Is my LFS full of it?

[wwinters]

I went to LFS to get something for my clown fish. My neon goby has been nibbling on one spot of her for a while and I thought she might have a parasite that needed some attention.

The LFS tells me it is probably not a parasite but another fish attacking it. -unlikely the pair of clowns and goby are the only fish in the tank.

They then say it must be water quality. No Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia and Phosphates all Look good and corals are happy.

LFS says put 1 bottle stress coat in tank but the bottle says it is for 60G. and my tank is only 18G.

Should I put the entire bottle in or just part?

The last thing the LFS told me was that there are NO CORALS THAT COULD HURT YOU if you touch them in your tank, unless you are hyper sensitive to them.

I am sure I have read otherwise can anyone list corals that are painful or deadly?

Aren't button polyps (Palythoa) poisonous?

 

[tomocean]

The Red Sea Fire Coral (Milleporina Order) will definitely cause a painful sting if you touch it. There may be others, but that one is for certain.

 

[liquid]

Heh, you ever get hit by a bubble coral? Not fun...

liquid

 

[Goldmoon]

I never tried it but I was told that well established Elegance Coral could really hurt you.
As for the gobies I do not know how they work but a cleaner shrimp will clean ick on a fish so small, eyes can not see it.

 

[monkeyboy]

Well if you want to get technical, i don't believe there are any corals that can really hurt you because fire "coral" is a hydrozoan. Anemones can hurt like hell but they aren't corals either. Not really sure how they got that another fish is attacking the clown when you tell them that the neon goby is cleaning it, that just don't make any sense!

Stress coat may help if chlorine is the problem but otherwise i don't think it will really accomplish anything (even w/ the magical fish calmer and healing powers of aloe vera). Sounds to me like the LFS doesn't have an answer for you so they figure that its better than nothing to give you any answer, enter stress coat. IMO and IME stress coat won't help but it really cant hurt. But the real problem can be diagnosed by yourself, if the neon goby is gnawing on a certain spot on your clown, is there anything there or just scales? If there is a parasite you have to worry about you will see it; the goby would have to see it too if he was to eat it! So if it's there then it's there, if you cant see it odds are that it is not there at all.

Palythoa is poisonous and i guess you can get poisoned if you handle them with broken or cut skin. Don't be freaked out about it though, just keep it in the back of your mind.

Sounds like your LFS is afraid to say "i don't know". HTH

 

[wwinters]

Thanks
all I see are scales but the patch is slightly lighter in color but I don't see anything else.

She seems OK so I will just keep my eye on her.

 

[Anonymous]

Really? A bubble coral? I'll have to check into that when I get home.

Talk about sick curiousity...

Ty

 

[DK]

The elegance and the fire coral are the most likely critters to "bite" you. The larger the Elegance, the more powerful the sting. The back of your hand and bottomn (less tanned) part of your forearm are the most sensitive to the sting.