What would wipe out zoanthids and not palys?

[Logzor]

After adding a couple of new colonies to my tank I noticed that all of my zoas were melting. The palys were thriving, though. I did not see any "pox" - just melting colonies.

Entire colonies disappeared. Could a starfish be the blame? I found a very plain looking starfish that was around 3/4" in diameter.

 

[jefathome]

Probably not the star... You have pics of it though. You never know.

 

[Superstretch18]

Could very well be a starfish. Many starfish will consume corals and polyps, if given the chance. A small starfish probably wouldn't be large enough to fully consume the polyps in one sitting, but could damage them enough that they appear to melt away.

If you can post a picture of the starfish, that would be great, but unless it's a sand star, asterina star, serpent star or one of the linkia/fromia type stars, I'd probably pull it...

 

[650-IS350]

Check this link for possible predators...
http://www.coralpedia.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384

Just wonding what kinda fish do you have? Any angels, foxfaces, Tangs ?

 

[Logzor]

It looks just like the asterina star only around 3-4 times bigger.

I have a Tomini Tang and a Two-Barred Rabbitfish.

I have never seen the Rabbitfish eat polyps though. I watch him pretty closely.

This started happening around a month after I added two new zoas and some palys. The two zoa colonies melted as well as two others that had been thriving.

 

[jefathome]

Is there fuzzy brown stuff around their base?

 

[Logzor]

Nope. No brown fuzzies. The melting period seemed to be very slow. It must have taken 2-3 weeks to finish them off.

I have seen small snails near and on my zoas/palys but they are not sundials. I have always had these snails and in the past have not had issues with my zoas.

 

[650-IS350]

I'd seriously watch the rabbit and tomini...

If you see blackish/greyishbrown coloration on your closed polyps it might be sick or getting fungus of sort.

 

[dflad]

Spiders? Ill bet, they only eat zoas. Did the base pinch and some of the heads fall off? did they sort of "wither" away?

 

[Logzor]

They closed up for a long time, it appeared that everything was fully intact (just closed). After a week or so they tissue slow became less dense and consistient across the mat. This continued until there was no trace left. The whole event was probably a month long.

 

[mscarpena]

I had a rabbit fish and the same thing happened to me. I said the same thing no not my rabbit fish. I have never seen him eat anything. I had him for a month and lost a lot of really nice zoos. Finally I saw him munch some with that nasty beak. I removed him and they were fine. I would sit in front of your tank for about and hour or so and see if its the fish. I bet it is good luck

 

[adambirk]

i would like to see if there are any other suggestions because i too have had zoos reciently wither away. not all of them just one colony of red zoos and on a colony of eagle eyes i had 5 radioactive greens on there that i was hoping would spread and all of those withered away to. the weird thing is that both of those happened at the same time but my eagle eye zoos are doing great i have fraged off two colonys of about 30 and they are thriving so why only the two. sorry not trying to high jack your thread just the way you describe your zoos closing up and then withering away is exactly what happened to mine. never could see any signs of poxs or fish bothering mine either. dont really want to go buy more expensive zoos untill i know what is going on.

 

[650-IS350]

Fish sometimes tend to nip when you not watching or away on another room. I kinda look at it as the fish knowing of what they're doing. LOL. I've posted video here before of a reefer videoing his blue tang munching of polyps like popcorn.