acros for dinner :(

tiffyreefer

tiffyreefer

New member
Woke up this morning to this......
I have added a Royal Gramma, and thats it for the past 4 months. All I can think of is that my peppermint shrimp is in fact, a camel back. These are very high up in the tank, and clearly munch marks. They also took a chunk out of my ORA Plum Crazy acro too. But these are the only 3 colonies affected. Any thoughts?

I have had this blue fuzzy acro for over 2 years, and I have to find the culprit soon, or everything will be going to the LFS for babysitting until i rip out all the rocks and find the bugger that did this....ugh.

Note: I should have added this to my thread about something eating my zoos, mushrooms, and rics. I didn't even THINK about it until now. I apologize for the double thread....

eat2w.jpg


eatt.jpg
 
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Doubt that the peps or camelbacks are the cause of this event. Do you have emerald crabs or urchins?
 
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no emerald crabs, or urchins.

Purple Tang
Pair of ocellaris clowns
yellow coris wrasse
6 line wrasse
1 royal gramma
3 chromis
2 peppermint shrimp
1 sally lightfoot
1 cleaner shrimp
about 4 cucumbers
and 2 hitch hiker crabs (1/2 inch in length) that live in 2 coral colonies and stay with those corals. They are light tan, smooth, with 2 small claws and black eyes.

thats all i have....i think
 
Those are all broken tips right? It's just on the tips and not the body right? It's a little hard to see in the pics, but kind of important in regards to the pathology.

I read your other thread about vanishing softies, maybe someone else can chime in here, but maybe you have a gorilla crab or something with really bizarre tastes. Either way, I'd stay up after lights out on the tank and watch for something to emerge. Remember to be still since vibrations in the floor carry to the tank and whatever is there may not come out.
 
I know mantis have been known to break coral, but your shrimp would be long gone by now...and I can't believe the tips are actually GONE...I would think they would be smashed off and just laying around the substrate.

Could it be a large worm munching on it?

I would set a trap with a big raw shrimp (like people eat), put it in at night and see what you catch. I would even be pulling a graveyard shift on guard duty.
 
They are 100% broken/ bitten off. Nothing can drop on them either. Alk has been stable, and no one else but three colonies are affected. I work night shifts as it is, I might have to break out the Keurig and park myself on our sofa for the night.

sslak.....I looked for tips on the substrate too, never had something bite off tips like this...

chicago: yes, just the tips. As far as I can see anyway.


The LR is over 2 years old, I doubt that something in a juvenile/egg state took that long to grow up and become a coral predator? Or am I wrong? When I introduce new coral I quarantine, and never put in corals that are encrusted on a piece of LR, for exactly this reason.
 
They are 100% broken/ bitten off. Nothing can drop on them either. Alk has been stable, and no one else but three colonies are affected. I work night shifts as it is, I might have to break out the Keurig and park myself on our sofa for the night.

sslak.....I looked for tips on the substrate too, never had something bite off tips like this...

chicago: yes, just the tips. As far as I can see anyway.


The LR is over 2 years old, I doubt that something in a juvenile/egg state took that long to grow up and become a coral predator? Or am I wrong? When I introduce new coral I quarantine, and never put in corals that are encrusted on a piece of LR, for exactly this reason.
 
I'd go with the trap idea that Steve recommended and see if you find you've got something lurking in your tank.

Mike
 
mantis shrimp or gorilla crabs do that,

take action ASAP :)

I saw the same in my tank 6 months ago ...
didnt care, cause I had good growth and they were just trimming it ...

now I have about 30 crabs, eating my SPS away ... have to take the tank down to get them out !
 
Eucinid / eunicid (however it's spelled) worm comes to mind.

As do parrotfish! :lol:

Sorry, don't mean to make light of your missing tips.
 
humm.....I facebooked my LFS buddies and they are going to give me some bait tomorrow when I make my weekly visit. Crossing my fingers. How big of a worm could this be!?!?! It would have to crawl about 20 inches up to get to these corals. It kinda creeps me out actually.
 
There have been threads about them on RC, describing finding worms in excess of 6 feet in large reef tanks, typically living in rock cavities or pvc tubing supports.
 
It's the sally lightfoot. Mine just started doing the same thing out of nowhere to a nice stylo colony. I Was just getting ready to start a thread on how to catch the bugger.
 
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