Sailfin tang pick at corals?

[dzolot]

Hi everyone,

i recently bought a young sailfin for my 150gallon mixed reed. The tang keeps picking on my hammer coral. Has anyone had any experience with this or have any suggestions on how to deal with, short of just removing the tang from my tank?!

usually he just picks near the hammer without making actual contact, but recently he has been actually picking and i even saw some pieces of the hammer floating in the tank!

here’s a pic of my tank for reference (and the green hammer in the sans).

thank you all in advance!

 

[kireek]

Unfortunately I don't think that there are a lot of options.You could try to relocate the coral ,in a area that is hard to reach.Close to the water surface for example.This might not be an ideal situation for the coral though.Hopefully the behavior doesn't get any worse.

 

[dzolot]

Thanks for the reply.

Also curious - has anyone else ever had (or heard of) a sailfin tang eat corals? Is that even a thing? I’ve never heard of it!

thanks

 

[ca1ore]

It’s usually (though not always) a sign that it’s underfed and going after the zooanthelle in the coral tissues. Do you feed nori sheets? Four zebrasoma .... how big is your tank? I had a really hard time getting my purple and gem to coexist.

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

my sailfin is always hungry, i have to just continue hand feeding him until he's had enough and put out nori for him to pick at all times. when i neglect his individual feedings, he becomes a real bully to the other fish at feeding time. it includes high speed swimming along the entire tank and chasing other fish around. he wont bite them or try to cut them with his fin, but he is pushing them along. this current behavior of your fish is just a sign of whats to come.

he may stop nibbling at your corals if you can try to feed him more individually and keep some nori out for him