Heraldi pygmy angel attacking snails

[mightytexn]

About 6 months ago the timer on my tank lights failed and the lights stayed on 24 hours a day. It happened the week I stayed at the hospital with my wife, so I didn't realize the problem until we came home. We got home and the fish were all heavily infected with ich. I didn't have the QT space for all the fish so I treated the display tank with Rid Ich+. The only fish to survive was the pygmy angel. Since then I have been able to remove the copper from the system so snails and hermits can survive again, but the Heraldi angel keeps nipping at the snails on the rocks, erventually killing them. He never did this before the ich infection. I was wondering if anyone else had this problem with pygmy angels. I'm thinking about putting him in the sump for a couple days and reintroducing him to see if the "new" environment makes him go back to his old behavior.

 

[spanko]

Sounds like a territory thing now that he is the only fish in the tank. Your idea about removal and reintroduction might work but you would be served well to consider addtional fish introductions now too as the same territorial issues may arise. Even after you tank it out and reintroduce, if there are now other fish it will go back to it's old ways about thinking it is the king of the tank with anything new you put in.
JMO

 

[mightytexn]

There is a blue devil damsel and an ocellaris clown in the tank with him now. The damsel has been there for about 2 months and was never bothered and the clown has been in for about 2 weeks and is occasionally chased by the pygmy angel.

 

[spanko]

Hm.......maybe not getting enough to eat. You know they rely mainly on algae in the wild so if you don't have enough in the tank maybe start supplying some algae sheets for it to nibble on and maybe that will help. Just kind of grasping here for some things for you to try.

 

[mightytexn]

I feed the fish twice a day. I give them spectrum marine pellets in the morning and san fransisco frozen food in the afternoon. Plus there is a decent amount of green algae on the rock and sand bed, which is my main reason for being concerned about the snails. I can't keep them alive long enough to control the algae. I could pick up some algae sheets at That Fish Place next time im there.Thanks for the input and any other suggestions are welcome

 

[dse]

How odd i have a pygmy and mine is great with all my fish apart from the flame tang at first but now gets on great i have 2 clowns and they get on with the Angel.
theres never any attacks on the snails with mine.
maybe he needs to spend a few days in a psychiatric ward.

good luck on it though