Yelow tang vs zoanthids

[mecold]

I have a colony of zoanthids that was slowly losing polyps.. Only this one colony. I tried dipping, and checked for sundial snails. Still looked like something was eating some of the polyps. Today while staring at the tank, my yellow tang swims over and plucks about 4 polyps off of the rock. Mind you these polyps looked pretty rough to begin with, but I didn't know yellow tangs did this. It absolutly devoured those polyps like there was no tomorrow. At least I have tons of the polyps it ate. If it goes for any of my favorites, it is as good as gone.

 

[SuperFishy]

from what i see in my tank, the yellow tang will eat dying polyps. It's never touched healthy polyps though, always the brown dying, decaying polyps only.

 

[mecold]

Then in that case, Then maybe it is cleaning up the tank for me
I think the polyps were damaged when I moved that rock around, but I may try to dip them again just to be sure.

 

[tangreef68]

i have never heard of a yellow tang doing such a thing. they usually stay away from the corals.

 

[fischcrazy]

i have the same luck when it comes to zoos

 

[AIMFish]

I take care of a Foxface that enjoys xenia heads, he has cut back lately and it has never been a problem at the rate the xenia multiplies! Do you ever give your tang sheets of algae to munch on?

 

[mecold]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6447956#post6447956 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AIMFish
Do you ever give your tang sheets of algae to munch on?

Yup, twice a day. Oh well.. Still have tons of the color it was eating.

 

[AIMFish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6448435#post6448435 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mecold
Yup, twice a day.

Well the hungry theory didn't work Hopefully it's just a phase he's going thru, I watched the foxface more yesterday and he wasn't biting on the xenia, something he used to do every other minute or so.

 

[cubano2480]

My blue tang love xinea some times I want to kill him :fun2:

 

[bigeyetuna]

I did a search and didnt get many hits on Yellow Tangs eat Polyps. I just introduced a Yellow tang to my newly setup reef. I have some yellow polyps which all look very healthy. The Tang has been picking at my live rock which is full of macro algea. I saw him today nip at the yellow polyps, which is why I did the search. I hope he was just checking and not aquiring a taste for polyps. It doesn't appear this is typical behavior, so perhaps I havce nothing to worry about.

 

[mecold]

My tank has stopped messing with the polyps.. I guess it decided they didn't taste so good.. Anyway, from my experience, yellow polyps are pretty tough. They can take a beating. they can and will sting the crap out of anything near them. Just don't put them on your rockwork.