Eating my Acan Lords

Z-man · Jan 13, 2012

I'm looking for some help with my Acan Lords. I have had two frags that appear to have been eaten. A single polyp frag is 3/4 of the way eaten over night. They're good and healthy before I go to bed but missing most of their flesh in the morning. The only tank mate that might be the culprit is a long spine urchin.
Any help s appreciated.

akma · Jan 13, 2012

Might just be irritated with something touching it. Is the flesh actually gone or is it just deflated?

KhensuRa · Jan 13, 2012

I have seen some peppermint shrimp kill a few...

Z-man · Jan 13, 2012

One frag started out flattened then gone. The other frag was looking very good, puffy before going to bed last night. This morning, down to the skeleton. And that's my Tokyo Tart.

jayjay60 · Jan 13, 2012

My peppermints after they did away with my aptasia decided to eat my acans and chalices for food.

Daimyo68 · Jan 13, 2012

Peppermint shrimp (and others) are known to eat corals when their primary food source is depleted.

If you can't catch them and get them out, then you could try overfeeding a little. They are scavengers by nature and will find food that the fish missed. I do this with my tank/s when all the aiptasia are gone.

If your tank parameters are good (phos, nitrate, and no major algae growing), then you will be fine to feed a little extra to keep them from going after your corals.

The issue now (if your positive it's the peppermint shrimp eating them) is that they have acquired a taste for acans.

Confirm that it's them eating the acans. Then you have to choose one of the two methods above.

Z-man · Jan 14, 2012

no peppermint shrimp in the tank, only sexy shrimp.

Gamble · Jan 14, 2012

Check your parameters, I know my mag is low when the acans start getting ******/deflated.... usually, as soon as I see random recession in my acans, I will do a 10 minute lugols/coral disinfectant dip with gentle a baste and move to slightly lower light.

brannock_16 · Jan 14, 2012

I have read and witnessed that sometimes there are "worms" that live within the skeleton of acan frags and eat them from the inside out. I know this happened in the Acan Growout on here by Reef Up and with a couple other people on this forum.

If this is the case you have to frag the piece in question and extract the "worm" from the skeleton.

debdp · Jan 15, 2012

Sometimes I've seen my acans just shrivel up and go right into their hole, the whole colony and then later on they open up. Haven't figured out why they do it. But I thought something was major wrong the first time but now I still watch them carefully but they come out later. Can you post a picture?

revhtree · Jan 15, 2012

Same thing was happening to mine and I have a long spine urchin as well! Caught him on some of the polyps too.

hermesfansf · Jan 15, 2012

debdp said:
Sometimes I've seen my acans just shrivel up and go right into their hole, the whole colony and then later on they open up. Haven't figured out why they do it. But I thought something was major wrong the first time but now I still watch them carefully but they come out later. Can you post a picture?

I have encountered similar situation as well. However, shrimps can be dangerous if they do not get enough food.

Cjscott · Jan 15, 2012

Has anyone ever had problems with sexy shrimp eating their acans? I have been losing acans and don't have peppermint just sexy shrimp.

Z-man · Jan 15, 2012

My sexy shrimp pretty much stay on my hammer coral throughout the day, but I have no clue what they do at night. The hammer is about 2 feet away from the acans.

Z-man · Jan 15, 2012

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Here's a good Acan

Z-man · Jan 15, 2012

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Here is the Tokyo Tort half eaten over night.

Z-man · Jan 28, 2012

Follow up... I moved two acan colonies to a different tank and they are coming back very nicely. A week later a witnessed the long spine urchin digesting yet a different colony. I have also noticed this has happened shortly after I have fed the acans with Fauna Marin. My take on it is the Acans swallow the food but the scent is still in the water causing the urchin to chase down a meal. In thinking it is eating the food, its actually eating the Acan.

kto10z · Nov 20, 2018

Anyone know what could be destroying my acan skeleton? They have not been doing well, took them out to dip them and noticed half of the skeleton is gone. Puzzling.