Fish Rant!

[cbrennan4]

Ok, So I've been dealing with a fish that has been eating my zoas for a few weeks now. I lost over 30 frags as well as a number of colonies that had multiple polyps nipped and eaten. The first fish I identified as the culprit was a algae blenny that proved too smart for a hook and line and a bottle trap. I was forced to tear apart the tank to get rid of him. That was a painful 5 hour experience

The next day my heart sinks when I find a colony of KH sunburst zoas almost fully eaten. I watch the tank for a few hours and notice my Tomini tang picking on a Bam Bam colony. I try a hook and line as well as a trap with no luck. Then starts the 5-hour tear down:headwally:

Everything is fine for a week and I figure it's safe to make a few frags last Saturday for the holiday party and a trade. I go on a run and when I get back I find that 5 out of the 6 frags had been eaten. So, the last culprit in the tank is the rabbitfish, which looking back at now should have been my first suspect. But to my defense, I did notice the other 2 fish I removed picking at zoas as well. Fortunately this fish was the easiest to catch because it sleeps near a powerhead at the top of the tank. I was able to remove it with a net it very easily that night.

I've had all these fish for a few years and it wasn't easy to get rid of them. It's just crazy how one day they can go from being a model citizen to zoa devastator overnight. I'm just praying that's the end of it. The hardest part is that I had just turned my tank around and it was really looking good for the first time in awhile. The only silver lining is I luckily had backup frags of a few of the higher end zoas that had been eaten.

Rant over, just had to get it off my chest because friends and family just don't understand how much time, effort, and money we as hobbyist and collectors put into these tanks.

 

[woodnaquanut]

We all feel your pain!

Is there anything that changed to explain the switch from zoa friendly to beast?

I've read that grazers will eat coral if they aren't getting enough greens.

Had you switched them to a paleo diet?

I have noticed an almost competition type of eating. In my case it was good because they were eating hair algae. As soon as one grazer tried it the others joined in.

 

[cbrennan4]

Not really sure what changed for them. I run the tank a lot cleaner now because I've been able to keep up with the routine maintenance. I also feed them Nori, pellet food, and rod's food. I need to get another good algae eater(most likely a tang) in the tank though because here is what's left in the tank:
Leopard Wrasse
Linneatus Wrasse
Clownfish pair
Watchman Goby pair
Flame angelfish
Yellow tang

 

[pinnatus]

Are you sure the flame angel is not the culprit?

 

[cbrennan4]

I don't believe it was the angel because I've had that fish for almost 5 years now. It came from an established tank where it didn't pick on anything either. The only thing it did pick on was a clam when I first added it to my tank.
I watched the tank for a few hours over a couple days and only noticed the fish that I removed picking on the coral. I forgot to mention that it's a 90 gallon zoa dominated tank as well and there's only a few sps and lps corals.

 

[Reef Bass]

Wow, that pretty much blows. My condolences. I understand your frustration.

I had a purple tang start pounding my acans after a year of model citizenship. Then another time a Kole tang and a Chocolate tang started ripping the flesh off my acros in tandem. That was a stop everything and catch the fish event.

Fortunately my Chevron has been behaving himself (so far) for almost 2 years now.

 

[Box209]

Ask Colin(NVR) about his rabbit fish...

 

[79chopperdr]

Sorry to hear, IMO coral eating can be a learned behavior by fish not known to eat coral. I had a blue tang eat zoas like they were tic tacs.

I used strawberry baskets to cover and protect the zoas until I could catch the culprit. Good luck!

 

[cbrennan4]

The strawberry baskets are a great idea, thanks!

 

[nashorn]

Also those Asterina star will eat zoa too. I notice my fish will pick at the algae that is growing between the zoa.
I did a test once where I didn't feed fish for a week and released zoas into the tank. The fish did go after them but spit them out just as fast.
No side I guess is if they did like them I just trained them to eat my zoas.......lol.....lucky that didn't happen.
I always wonder if fish are going after the sps or if there was a clear spot where algae starts to grow and they are after that and it causing more damage.

 

[CheckRAZR]

Hi Colin - Hoping this is not the case but any possibility you may have a eunicid worm type in your rockwork? A fellow reefer down south had something very similat where many of his zoas and mushrooms were totally or partially eaten. He thought it was his fish too but ended up being a worm.