So, I have a question to ask of all of you aquaria lovers, but first let me paint a picture- i have folded a friends tank into mine. In that tank (you've seen the update) there is a filefish. I know these are most likely coral nippers, but I figured an occasional nip at the lps/sps won't be a big deal, because I have such large amounts/colonies already that I won't even miss it. What's really been happening is that the fish has relentlessly eaten all of the polyps off of my sps and almost killed large lps colonies.
This fish must go. I'm sure we agree on that.
Now, he's impossible to catch unless I dismantle the entire rock structure. This structure is about 250 pounds of rock, bottom covered with sand, and the top pieces are mostly covered with encrusted corals, some attached to more than one rock, making it impossible to move the rocks unless I break them apart.
Here's what I'm thinking- This fish is only doing what he does.....not being malicious or nasty like some humans are, but simply swimming and eating, not differentiating between coral and flake.
On the other side of the coin, I can get this fish out of the tank quickly and easily if I treat it like any other threat to the reef, like aptiasia or majano, or AEF, or whatever else that we feel are plagues and not worthy of a life in our tanks.
where do we draw the line? In the end, aren't we catering to our selfish needs and not really recreating the reef at home? We want a perfect (as we see it) ecosystem. God is what we want to be. Should i care more for the fish than the corals that I watched grow from frags?
