help something's eating xenia !@#$

[thomasp123]

Well I have been having problems with this one small xenia. It seemed fine when I brought it home from the lfs. Then it had some problems and looked bad. It seemed like something was eating it. I blamed mt emerald crab and sent it back to the lfs. The zenia started looking better and started to grow new hands. I thought the problem was solved. Then today when I came home from work it looked all ratty again. it has may missing hands and is all shrivaled. I have all sorts of life in this 75 gallon reef including:

hermits
snails all sorts big and small
two urchins
two cleaner shrimp
two peppermint shrimp
one brittle star he was a hitchiker we hardly see him
two clowns
one six line
one royal gramma
one yellow tang small
one fire goby
one frilly xeina which is fine
one frogspawn
brown with green center polyps
green star polyps
red center zooanthids

all of which are fine and one picked on pumping hand xeina.

any thoughts on what is eating my poor xeina?

Tom

 

[KorL]

My very first reef tank that I had, I noticed some single polyps of xenia floating in the water column. I eventually caught my peppermint shrimp cutting the polyps. Back to the LFS for him.

 

[geoxman]

I would not worry about it and you will be happier in the long run with out it. IMHO
You also did not state your water parameters and the other specifics of you system. good luck

 

[Tennyson]

It's a peppermint for sure.
My peppermint did the exact same with mine, it was quite annoying.

And my serpent starfish also likes to feed on my xenia and eat any xenia-type-of-coral, but thats just my serpent starfish, I don't think your brittle star would do that.

 

[thomasp123]

Well thats three votes for the peppermints. I will have to keep a closer eye on them. I have no idea how I would get them out though. they hide very well.

My water is good in my opinion ph 8.3 hardness 11 dk and calcium 400. nitrate ammonia and nitrite are all zero. phosphate is zero. I dont have any more nuisance algae since the tank is now three months old.

I noticed today that my duncan is closed. that a first. I forgot them in the original list of critters.

does anyone else have any thoughts????

 

[RBU1]

Funny thread.........Well not really.....

I have this real nice Xenia small pulses a great deal. Well about a week ago I noticed the nice patch of it was shriveled up to nothing.......Ut oh I start to think something must be wrong with my water....I do all my tests and all is fine.....What the heck is going on. Last night I am down checking on things and I see my 8" sailfin tang taking a bite out of my xenia.........I feel better that nothing is wrong with the water BUT now I have a tang that eats xenia. The other weird thing is he only bothers this small pulsing kind I forget the name. I have the larger xenia and he does not touch it.

 

[thomasp123]

RBU1 well my tang makes the most sence as this seems to happen during the day not at night when you might expext the peppermints to be out working. I have started putting a bit of red algae in the tank in the morning I will see if that helps. I also think I will start feeding live gracillaria as the tang loves to pick at that. what do you think?

Tom

 

[gflat65]

My Purple tang almost destroyed my blue cespits in a matter of a day before I realized what I was seeing.

 

[RBU1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13961177#post13961177 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thomasp123
RBU1 well my tang makes the most sence as this seems to happen during the day not at night when you might expext the peppermints to be out working. I have started putting a bit of red algae in the tank in the morning I will see if that helps. I also think I will start feeding live gracillaria as the tang loves to pick at that. what do you think?

Tom

I think that no matter what you do if the tang wants to eat the xenia it will. I would feed the fish a well varied diet including the algae's you mentioned. Good Luck...

 

[Ncastro1981]

I have noticed a similar effect but i dont believe it has anything todo with animals eatingt. It may have to do with water paramiters or the mineral content in your water..ie things we dont test for.

 

[ICUP]

i always had problem with my xenias ..... water check - OK and i never suspect my tangs.... but it makes sense - once they develop taste for something - IT'S GONE.

 

[thomasp123]

the zenia is growing back! we will see if it gets eaten again