button polyp colony gone overnight

[Mylilreef]

i was wondering, in my tank i have a 4-stripe damsel that i know likes to eat small polyps i.e. zoas, xenia, cloves, etc. (he also terrorizes the tank by purposly bumping into corals making them close up). i also have a gold spotted rabbitfish whom i have never seen touch a thing. this morning when the lights came on i noticed one of my button polyp colonies was completly gone.:eek2: these were about the size of a quarter when open and over a dosen of them. just a little bit of tissue left on the rock. could my rabbit turn rogue on me even after being well fed last night or could a 4 inch damsel do that? why would he go after only that one type of buttons when there where 4 different types? or what are the chances that something is wrong with my water and everything else is okay still? the closest coral in proximaty is a small candycane which is around 5-6 inches away. any ideas?

 

[Lytehouse]

Shouln't be anything abut water quality that would cause a healthy colony to disappear overnight. Candycane coral doesn't sting, so I think you are probably looking at fish as culprits...

 

[MBryant]

Get rid of the damsel

 

[Mylilreef]

i planned on rescapeing this weekend. do you have a large net i could borrow, matt? i have something like a 6" x 4" but he's way too fast for that size net.... trust me, i've tried.

 

[Lytehouse]

i planned on rescapeing this weekend. do you have a large net i could borrow, matt? i have something like a 6" x 4" but he's way too fast for that size net.... trust me, i've tried.

When i watch fish stores they use 2 nets,
1 is a diversion and the second to come from behind

good luck, they are fast

 

[Mylilreef]

yeah i thought i had him last week. and then ZIP!, he was gone into the rocks. so hopefully i can pull out most of the rock and get himwhen he has no place to hide. i just hope i don't get caught up in the moment and run my hand across a startled rabbitfish. OUCH!

 

[lauremf2002]

Aquariums has a fish trap they might let you borrow. I used it to catch and angel that was eating my coral. Also, if you pull that colony, or put it in a critter cage in you tank to protect it until you do catch the culprit, it will grow back. My rabbit fish ate an entire colony down to the rock, and it still came back

 

[Mylilreef]

Got him !!!!!

Got him !!!!!

well satuday evening i took a couple hours removing ro until ther was no place for that pesky damsel to hide. and then all of the sudden he swims to the very top and goes in between my frag rack(which does have decent size sides) and my koralia. he wasn't even moving! i think he thought he was stuck. anyway, i quickly grabbed my net and got him. WITH NO CHASING!:dance: kind of wish he would have done that sooner, but i needed to add the extra rock i purchased a couple weeks ago.

so should i keep him in my quarantine until the 150g is done and throw him in the sump? or should i try and rehome him and just be done with him? he's in the 30 for now, but that tank is coming down by next weekend.

so my benefits are:

1. no more pesky damsel that chases other fish causing injuries and eats coral:fun2:

2. long needed aquascape looks 10x better than before, besides it'll give my engineer goby something to do.

3. i can get the 30g tank off the living room floor (wife's not been too pleased with it's location)

4. now i can reseal the 30g and install baffles so it can be the sump for my 150g build.(someday i'll finally get it up and running):hammer:

 

[Mylilreef]

oh, and you're right lauren. that little bit of tissue looks like it is growing new babies already.

 

[Lytehouse]

well satuday evening i took a couple hours removing ro until ther was no place for that pesky damsel to hide. and then all of the sudden he swims to the very top and goes in between my frag rack(which does have decent size sides) and my koralia. he wasn't even moving! i think he thought he was stuck. anyway, i quickly grabbed my net and got him. WITH NO CHASING!:dance: kind of wish he would have done that sooner, but i needed to add the extra rock i purchased a couple weeks ago.

so should i keep him in my quarantine until the 150g is done and throw him in the sump? or should i try and rehome him and just be done with him? he's in the 30 for now, but that tank is coming down by next weekend.

so my benefits are:

1. no more pesky damsel that chases other fish causing injuries and eats coral:fun2:

2. long needed aquascape looks 10x better than before, besides it'll give my engineer goby something to do.

3. i can get the 30g tank off the living room floor (wife's not been too pleased with it's location)

4. now i can reseal the 30g and install baffles so it can be the sump for my 150g build.(someday i'll finally get it up and running):hammer:

 

[zxanth]

Well this is my experience recently with missing zoos... My gold spotted rabbit fish got the urge to eat zoos. He ate most of them reaching from red, purple people eaters and a lot more before I caught him today. So keep an eye on him. He also started to eat my xenias too which was weird. Soon he is going up for sale.

 

[Mylilreef]

i'll keep an eye on him, but for now my tank is nice and settled down again. the only thing my rabbit is doing is drag racing with my sailfin tang back and forth across the tank and of course being a big with the nori sheets.