Clown gobies irritating candy cane LPS coral?

[Bobbofin]

Recently got two clown gobies, a green one and a yellow one. They are very cute but they seem to perch on my candy cane LPS coral irritating it. It does not seem to be doing as well since getting them and I can see tissue missing on several heads. Is this common for these type of fish? I don't mind trading 25+ head of neon candy cane for a acan frag instead of tearing this tank apart to catch them. Advice please????

 

[UncleJT]

Very common. In the wild, they live in acropora colonies and will clear off a small patch of flesh to lay their eggs. In the wild it isn't a problem for the corals to deal with but it can be a big problem in the majority of our tanks.

 

[RayD]

+1 on what JT said. They can aggravate the crap out of Acros and in this case your Candy Cane. It's their natural behavior.
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[mobie]

Not reef safe like the sellers say they are. I had the same problem, I caught them by putting the coral they liked in a fish trap. They went in and bingo. Good luck

 

[Bobbofin]

Yup, the green one sometimes perches on top of the frogspawn but it doesn't irritate it like the candy cane. I may try getting rid of the candy cane then see how it goes.

 

[jtma508]

I saw some CG's at a LFS and thought they were cool fish. Then I read up on them. I learned that in the wild, when their stomach contents have been analyzed they contained nearly 90% coral polyps. Munch, munch, munch...

 

[Mini4x]

I haven't noticed mine eating my corals at all, maybe mine just lazy and I feel him enough fish foods?

 

[coralcor]

mine CG just passed.... he wouldnt eat

 

[somewhereinri]

My YCG never nipped the coral, however he did enjoy using it as a bed.

 

[kotu100]

mine doesnt seem to nip the sps, but it perches on everything, tri color acro, digis, caps, even seen him on my monti spongodes from time to time.

 

[s_kelley]

I suspect that mine nips at things but havent seen it. He perches on everything bothering whatever he lays on. Thought of banishing him to the sump but cant catch the little bugger.