New Rabbitfish Question

[luke33]

I got a two barred rabbitfish last night as it was selling at a great price at the lfs. I was wondering if anyone has had problems with these guys in there reef. I know its a risk but its a very pretty fish. Its color changes are remarkable as it'll go from camo to yellow with blue in a matter of seconds.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1465+1449&pcatid=1449

[bassetbros]

I have had one of these in my 75 gallon reef for a couple years with no problems outside of absolutely mowing down various nuisance algae in my tank.

I’ve hear that some have had issues with these fish eating zoas and some lps but I haven’t experienced that in my tank.

[Obi-dad]

I have one, it is great on algae and looks cool. I was concerned about the venomous spines, but when my hand goes in the tank it hides - I haven't even come close to being near enough to it to get stung by the spines. Great fish, but a scaredey-cat.

[luke33]

Thanks guys. I was worried about spines too as i have a 4yr old but i think like you said, they are pretty darty when you get close. I hope it doesn't nip on zoa's cuz its most likely not coming out of the tank. No way to catch it! It seems to be if you have plenty of algae and feed hefty you don't have to worry to much about nipping on corals with these guys.

[sjj80]

I had one in QT once and it jumped out of the tank overnight, I was kinda shocked cause I didn't think rabbitfish were jumpers, but I guess something spooked him. I was pretty bummed cause he was so pretty. So you might want to put some eggcrate over any openings in your tank, at least until he has settled in.

[Reef'in Colorado]

I've had one in my reef for 2+ years with no issues. It has been kept with zoos, SPS, LPS and other various softies....model citizen.

[superedge88]

My Scribbled rabbit (basically the same fish just with more blue on it) eats out of my hand, very cool fish. I have not had any problems with it in my tank with elegance corals, various sps and clams. The only problems I have heard of is with them possibly eating zoanthids.

[luke33]

Well, he'll have some zoa's to choose from if he feels like eating. To bad he doesn't like colt coral as i'l let him feast away at that all day. Thanks for the feedback!

[kevinn]

I also have one didn't bother anything, not even Zoas. I have mix corals in my reef tank.

[luke33]

Nice, so far batting 1000

My luck i'll have the one in the bunch that likes to eat everything! :D

[fsn77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12544398#post12544398 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by superedge88
My Scribbled rabbit (basically the same fish just with more blue on it) eats out of my hand, very cool fish. I have not had any problems with it in my tank with elegance corals, various sps and clams. The only problems I have heard of is with them possibly eating zoanthids.

We had two scribbled rabbits in our 90g. They were definitely very cool, as they would eat out of my hand as well. They never showed much interest in any of the algae growing in our tank, but gladly ate anything I offered them (nori, frozen mysis, frozen plankton, dry pellet foods). They did, however, eat all our Xenia, a finger leather (yuck -- couldn't imagine that tasting good), and all of our slower growing (and nicer looking) zoas. It was just our luck that they never touched any of the rapidly spreading, less appealing zoas. I ended up removing the fish from the tank. If we ever set up a larger FOWLR, I'd definitely get a couple of them again.

[luke33]

Way to bring me down : ( lol, well i'll be home in a couple hrs, hope my slow growin zoa's are still there!

[Schweet_One]

i have one in my softie tank, no problems.. great fish!!

[Obi-dad]

Mine has not bothered any of my zoas, slow-growing or not. It is not a universal problem with them. I have a mixed tank, and it has not bothered anything other than algae.

[luke33]

I hope thats the case as i'll be very happy. They are pretty neat as they can change there color in a split second drastically

[luke33]

Well, i got home and noticed he hadn't nipped on anything and he was eating any algae he finds. So far so good.

[luke33]

I know i'm pretty much speaking to myself now but i've got a strange observation now. So my two tang's, scopas pry 4" and a blue tang 1.5" were pretty much picking at algae and mostly eating when i feed. Now they seem to be competing with the new rabbit when it comes to eating algae. They are all going crazy trying to eat as much as they can. Seems kinda funny.

[sjm817]

:thumbsup:

[luke33]

The guy in question

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u88/lukewoehler/100_2127.jpg