somebodys eating my zoos

1

1628mna

New member
hello all,

im having a problem with my zoos being eaten by someone. i spent alot of money in zoos at the frag swap and slowly they are getting knocked down then eaten. some have been eaten right off of the frag plug or rock they came on. im also having problems with my green star polyps not extending all the way out all the time. i have gone as far as getting up in the middle of the night and watch the tank with no luck. i think one trouble maker is the snowflake eel i have and the others might be the blue legged hermit crabs i have. does anybody have any experience with this? if it is either one you will soon see a post "free to good home snowflake eel or hermit crabs if they are the trouble makers.

tyhanx in advance

mike
 
Snowflake eels do not eat corals. Hermit crabs are crabs, therefore omnivorous. They will eat anything depending on how hungry they are and how regular their food supply is. Doesn't mean they ate your zoas, just that they can't be counted out. What else is in the tank?

S !
 
python,

i also have a peppermint shrimp yellow tang,tomatoe clown,neon blue dansel and two 3 stripped dansels.
 
saltman,

i also thought the same thing. but i would look in my tank one time they are there and about an hour later there gone. also a majority of my zoas have been knocked over then eaten.

python and saltman thanx for the respose
 
i had some damsels eat an entire colony of xenia once ...not that i cared but they could be the culprites and when they start eating they do damage quick....
 
If you have a ton of amphipods they will eat zoo's. I learned this the hard way...then I bought a six-line wrasse and now I don't have a problem anymore...plus he also ate every single flatworm in my tank:)
 
FWIW I had two large domino damsels that were polyp pickers. They would pick as zoo's and palys to the point they would detach from their base. They never bothered anything until they were full grown (2.5" or so). Also as others posted don't count out your hermits if they're hungry.
 
well my dragon eyes just bit the dust. man those had some great color. im clueless. i always thought amphipods were good in a tank, shows signs of a good running tank. i have a bunch of these things crawling around. are these the things that the mandarin gobys feast on?
 
Yep, but it seems kind of weird that the zoos were knocked over. It sounds more like a fish. My zoos just got smaller and smaller until they completely disappeared. Then I flipped on a flashlight in the middle of the night and cold busted some munching on another colony. Something to keep in mind. HTH
 
Well there it is. zOMG AMPHIPODS! They flip over rocks, bite toes, eat colorful zoas, and they destroy the ozone.

:lol:

Well, I'm not going to fight the 'pod war here in a zoanthid thread, I'll just suggest to you the absurdity of people who suggest that you kill off all the microfauna that you've struggled to culture.

I'm leaning towards fish here. Keep an eye on them, you'll find the culprit eventually. In the mean time, you might consider quarantining your remaining zoas. Do you have a spare tank? Zoas really don't take that much light or flow to keep alive over the short term.

Good luck.

S !
 
they may be getting knocked over by a crab or your snails, every morning I have to reach in my tank and put one or two of my frags back in place those little buggers knock something over all the time
 
python

thats funny.lol i put the one piece of zoos down in my sump/ fuge. the only thing with that is that my cheato blocks the light thay the zoos need. the ones that are in my fuge now only pop out when the light is on them which is not to often. last night i walked past my tank and low and behold there was a little hermit crab on the plug that was jarred free from the middle of two rocks. can a hermit crab have that much strength? or is he getting help from those damn pods?
 
charliegrl2u that is the worst thing about saltwater tanks. it drives me totally insane. i think my 2 1/2 daughter has learned more swear words in the last 2 weeks than in the last year. im just joking for all those child service reefers out there.
 
Interesting. I have never had or seen a amohipod eat a live zoanthid. They will eat dead or dying coral tissue, but never seen them eat live, healthy tissue. Not going to discount anyone's experience, but it does not make sense. I have more amphipods in my tank than one probably needs as I have no real predators for them. My zoanthids and palys are having no troubles spreading all over the place. You guys who are claiming they eat the zoas must have the bad pods. They were probably not raised right and were missing one or both parents in their upbringing....

Sorry to hear the woes. I have seen damsels eat soft corals....twice....but that is a rarity too. I can see your dilemma. The least suspect though is the snowflake. I would feel most comfortable crossing him off the suspect list.

Hope you find the culprit.

The other "pods are eating my coral" thread is just as interesting too. My own experience makes me skeptical but it is something to hold on to should I ever have these problems and am unable to narrow things down. All around though, amphipods are one of the best macrofauna to cultivate and have in your tank. I would certainly not advocate anything to limit their numbers.
 
Think of hermit crabs as ants. Evil little strong as hell saltwater ants. So yes, they could move a frag. Turbo snails also move things. They get big and like to wedge under rocks and such. They have no problems flipping or pushing corals.

That five page amphipods_are_teh_devil post is one of the ones I was laughing at. I especially enjoy the "evidence" which is a photo of a a-pod on a closed frag after lights out. AHA! Well, except... pod's mouths are microscopic. How do you know what he is eating? Oh, right, you asked him.

S !
 
there mouths might be microscopic but think of this, they might have real big teeth. huh! like my question before, are these the things that were talking about that the mandarindragonet goby love or live for?
 
Ah, no. Mandarins iirc eat smaller food than the amphipods. They are hunting copepods, the little white specs you see after lights out. Not saying it isn't possible for a mandarin to eat an a-pod, just that they tend to eat smaller fare.

S !
 
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