Do bangaii cardinal steal food from coral?

[dasianguy]

Been thinking about getting a bangaii or two, but....

I used to have 3 pajama cardinals that persistently stole food from LPS. They didn't do it in the beginning, but after a year or so they figured out that corals sometime had food... and then they would regularly go from coral to coral (even corals that don't eat) putting their mouth near the coral to smell for food. I would shoo them away with tweezers any time I saw them attempt to steal, but they got smart and wouldn't do it if I was near... then I'd often walk away from the tank and turn around to see them steal food! Of course I tried to distract them by feeding them first, but they were such greedy eating machines that it didn't matter. If I didn't babysit LPS to make sure they completely swallowed the food before walking away, the pajamas would usually take it.

I eventually got rid of the pajamas and have vowed never to have them again. So far, I've never had any other fish give me this kind of trouble. I kinda want try bangaii's now, but I'm just wondering, has anyone else has observed the same coral food stealing behavior from them?

 

[dball711]

I have seen all my fish do this including brittle stars, crabs and shrimp...pretty much dog eat dog in my tanks.

 

[dasianguy]

I have had other fish do it occasionally before too, just not on the persistent level of those pajamas. They would be checking corals for food pretty much all the time, even if I hadn't fed the tank yet, and were particularly good at spotting a coral with food.

 

[bcavalli]

My pajama cardinals have always behaved really well (they are 4 years old now).  I have 3 (2 females and a male) the poor male is always mouth brooding for the two females and only gets to eat for about a week every month.  Poor guy.