Damaged live stock

[mjw88]

Hello, something is damaging my Banggai Cardinal and my banded serpent Starfish, tank mates include a flame hawk who has A-D-D but doesn’t seem aggressive, a fox face, and a fire goby, a handful of blue legged hermits and a big Conch

 

[Frostblitz20]

flame hawks are very territorial so my bid is on him.. another reefer a day ago lost a cardinal to his flame hawk.

 

[mjw88]

He seems pretty passive and avoids the others when I’m watching, naughty little ****, well the fox face doesn’t seem to mind him and gets right up in his business and the hawk swims away, the fire goby is just to fast, I suppose the Cardinal is a pretty slow guy, keeps to himself in the back, just started to notice his fins were tore up. I’ll have to watch closely

 

[mjw88]

Anything you can do besides just returning him? Will he mellow or is he gonna alway be a Jack wagon

 

[Frostblitz20]

He seems pretty passive and avoids the others when I’m watching, naughty little ****, well the fox face doesn’t seem to mind him and gets right up in his business and the hawk swims away, the fire goby is just to fast, I suppose the Cardinal is a pretty slow guy, keeps to himself in the back, just started to notice his fins were tore up. I’ll have to watch closely

i would ID the fish to be safe but my bet is sadly on the flame hawk. Honestly i dont know how to mellow out a fish besides putting them in a larger tank or adding more fish so the pecking isnt always done to the same few fish daily.

i know returning a fish isnt a great feeling as everyone grows attached to the fish they buy for a reason.

I'm sorta facing the same issue with my Engieer goby.. hes fully grown and became abit of a bully and likes to cover all of my corals in sand every morning i have to go redig out my brain croals due to him..

 

[mjw88]

Would a flame hawk do ok in a small nano? Like an 8g AIO, if he’s got his own tank, no other fish?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Would a flame hawk do ok in a small nano? Like an 8g AIO, if he’s got his own tank, no other fish?

there aren't really any fish that can go in a 8 gallon (besides a clown goby), especially a flame hawk, the suggested tank size on google is 30-40 gallon for flame hawk. A foxface should be in a 75+ gallon, I hope you are following suggested tank sizes, fish can get very aggressive if they don't have enough room