Will a trigger eat a hammer coral?

[dustint]

Ive been having trouble finding info on the behaviors of aggresive stinging corals such as a hammer with fish that I can assume will eat or nibble on corals. It seems to me that a hammer would taste pretty bad and sting the crap out of a fish trying to eat it for lunch. Whats the verdict on this family of corals and the survival rate with non-reef safe fish. Do they have a strong enough defense mechanism to avoid being eaten?

Dusitn T

 

[Anonymous]

it's not necessarily a matter of the fish 'eating' a coral- an experimental bite just for tasting the invert can be enough to cause damage-though often, corals and anemones can recover-if healthy and in a healthy tank.

what kind of fish are you talking about specifically?if the risk is posed continually, or by most of the inhabitants, i'd say don't risk it-corals are to expensive a snack, to say the least.

many fish will also bite as a result of getting stung(a 'pissed off' reaction)-my general advice would be not to mix fish suspected of being able to do damage with your corals(to further confuse you :wink: -i'll also say that quite a few people keep 'known' coral eating fish in reef tanks with no problem-but these are usually BIG tanks :wink: )

 

[danmhippo]

Triggers can tolerate pretty harsh tasting food. But I have not heard of much reports of triggers develope long term appetite for corals. Vitz is right about the damage part though. Some corals are sensitive to harrassments.