does an occasional peck hurt SPS?

[Cassian]

I have a coral beauty angelfish and I just added several SPS frags. She is a captive bred CB and has never picked on any of my 20+ corals (including other SPS). I saw her pick on two of my new SPS once and I got a little nervous. They didn't appear to be hurt, and they still had their polyps extended afterward. Does an occasional pick hurt Acroporas?

 

[ca1ore]

Depends how occasional. Typically polyp extension will be less in a tank that has nippers. Sometimes that does not affect the colony; sometimes it does.

 

[Cassian]

Depends how occasional. Typically polyp extension will be less in a tank that has nippers. Sometimes that does not affect the colony; sometimes it does.

So the coral will tell you if it’s being hurt through it’s polyp extension, correct?

 

[ca1ore]

It will tell you if it is unhappy - not necessarily ‘hurt’ though. I’ve many nippers in my tank, and a lot of enduring SPS colonies. It’s unusual for a colony to die, though occasionally one gets messed up a bit. Angels are worth a little damage to me so I put up with it - you must make that calculation for yourself. Some folks get all crazy about even minor nipping - seems exhausting to me LOL.

 

[Cassian]

It will tell you if it is unhappy - not necessarily ‘hurt’ though. I’ve many nippers in my tank, and a lot of enduring SPS colonies. It’s unusual for a colony to die, though occasionally one gets messed up a bit. Angels are worth a little damage to me so I put up with it - you must make that calculation for yourself. Some folks get all crazy about even minor nipping - seems exhausting to me LOL.

lol. true. angels are so worth it though.

 

[DarkSky]

My SPS get frequent love pecks from my emperor angel, they just don't have for PE during the day because of it.

 

[Waters]

A lot has to to with the health/size of the colony. Mature, larger colonies are normally fine with picking while frags can often stress out and die....again, depends on the frag though.

 

[Jmareef1022]

Me personally I prefer the beauty of pe. I once put in a fish that nipped all my sps it stressed the crap out of me I had to break the tank down and get him out.