coral eating fish!!!

[unbelievable]

I have a dilema. I have some nasty zoanthids and palys growing in my tank and have tried everything short of replacing the rock. I will be turning my 75 into a fowlr for a while and would love to find a fish that would clean them out. Any ideas would be great. Any ideas would be great.

[Fretfreak13]

Go for the angelfish. ;)

[unbelievable]

Like a lemonpeel? Specifics would be great!

[Fretfreak13]

lol no, generally those are reef-safe, though you can easily find the one little trouble maker that likes to nip corals. I actually just re-read your original post and noticed the tank was only a 75 gallon. That rules out the larger angels, but perhaps you could try a Rock Beauty (Holocanthus tricolor)? I would let someone else chime in on this though. I've never had a non-reef safe angel.

[kinlayan]

Queen Angel will probably eat them but grows to large for 75 gallon

[32mm32]

Some rabbit fish will eat them.

[unbelievable]

Ya I need something that won't grow out of a 75g. I've heard mixed reports on rabbit fish

[anbosu]

Your best bet is a dwarf angel then, but they are hit or miss. Do you have other corals in the tank?

[unbelievable]

Some mushrooms and a few small sps which are garbage

[Amoore311]

What about a Filefish?

I tried a Matted Filefish for Aiptasia control. The only damn thing he ate was zoas and brain corals lol.

I doubt you will find anything that will eat mushrooms though.


Also.... how about some of the more "shunned" inverts? Camel shrimp, gorilla crabs, etc?

[Sugar Magnolia]

I had a xanthid that ate ALL of my zoas and palys in my tank, but finding one for sale will be pretty difficult. Camel shrimp will probably eat them too.

[unbelievable]

I have a matted filefish that only ate my expensive chalices! LOL. The corals are now in a different tank but the filefish is awesome. I was thinking about a harlequin filefish cause I have a few sps colonies I really dont care if he eats. I do need something else though.

[tcmfish]

Why do you care so much about getting rid of them? I think rocks with some zoos or palys on them would look better than bare rocks.... Just because you are going FOWLR doesn't mean you have to get rid of them! Most people don't try coral of any kind in a FOWLR because why waste the money when it will get eaten, but if you have it already and don't care if it gets eaten who cares. Get the fish you like, and don't worry about it.

[unbelievable]

If they were good looking zoanthids I wouldn't care but imagine terd colored zoanthids covering Ur live rock. The purple coraline algae will look 10 times nicer. That's why I want to find a fish to eat them.

[unbelievable]

Bump for more opinions.

[Fibinotchi]

Scrape them off and trade them in to your lfs.

[unbelievable]

Not an option. It's hard to give away brown zoanthids...... thanks though

[twelvejewelz]

I would mabe make a WTB post in the livestock selling/trading thread. There are always people that get a fish and the fish devours their corals and then they want to get rid of them. Dwarfs are hit or miss and i think you have a better chance of getting one that dosnt eat corals than does. magnificent foxface mabe? I think most fish of all species are hit or miss lol. Possibly a bicolor angel? this is a hard one :)

[tcmfish]

Species to try:

Acreichthys tomentosus, http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+30+2562&pcatid=2562

Most butterflyfish. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=15+25

Chocolate chip starfish, or one of the related species. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+1462+2967&pcatid=2967

Camel Shrimp, not peppermint, but camel. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+690&pcatid=690

[unbelievable]

I have a matted filefish. They are really cool fish.

[tcmfish]

If you grow macro algae with them they will turn a nice green color to try and blend in.

[unbelievable]

Really! They are an under rated fish. He is gorgeous and always swimming out in the open.