Foxface Rabbitfish a Bad Idea??

[Tie]

I'm gathering my last few fish for my 72g Reef tank. After talking to my LFS (a guy with many years of reefing) I decides to go with a Foxface Rabbitfish.

I've had him in a 20g long hospital tank along with 3 Yellow Tail Damsels and the beloved Spider Man (a large scarlet hermit crab) for almost one week. He's been a good fish, timid and ignores the smaller fish.

However, I kept noticing Spider Mans shell upside down and him fully withdrawn into his shell. This morning my wife calls me telling me that the Fox Face was trying to eat the crab. He had him rolled upside down and had his long nose buried in the shell. She said even when she stuck the net in and tapped the fish he would not withdraw. She had to practically pry him away.

This concerns me. For one thing Spider Man is the most popular guy among my family. Strangely more popular than the Clowns, Clams or even the Cleaner Shrimp. He was the very first inhabitant in my reef and wowed and dazzled the crowd with his hyper active nature and uncanny ability to scale anything. He has tripled in size and up sized his shell a number of times since we first got him. I have him the Hospital tank right now just to keep things in ship shape while the fish go through a 1 month stay before moving to the reef. He'll end up back in the reef tank sooner or later and if that Fox Face kills him I'm going to have a bunch of crying kids and a torked off mom. Second the reef tank has a number of Hermit Crabs, snails, soft and stony corals, etc.

I'm not sure if I should bail on the fox face all together or just take him back and get a different fox face. Or should I just keep a close eye on him? Maybe he's just curios and won't really try and harm the crab? Anyone ever have problems with a fox face? From what I've read and was told they are normally a very peaceful fish. And reef safe if you keep them well fed.

Any advice or experience with this particular fish would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Tie

[Ninong]

Did you see this thread: Foxface Rabbit fish

[Tie]

Did you see this thread: Foxface Rabbit fish

Again, sounds like a great fish. I guess I'll just keep an eye on him. Hopefully he won't do more than pick on the crab.

[Sueet]

Again, sounds like a great fish. I guess I'll just keep an eye on him. Hopefully he won't do more than pick on the crab.

Hi... I don't know if your foxface is like mine, but ..... well, I bought mine to control some caulerpa I (big mistake!) had put into the main display of one of my systems, and the caulerpa got out of control... I was told the foxface would control it..... nope, he likes the meaty food I feed my other fishes..... He WILL eat the seaweed select dried seaweed, but he prefers the other stuff.... I've never seen him mess with my hermits (which I have many of) but then again, I feed twice daily and he gets his fill of meat each time. I can't say I blame him, I'm not too fond of salad either, lol... but darnit, he was supposed to take care of that mess for me!

[SueT]

Thats a first I have ever heard of foxface's messing with crab's. Neither of mine do anything but graze all day long and then still enjoy flake food, mysis, and enriched brine. I also have plenty of snails, blue and scarlet legged crabs but neither of mine seem to notice them.

Hopefully, this was just curiosity.

Tie, what are you feeding your foxface???

[Tie]

I've been watching him close the last couple days. He'll nip at the crap from time to time but he's not going full at him anymore.

I feed him Brine, Bloodworms and Greens.

Thats a first I have ever heard of foxface's messing with crab's. Neither of mine do anything but graze all day long and then still enjoy flake food, mysis, and enriched brine. I also have plenty of snails, blue and scarlet legged crabs but neither of mine seem to notice them.

Hopefully, this was just curiosity.

Tie, what are you feeding your foxface???