Fish that will eat palys

[H@rry]

I have a lot of unwanted palys in one tank and want them gone. What fish will eat palys and leave SPS alone?

 

[saltyhog]

I don't know of any fish that eat palys to the extent of eradicating them from a tank. I suspect you will have to resort to manual removal.

 

[i cant think]

I have a lot of unwanted palys in one tank and want them gone. What fish will eat palys and leave SPS alone?

rabbitfish. It’s a 50/50 chance these fish will eat them though, there are several stories of these fish being not reefsafe (I have yet to find this to be true out of the 4 years of keeping these fish - I owned 1 for two years and the one I have now for 2 years. They are rather slow growers (Maybe an inch in a year) my first one got to about 4 inch and was bought at 2 inch. The one I have now is at 5” and was bought at around 3”. I would say a 3’ tank is minimum for these fish (I have only ever owned Siganus magnificus, so I can only talk on the care of these fish).

I only recommend the Magnificent foxface (mine) and the common foxface for 3-4’ tanks, in 5-6’ tanks you could get most species of rabbitfish (Beware! They are venomous in the spines).

 

[HB AL]

Dog face puffer will eat them.

 

[Radman73]

Dog face puffer will eat them.

I was just going to chime in that my "reef safe" dog-faced puffer plowed through my zoas and palys lol! I knew the risk, so wasn't too surprised. He's left SPS alone, and most LPS have been safe as well.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Heniochus butterflies eat zoas and some palys. But mine didnt touch my trash palys, just all the nice ones

 

[nereefpat]

How big is the tank?

 

[H@rry]

How big is the tank?

50 Gallon Frag Tank

 

[nereefpat]

50 Gallon Frag Tank

Oooh. That's tough for puffers, angels, butterflies

 

[i cant think]

Oooh. That's tough for puffers, angels, butterflies

Prognathodes can fit in a 50g in terms of butterflies, dwarf angels can fit but they tend to be more on the reef safe side of RSWC fish, large puffers won’t fit and the smaller ones tend to avoid Softies.

 

[LiamPM]

Any fish recommended is going to be a gamble and a hope more than anything - There just isnt a species thats known for eating Palythoa and is a guarantee. All are just possible coral eaters but, thats a wide classification and ive had plenty of those coral eaters only eat this type of coral, or that type of coral, contrary to what others have said.

Oddly, none have ever touched the rock of Palythoa i have even when chowing down on other fleshy corals. Theres a good chance they just simply wont, due to toxins and nature just knowing and all that.

Personally, id start researching manual removal or one of the few "home mixes" that helps people rid mushrooms etc when they are takeing over.

 

[nereefpat]

Prognathodes

Do you see those for sale in England?

 

[i cant think]

Do you see those for sale in England?

If you ask the right places then you can sometimes get hold of them but I doubt they’re like a CBB in price range. My LFS gets in many rare fish so I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw a more common prognathodes in there (Reef Dreams in Winchester)

 

[Tamberav]

Gaudy clown grab specifically predates on paly's/zoa's. However, they are uncommon so it may take you many months to get one. KPA and reef cleaners get them sporadically. I would suspect maybe in spring that reef cleaners will get a limited amount. They sell out very quickly though, like probably within hours/minutes... so buying one is like trying to find a PS5 or such