What keeps eating my ZOAS?

[350gt]

Just wondering what could be munching on them. I have no luck in my tank, I even put one polyp on a rock to test it out and over night it was gone. I have all my frags now on a corner rack at the top of my tank and they are doing fine.

I thought it was the hermits and got most of them out, maybe about 5 left. Then the peppermints, have about 1 left if not 2...Other inhabitants which I dont think any of them are suspects are yellow tang, Vlamingi tang, tomini tang, melanurus wrasse, flame angel(he did fine in my sons nano), 1clown, 3 cromis, velvet damsel, flame hawk and 2 cleaner shrimp.

All my other corals are fine. what else could I look for? Should I dump the 5 remaining hermits?

[350gt]

All fish are WELL FED btw......

[justahobby]

I would check for zoa eating snails and nudibranchs

[randomfish]

if you have nudibrancs look into a wrasse or some pipe fish

[350gt]

I have a melanurus wrasse, he has been with me for a good while now...

[randomfish]

thats weird what are your tank numbers (sups) what lighting are you target feeding

[350gt]

Havent checked my my water in awhile, have a old kit but want to get something more reliable, but everything else is fine. All the zoas that are on the frag racks high in the corner are doing just fine. i ordered a few more frags to spread across my LR and dont want to risk them being eaten now... I have acans all over the sand and they are never messed with. All my other corals are doing just fine....

[randomfish]

sounds like nudi's have you seen any slug like creatures that kinda look like sonic the hedgehog hair lol

[350gt]

nothing like that.... Should I look when the lights are off?

[justahobby]

Some crabs will eat zoas too. If they are disappearing overnight it sounds like they are being eaten, not wasting away. Get a flashlight (red if you can), set some bait (zoas) and watch for predation.

[350gt]

going to try and do that tonight..... will let you know what happens....

[justahobby]

Good luck!

[randomfish]

also the zoo eating nudis take on the color of the zoos they are eating just fyi

[Regric25]

I caught one a while back and got some macro video of it. Let us know if you find any. They will vary in color depending on the color of zoas they are eating.

http://youtu.be/dmdT19_18lg?hd=1

[350gt]

didnt see anything like that nudi but found tiny snail look object and there is a bunch of them all over my rocks...... Did find a bigger snail which I never put in there either..... Both of with I have never seen before....

[350gt]

http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww125/gsrt5/IMG_0556.jpg

its late and I rushed the shot..... but is this anything I need to worry about?

[justahobby]

Big one looks like a tulip snail:
www.3reef.com/forums/coral-health/zoa-eating-tulip-snails-44484.html (http://www.3reef.com/forums/coral-health/zoa-eating-tulip-snails-44484.html)

List of nuisances and predators to zoanthids:
www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384 (http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384)

[350gt]

Bad or good? That forum got confusing.... Lol what about the one on the right, there were a bunch of these all over the rock last night....

[justahobby]

Without a better picture I believe the small ones are "mini turbos." Reef safe and good fish food :-p

Tulips are predatory which can be bad. The one guy was convinced it was not a tulip, but regardless it was eating his zoas. Yours appears to have a prominent spindle shape like a tulip. It is definitely worth trying to find a positive ID on. Wetwebmedia.com is a great tool for IDs

Still keep an eye out for crabs and nudis in the meantime. The nudis can be tricky to spot. The eggs should be easier to find.

[Sherita]

The bigger snail looks like a tulip. not good to have. On another note, I recently banished my Beau Gregory damsel to my sump for ripping some of my corals off the rocks, including zoas. He had been fine for a year, then turned into a jerk. Hope you find the problem soon.

[SoLiD]

The small one is a Collonista Sp. snail. They are "good" little algae eaters and one of the few snails that will breed and multiply in our tanks without user intervention.

Wet Web Media (http://www.wetwebmedia.com/MolluscPIX/Gastropods/Prosobranch%20PIX/Astrea%20Turbo%20Turbinids/AstreaTurboF1.htm)

[350gt]

The bigger snail looks like a tulip. not good to have. On another note, I recently banished my Beau Gregory damsel to my sump for ripping some of my corals off the rocks, including zoas. He had been fine for a year, then turned into a jerk. Hope you find the problem soon.

Lol, poor damsel banished. I have a three striped damsel in my fuge cause he's a douche, mean for no reason.. I doubt it's any of my fish, only cause the ones on my racks are fine. It's when I try to put them on the rock work they vanish and only over night. Thinking about setting up a camera taking timed shots with a test frag like someone previously said to try.

[350gt]

The small one is a Collonista Sp. snail. They are "good" little algae eaters and one of the few snails that will breed and multiply in our tanks without user intervention.

Wet Web Media (http://www.wetwebmedia.com/MolluscPIX/Gastropods/Prosobranch%20PIX/Astrea%20Turbo%20Turbinids/AstreaTurboF1.htm)

I sure do hope so. I took three out this morning and will inspect them later today, if they stay in the jar I put them in.

[dipan]

The bigger snail looks a lot like the zig zag periwinkles that I got from reefcleaners, but the periwinkles are very small and listed as reef safe:

http://reefcleaners.org/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/6df10a9aa2abe481cb0bb3ed831c3eaf.jpg