Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Well it is not really eating it, instead it bites of the green tips on the tentacles and spits these out. It is a territorial behavior. I moved the Frogspawn and hope it will recover. I need to rid my tank of this Damsel. It is far too agressive for corals. It attacks my Pikstik grabber whenever I have these in the tank. This species is reported to be reefsafe.

While it is true that A. aureus primarily eats zooplankton and algae, they are, as you said, territorial. They will "arrange" their surroundings to their liking--if they don't like something, they'll either move it or tear it up. I have watched them do the same to sea cucumbers, starfish, hands, fingers, and the like. Beyond that, this is a relatively big damsel, getting around 5 inches. Definitely not a fish I'd like to keep in a peaceful community.

Other damselfish, however, will deliberately destroy corals to encourage algae growth. Jewel damselfish are notorious about this.

Thanks Andrew,

Now the question is what do I do with it? I want corals more than I want this fish. I don't want the fish to topple the rockwork either.