General Reef Safe "With Caution" Thread

[NeonRabbit221B]

I hate how my favorite fish are Reef Safe "With Caution" but hate the heavy decision to either return the fish you have grown to love, curb the habits of nipping or watch a coral die. I would love to have an open discussion of very tough decisions you have made for either coral health or fish love. I don't have a complete understanding on why then nip at one species of coral over another and why fish with a long history of being an upstanding citizen suddenly goes on a feeding frenzy. For example my Valentini Puffer ate a whole acan about a month after I added him. I was deeply saddened at the time but only had the basic toadstools and gsp along with it and decided to keep him until I wanted a nicer coral. Today he is an upstanding reef citizen and hasn't killed anything in the last 6 months (even acans which I now love).... except every snail, hermit and maybe a light nip at anything new added. Its damage and replacement I am currently willing to accept.

Now I am faced with a similar dilemma after adding one of my favorite fish, a CB Aiptasia-eating filefish and about 24 hours later he ate a polyp of my favorite leather. Its a shame these fish are a dice roll and any hungry fish often gets passed from owner to owner until a accepting owner or death. I am going to watch it play out for now but would love to hear any sad stories, comeback kid stories and accepted risks or limits on what you can put in your tank.

Any advice on reducing nipping habits for specific fish would be great. My puffer stopped taste testing corals once I regularly started giving him frozen clams and replenish the dwarf ceriths he snacks on. He is great until I stop my heavy feeding habits.

Pictures welcome. Here is the tiny leaf dude

 

[Chrille26]

I bought a Bicolor Foxface to help with algae control, mainly bubble algae. He did a great job for several months until I started noticing marks on some soft corals. Watched the tank closely and I saw him nipping at both hairy shroom polyps and on a Sinularia, so I had to rehome him unfortunatly.

 

[Gtinnel]

I've learned my lesson from a certain "reef safe" crab that from now on I'm focusing on corals and don't plan on putting any questionable fish in my tank....although I do like foxfaces.
It's funny when my wife and I go to a lfs and she isn't interested in the hobby but every fish she picks is either not reef safe or with caution, so she gets mad because I never get anything she likes. Lol

 

[1guydude]

I added one of those filefish to my reef tank..lfs told me it would eat aptasia. It ate $80 acan colonies prob worth $200+ now days.
D

 

[kartrsu]

I had a blue tang that started nipping my expensive torches and Duncan coral. He was very well fed and frequently had nori to graze on. Caught him red handed taking a fresh bite out of my Aussie gold torch. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make an exception for him, and sent him back to the fish store. I was especially disappointed because he endured 2 months of all sorts of treatment in QT to guarantee he was ich / velvet free. I would have preferred to sell him to another reefer, but no takers given his bad habits.

I figured blue tangs were reef safe but it’s not the case with any fish tbh. Some are “safer” than others, but when hunger or stress kicks in, fish gotta do wha they gotta do to survive. And once they get a taste for coral, I have repeatedly seen others say they never stop.

 

[Gtinnel]

added one of those filefish to my reef tank..lfs told me it would eat aptasia. It ate $80 acan colonies prob worth $200+ now days.
D

That sucks, but did it at least eat the aiptasia? I looked at a file fish at the store the other day just because I like the unusual shape of them. I don't even have an aiptasia problem. I've only had one aiptasia and that was recently and it was easy to remove.

 

[polyppal]

RSWC is a marketing-friendly way of saying 'Not Reef Safe'
If I want a 'RSWC' fish, I like to find out if its issue is eating coral or inverts. If its a coral eater then its definitely a no-go... Even if they cooperate at first they can suddenly change and develop an appetite for them.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

That sucks, but did it at least eat the aiptasia? I looked at a file fish at the store the other day just because I like the unusual shape of them. I don't even have an aiptasia problem. I've only had one aiptasia and that was recently and it was easy to remove.

Mine ate what was the last visable aiptasia in my tank. Not that it means much. He immediately followed it by a leather polyp.

Do the grazing nippers ever not cause enough damage to warrant return for anyone. How much nipping will cause soft/lps to die off? I guess that is my biggest fear. A polyp on a leather is far less detrimental of a loss than a polyp on an acan.

 

[burningmime]

RSWC is a marketing-friendly way of saying 'Not Reef Safe'
If I want a 'RSWC' fish, I like to find out if its issue is eating coral or inverts. If its a coral eater then its definitely a no-go... Even if they cooperate at first they can suddenly change and develop an appetite for them.

I wish they would stop saying RSWC and say what it actually eats.

 

[Gtinnel]

For me personally no amount of loss of coral is acceptable. I currently only have frags in my tank, after they start to develop into larger colonies I may not feel as strongly about a nip here or there if it's a fish I really like.

 

[polyppal]

I wish they would stop saying RSWC and say what it actually eats.

Sadly, it seems like almost none of the livestock sellers care that much about their livestock or customers. They will gladly sell someone an expensive flame angel and tell them 'uhh, yeah it should work' when they know it wont. They sell countless mandarins/dragonets knowing almost all of them are going to die in a few weeks. Not much better than the stereotypical used car salesman IMO

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

RSWC is a marketing-friendly way of saying 'Not Reef Safe'
If I want a 'RSWC' fish, I like to find out if its issue is eating coral or inverts. If its a coral eater then its definitely a no-go... Even if they cooperate at first they can suddenly change and develop an appetite for them.

You have a good argument to a point. Sometimes RSWC can mean it eats inverts (puffers) but is likely safe with coral. I really wish more companies could be outright with risks and diets and don’t set high expectations.

I have always hated returning fish to the store and for many LFS that don’t have morals will go right on ahead and sell the same fish to the next reefer.

 

[1guydude]

Ya its either reef safe or not. No it didnt. Only enjoyed the fleshy meaty spendy polpys.
I added a purple reef lobster once. He accumulated a nice collection of snail and hermit crab shells outside his dwelling. Lol. I had to shut the reef down and pull the rock for that guy. The filefish i just waiting till early morning before work 1 day and turned the blues on 1%. Scooped with a net well still half asleep. Lol.

I think the aptasia eater and the non aptasia eater pygmy filefish are very similair. Idk though. Maybe just the cold water and temper. One is brown and one is more silver. Still sucked and a spendy life lesson for me and my coral.
D

 

[1guydude]

I fully support lionfish and squirrelfish in reefs!

 

[1guydude]

They will be the sharks or head of the food chain of your tank. Lol
D

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Sadly, it seems like almost none of the livestock sellers care that much about their livestock or customers. They will gladly sell someone an expensive flame angel and tell them 'uhh, yeah it should work' when they know it wont. They sell countless mandarins/dragonets knowing almost all of them are going to die in a few weeks. Not much better than the stereotypical used car salesman IMO

Funny I also just got a mandarin... 3 brine shrimp hatcheries, 2 feeders, 2 orders of pods and the works. With 90% of people walking around with access to infinite searchable knowledge you think it would be less of an issue. My LFS will say anything to make a sale. I started calling them out while shopping and it wasn’t well received

 

[polyppal]

Funny I also just got a mandarin... 3 brine shrimp hatcheries, 2 feeders, 2 orders of pods and the works. With 90% of people walking around with access to infinite searchable knowledge you think it would be less of an issue. My LFS will say anything to make a sale. I started calling them out while shopping and it wasn’t well received

What they really hate is when you educate someone else in their store that what they are trying to sell them is a bad idea for their tank lol

That must be a depressing decline for the average LFS owner. I'm sure they start out in the business because they have a passion for the hobby and really care about the livestock. But its a horrible/unprofitable business, and after a while it probably becomes more about trying to stay in business and selling what you can -vs- the passion after a while. They basically become petco

 

[Gtinnel]

My LFS will say anything to make a sale.

My only lfs is a petco and with one exception none of them know enough to have any idea what people would need to properly care for some of the fish they sale. I was getting a fish and jokingly told the person getting it that I had to stop at Walmart and get a thing of Mortons salt for my new saltwater fish and she didn't say a word.
There is one lfs about 5 hours away from me that I visit sometimes and they are very upfront and honest about their livestock. It's kind of nice to be able to ask a question and get an honest, accurate response. It is a dedicated reef shop though.

 

[burningmime]

What they really hate is when you educate someone else in their store that what they are trying to sell them is a bad idea for their tank lol

That must be a depressing decline for the average LFS owner. I'm sure they start out in the business because they have a passion for the hobby and really care about the livestock. But its a horrible/unprofitable business, and after a while it probably becomes more about trying to stay in business and selling what you can -vs- the passion after a while. They basically become petco

This might be true of some stores. My LFS is run by freshwater folks. They're nice people, they just don't have the knowledge or interest in reefing. There's a couple tanks in back with spongebob decorations that I have a sneaking suspicion are tap water with morton's into which they toss marine stuff and hope it lives.

 

[DED65]

I got a couple of the CB filefish. After the Aiptasia were gone, I noticed the Toadstool Leather was missing polyps and a few Zoas went missing. I was able to catch one and put in another tank after taking out half of the rock. The other one is pretty dang smart and avoids me whenever I am at the tank. I notice some Zoas still disappear, but the fish is so cool to watch from a distance. I don't want to stress him out and have him get sick or die, so I will put up with a little nipping. The Toadstool recovered rather quickly. The fish are very well fed as I have a couple of Anthias that eat three times a day. I guess once their favorite food source is gone, they just move on to the next best thing no matter how fat they are.