Bellus Angel - Ripping through new LPS

[mike klein]

So had a Bellus pair for year now and they ignored everything... Lobos, Torchy, Leathers, SPS... but I added a red Trachy last month and she killed it within a few days.  My new Fungia is now getting nipped at today.

Any ideas on why the behavior change? Time to donate the pair? 

[victoly]

That's pretty atypical behavior for any genicanthus. That being said, fish can have individual tendencies and behaviours. Is it only one of the pair or both?

Is it possible those corals had some algae on their skeletons that they were picking at and the coral just got in the way? They're not typically grazers, but then again they're also not typically coral eaters....

 

[Reburn]

They are mostly reef and coral safe however they are still angels.....Its still a risk keeping them with coral.....you just got unlucky.

[Timfish]

Are they still leaving most of the other corals alone?  One possibility is it's tastes changed as it matured.  I've seen several times over the years fish that don't bother corals suddenly go after one but still leave others alone.  My suspicion is there was something wrong with it that made it more pallatable to the fish in question.  It may be something visually undectable to us.  I know from research papers I've read that a coral can have shifts in the surface mucus layer indicating a serious bacterial infection without have any external visual signs so maybe there's a shift in palatability also.

[Timfish]

Took me a little bit to find it but here's a video of heniochus eating a frogspawn polyp.  This is the only polyp they've eaten.  It apparently was damaged.  I first caught them going at it shortly after it was removed from the colony.  A majority of the polyp was gone by the time I got a step stool and my camera out to film it.