance!

 

[blaxsun]

Yes, and the answers is a resounding "nope". I've had 'nibblers' follow a coral around a tank for a week. Unfortunately, my experience has been when they latch on to a particular coral their either kill it or tire of it.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Thanks for the response. That's kind of what I figured, but I wanted to ask before moving it around for no reason. I'll just have to wait it out and hopefully be able to capture and re-home the blenny when I have the new tank up and running.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

My bi-color loved the taste of pocillopora polyps. He lives with anemones now lol

 

[muzikalmatt]

I don't get why anyone considers them reef safe. I know not -all- of them will eat coral, but I've read enough and seen enough now to know that they should never be marketed as 100% reef safe. It's simply not true.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

I've had a few different blennies, so far the tail-spots are the only ones who haven't gone after SPS. Though, I might've just jinxed that by saying something haha