I find that as long as I keep food in the tank, the damage is minimized. It's only one that picks, and only on a couple pieces, so I'll tolerate it. But I feed nori before work, auto feeder dumping pellets every 90 minutes until I get home, then more nori, and mysis after dinner.
My wild zoas are gone, same with palys. They eat some algae too, so that's a good thing ) Overall, they're an amazing pair of fish and I'll deal with the nipping. Just have to increase the coral growth a bit to keep up -lol

Wow, that's a lot of food.

Don't you know corals are where it's at right now? Pfffft... who keeps fish? :lol:

Meh, kinda done with corals. Fish are cool, and I can't rehome these guys without fear that someone would kill them. Figure I ordered them directly for my tank, it's my responsibility to look after them. I know, weird, right??

Good for you Brad. Im the same. Couple times I have removed corals or my clams because of my fish. The fish, such as my 5yr old copperband meant more than the corals which found good homes. Like you I felt it was my responsibility.

Totally agree.

Ok, I may just toss morals aside here, these guys are stripping the tank. Arg.

Ugh!

Ya. That. Stoopid fish..

That sucks Brad. As we once said nice fish are better than a few corals but then there,s a limit. When my attempt at a butterfly was eating my sps polyps I freaked out, removed him and sold him. Now my little copper band is a perfect resident.

Sigh. Sorry to hear Brad, I guess it's just matter of time. I am worried now.

I had to return mine to jl I think he is more happy there any way . He will have lots of visitors ever day and I know he will get top of the line care. My three week rental had its ups and downs next time when I read reef safe with caution I will know what that truly means. Hopefully he finds a better home fowlr.

I wouldn't even mind nipping polyps, but they're cleaning branches off. I have some bites right into skeleton.
But I'm kind of stuck, I don't know anyone with a FO tank that can keep them, or at least keep them alive. Nobody with coral, except maybe a tank full of hammers could take them.

Still eating those corals Brad?

Oh ya, and apparently coral is nutritious. They're getting bigger by the month.

Finally have my stuff back from storage so I can take a pic of them. They is so pretty :)

MI Update: As (sort of) expected, keeping two doesn't work. The bigger one has now pinned the smaller one in the back cave, and I'll now have to catch and rehome one of them. Too bad.

Aw that sucks Brad. They were getting along so good

How are the corals??

Corals are holding their own.

Big MI has now left the building, small guy is back out eating, although fairly beat up. Probably wouldn't have lasted another day.

Yikes! Hopefully he heals up well.

I think he'll be fine, eating like a pig, acting like nothing happened. I find it cool how as soon as the other left the water, he came out. I guess they can sense each other?

That's a good sign. It means they are now outgrowing your tank in the sense that they are defining territory and the large one has marked the whole tank as its territory. Actually, I'm only surprised they didn't start fighting sooner. The fishes must have gained quite a lot of mass since you first bought them. No surprise to me.

Agreed, I thought this would happen sooner. I guess it went long enough I thought it might last, but that's being naive, I suppose.
They have gotten a lot bigger, the big one being too large for my tank really. He's gone to a 6' tank now, so hopefully he continues to do well.

After a long and joyful(?) experience with these guys, my frustration level at the SPS nipping is reaching critical levels. Really close to re-homing this guy, assuming I can find a good home. Stoopid fish :(

Aw. Thats to bad Brad. Guess one has to make the choice eventually.

What about getting rid of just one and see? My nips at Sps when it gets hungry. Little nuggets got me trained to feed him.

He's already down to just one and is still frustrated

Missed a couple of pages lol whoops

Don't mind him... He works two jobs and is probably still pickled from Tuesday night. I know he has a beautiful MI in his tank and its predominantly an SPS tank so it can be done.

Oh, for sure. Tons of people in the MI thread on RC have done it. But both of mine are non stop eaters. I hoped once I got rid of the big one the little guy would stop, but nope :) And if I feed him, he eats the whole sheet of nori in 20 minutes and goes right back to eating coral.
I have a home lined up, hopefully it works out ok for the fish.

Now I need to figure out what to replace it with.