What ate my zoos?

[builderguy]

okay...here's the deal.

I epoxied a rock containing 30 - 40 bright orange zoanthids to a piece of my live rock on Saturday. All looked well through the weekend and last night when I got home from work.

This morning the rock was no longer attached (could have fallen but may have been ripped off) to the live rock. It was lying face down in the sand.

When I turned it over almost all but a few of the zoanthids were gone!

What could have eaten that many in one night?

I have a 2.5 to 3" unidentifiable crab in the tank that I found when I broke everything down...I left him in and now I'm wondering if it was him. I looked for nudi's and sundial snails and couldn't find anything.

Any ideas? I'll have to take all the rock out to find the little b*stard.

 

[yoshiod9]

were the zoas healthy? if not, when they fell into the sand, bristle worms could have gotten to them. the crab seems a likely suspect, though-- i've had plenty of un-IDed crabs eat zoas like candy. also, what fish to you have? tangs and angels have been known to feast on zoa polyps. hth.

 

[yoshiod9]

just looked at the other thread you had here and noticed a hippo tang (blue tang, whatever...)-- i'd bet that he has something to do with it. hippos are NOTORIOUS for eating zoas/palys. try adding a cheap frag of zoas into the tank and watch the tank to see if it eats them. i'd bet that the fish does.

 

[builderguy]

The tang is a Blue Tang not a hippo...hadn't considered him a suspect.

 

[Wee-Reef Master]

It could be that crab, or even small stars which I've found eating some of my zoos in the very recent past.

 

[builderguy]

couldn't be stars...I looked very carefully. Whatever was eating them wasn't still on them. I have moved them to the nano in my office until I catch that crab.

 

[builderguy]

Also, apparently the culprit is a Calico Crab.

 

[yoshiod9]

is this your fish? http://www.fishpalace.org/P_hepatus.html

if so, i'd put money on the tang doing the damage. i mean, how could a smaller sized crab create enough force to rip an epoxied rock down to the substrate? it probably couldn't. however, a hippo/blue tang could.

plus, hippos/blue tangs are known zoa/paly eaters.

 

[builderguy]

Yep that's him. Crap! I like that fish.

The crab is pretty big BTW...probably 3" across side to side and 2.5" front to back...I've watched him lift a 12" long barnacle cluster to go underneath it.

 

[yoshiod9]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8270210#post8270210 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by builderguy
The crab is pretty big BTW...probably 3" across side to side and 2.5" front to back...I've watched him lift a 12" long barnacle cluster to go underneath it.

whoa that doesn't sound like a crab-- that sounds like dinner! what i would do, is try to capture the crab first and then see if the zoa eating continues. if it does, it's likely the hippo.

 

[builderguy]

The trap is set...we will see

 

[builderguy]

The trap worked for the Calico Crab...gave him to a buddy at work with a FOWLR. Now we'll see if it's the Blue Tang that was the actual culprit.

 

[yoshiod9]

awesome! hopefully it was the crab and not the fish. it'd be a shame to have to get rid of such a good looking fish.