Bi-Weekly Discussion of the Week: What are some non-reef fish and why?

[Geoff]

OK all of you FO tank owners, here is your turn. what are some fish that are not reef safe? what makes them not reef safe? are there some that just do not play well with others? how do you keep a cleanup crew from becoming dinner?

by the way pics would be good thing.

G~

lots of your angels- eat coral
sharks- knock things over and eat you fish
alli can think of cuz i just got up and im groggy

[Ray1214]

Here are some fish that were sold to me as reef safe and turned out not to be.

1. BiColor Angels
2. Flame Angels
3. Long Nose Hawkfish (Didn't eat corals but made short work of all of my shrimp)
4. a Snowflake Moray Eel,, same as above.

Ray

[rogerthmyers]

Triggers and Puffers....They eat everything

[Geoff]

Originally posted by rogerthmyers
Triggers and Puffers....They eat everything

what kind of critters can you keep as a cleanup crew? most of the cleanup crews we keep in a reef are these guys food! do you have cleanup crews in a FO?

G~

[kram138]

I have a friend who has an 80gal tall with 2 triggers, 2 snowflake eels, and 1 puffer. His clean up crew consists of five of the biggest hermit crabs I have ever seen in a tank. Nobody is going to mess with those guys.

I guess you can get the larger species of hermit crabs when you are not worried about them knocking over corals.

[Buzz_Hog]

I've got two triggers.. A Huma Huma and a Undulate Trigger...

Within the trigger family, there are sub species and the differences in attitude and verocity are tremendous...

The Undulate trigger is in the same family as the clown trigger, and queen trigger. These fish are mean. Not only will they eat the cleanup crew, they will destroy any other fish in the tank. (This is all dependant upon the individual fish's personality of course.) But on a whole, this family of triggers should have their own species tank.

My Huma Huma Trigger is somewhat passive. He plays nice with others unless his territory is encroached upon. By territory, I mean his little cave (hole) in a rock that he seeks refuge and sleeps in. If any fish goes near the entrance to his cave, he gets very pissed off and I can hear him "whirring"... (Huma Huma Triggers make a whirring sound when aggrevated)

[latazyo]

I believe a good clean up crew for FO is a good floating magnet

[Buzz_Hog]

I would have to agree with latazyo....

[Ray1214]

Nope, I have evil crabs....the big hairy kinds and/or the arrow crab from Heck. (Two are just red legged hermits that grew into really large shells.

Ray

[laddy00]

Ray
What did your flame angel do in your reef tank. I have one in mine. I havn't seen it do anything bad, YET. Just want to know what to look for before its to late.
Thanx

[tims]

BAt fish and foxface, both of mine had a really expensive dinner on me , i have heard the sail fin tang is not good too but i have had no trouble with him in my mini reef ( i have both a reef and just fish tanks)
tims

[JennM]

What did the foxface eat? They are primarily herbivores - have never had a problem with them in a reef.

Definite No-Nos...

Lunare wrasses (I am running a foundling home for some which were purchased elsewhere by customers who didn't know better until all their snails, hermits and sea stars disappeared...)

Dragon Wrasses: they will flip over all your corals

Most Butterflies - coral polyp munchers.

Centropyge angels are hit and miss - I had a Coral Beauty who had an appetite for Xenia - some wanted to rent him out but he left everything else alone.

I am watching a tank for a Reservist who's been called up to the Middle East - he's got a huge red Volitan, a huge Lunare wrasse, and a yellow tang and a clown, but he also has a coral banded shrimp, clean up crew and sea star, and the volitan and lunare leave them all alone (well fed???) Shhhh nobody told them to read the book

Reef-safe is relative to the types of creatures that the keeper is keeping. Example - hawkfishes are "reef safe" if the keeper doesn't have small ornamental shrimp, or small fishes. They do not harm corals. Same goes for some species of trigger - the blue-jaw, niger, pink-tail and crosshatch are all "reef safe" except to small crustaceans and tiny fishes. By and large they are very peaceful, and I have found blue jaws to be downright chicken! I got my finger nipped by a small Humu last week

Even watchman gobies will eat ornamental shrimp if they are large enough and the shrimp are small enough. IMO "reef safe" is a very relative term for certain fishes.

Cardinalfishes such as the Pajama and the Banggai are considered "reef safe" but they will gobble up shrimp too.

Jenn

[Geoff]

tims-i am also currious to know what your foxface ate. my is a algae monster, now if i can only get it to eat my razor.

so what makes a fish not-reef safe is it the fact that it east the "corals" or the the support critters.

lionfish are very reef fish-stay in the water column and have no interest in "corals", but they will eat small shrimp and fish.

i tend to lead towards both "corals" and the support critters to be considered reef-safe. so my choices are limited. this is also why i do not have any crabs in my system.

what about eels-they are the same as lionfish, they can burrow out the LR, but other than that they do not care about the "coral".

G~

[tims]

it was sometime ago , i do not remember the name of the plants, but they were a broad left plant with small greenish balls on them, i have seen then as plastic plants at the store not far from me. i had been feeding a large mix of food to my guys, which included dry greens( alage) i think that may have caused his liking to myy plants, i had used the plants as a back drop for the rest of the tank. i will see if i can find out the name of them for you. he also loved to pick at the bats fins from time to time,other then that i really have had no trouble with him now that he is in my fish only tank.
tims