Question (Problem Solved)

[allan]

Ok, here's your friday trivia,

Below is a list of my pets in the tank. The question is, which one of these could possible eat zoas and palys? This morning when I was checking out my tank I noticed that two frag rocks (close together) were missing the zoas and palys that were on there last night.

Truth be told, they may have just fallen off, but I couldn't find them this morning. The frag disc with the lime green palys that I got from Z28 is now barren. The glue is still there, and very clean. Neither of the frags (about ten on each) were showing any signs of melting.... but the pink centered ones from the christmas party had been growing and in the last couple of weeks haven't shown any new growth. Last night I pulled the disc out, leaving the majority of the colony on the rock and moved it to a higher location in the tank.

This morning both are gone. Of the list below, are there any culprits that could eat about 20 zoas/palys in a single night?

Yellow rim tang
naso tang
blue hippo
yellow tang
two skunk clowns
cardinal (bengai)
cleaner wrass
chromis (two)
scooter blenny
target manderin
starry blenny
Diamond Goby

Fromia star fish

sally light foot crab
emerald crab
cleaner shrimp
pistol shrimp (Don't think he made the move though)

Rapidly diminishing population of snails
Rapidly growing specimens of hermit crabs

[Big_Pun]

might be the tangs, snails are probally getting killed by hermits i had that prob till they all found bigger shells, also zoas and palys are weird, i have some that die off or close for a while then open all of a sudden, prob just came unglued

[hobogato]

i agree with chris. also, check your hermits closely for type - the only ones that i have found to be totally reef safe (except for killing snails) are the blue legs and the scarlet legs. if they have black legs or black and white legs, they tend to be more destructive. also, you may have something there that you dont know about coming out at night, like a pencil urchin or rock boring urchin.

i have also heard that sally lightfoot crabs will turn a little more carnivorous when they get large

[roscozman]

We had a purple tang eating zoas once. One night we were admiring his color and right before our eyes he came down and nipped at a frag and ate three heads.

He was Eve's favorite fish and well... we had to get rid of him.

[Europhyllia]

The sally would be more suspect to me than the hermits

[Big_Pun]

also emerald crabs love to pick at newly glued frags, especially if its a crab that you have had a while, i had one that knew i put in a new frag and would go picking at itlooking for something to eat off it and then rip the frag off

[Mr Cob]

This is why I don't use hermits anymore....they like to pick at the glue and they kill snails.

I have had hermits get stuck in epoxy too....was pretty funny.

[allan]

My light foot is about the size of a really worn down quarter... or a buffed up nickle (just the body)... how big do they get?

I moved the fromia to the sump since he was nearby, and what I was thinking (hoping really) was that he passed over them and knocked them loose.

[Europhyllia]

I moved the fromia to the sump since he was nearby, and what I was thinking (hoping really) was that he passed over them and knocked them loose.
Seems unlikely. They are so slow and gentle when they pass over stuff.

[BSJF]

zoa eating nudis! Had these in before and they about wiped out my zoas! Evil!

They can camoflouge themselves to look like the zoa they are eating. It really cool to watch if you don't care about the fact that they are eating your prized possessions.

[BIGBIRD123]

Allan, ,our stary blennie ate zoas.

[allan]

zoa eating nudis! Had these in before and they about wiped out my zoas! Evil!

They can camoflouge themselves to look like the zoa they are eating. It really cool to watch if you don't care about the fact that they are eating your prized possessions.


It would seem odd that without adding anything in the last month or so that I've brought in a nudi. the loss of these zoas were sudden over night loss of about 20 zoas and palys.

Steve, I hope it's not the starry blenny! But mine has a belly that is about the size of a marble. I'll have to keep an eye out for his behavior.

And I'll examine the tank for a nudi... it would be kind of neat to find one of them, providing I get to them before it decimates some of the other zoas.

[Third Coast Tropical]

Are any of the fish noticeably more fat???...Think it would be easily noticed if it was a fish and they cleared out 2 colonies.....if not, I would look elsewhere.

[sharkboy]

sally lightfoot crab would be my main suspect???

[allan]

Well the starry blenny's belly is about the size of a marble... but it's been that way for awhile. I think it's been drinking beer or something as it looks like he's got a pot belly.

My sally foot... well, I've had her for about two/three months, and with the exception of the sudden loss on Thursday night I've not had any other losses. I plan on spending a lot of time in the tank room keeping an eye on the fish today.

[allan]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!

What is it, Occam Razor? The easiest answer is the right one?

Ok, as mentioned above, I had moved a frag of zoes leaving the majority behind as it had grown onto the rock. Nearby there was another plug with some lime green palys. The next morning both colonies were gone. No trace.

Well last night I noticed two zoas and two palys poking around what I thought was a cleaned off frag disk.

I picked up the disk and discovered that my bench pressing crab must have pushed up the lime green frag disk which in turn fell on top of my red zoas, obscuring both.

So I am a bit embarrassed to say that my big tizzy about something eating my zoas turned out nothing more than me jumping to a conclusion. Sorry to have taken your time folks. :D

[FireWater]

Well at least your crab is getting his work out in. That is why I dose extra amino acids in my tank.

[cbianco]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!

What is it, Occam Razor? The easiest answer is the right one?

Ok, as mentioned above, I had moved a frag of zoes leaving the majority behind as it had grown onto the rock. Nearby there was another plug with some lime green palys. The next morning both colonies were gone. No trace.

Well last night I noticed two zoas and two palys poking around what I thought was a cleaned off frag disk.

I picked up the disk and discovered that my bench pressing crab must have pushed up the lime green frag disk which in turn fell on top of my red zoas, obscuring both.

So I am a bit embarrassed to say that my big tizzy about something eating my zoas turned out nothing more than me jumping to a conclusion. Sorry to have taken your time folks. :D

Had to look it up, lol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

For anyone else in the same (unknowing) boat as me, it means he overthought the problem. By overthinking the problem, he can up with a bunch of possible solutions that just didn't apply in this situation.

:)

Some of us need subtitles. :D

Glad you solved your problem!

Christopher

[allan]

Bitter sweet dude, for even as I was dreading the process to capture the blenny...

... I was envisioning the new rockscape. :)

[Europhyllia]

You better apologize to that poor innocent sea star and get her back out of the sump!
You can still change your rockscape if you like! ;)