Hippo tang eat zoas?

leepink23 · Jul 16, 2017

At one time I had huge zoa colonies, I thought forever it was my foxface or coral beauty nipping them so I sold both. Now I keep watching my hippo go after both of these zoas. The round frag plate was completely full 2 weeks ago. I have moved both to quarantine. Doesn't seem to be messing with my other zoas. I am curious if hippos actually eat zoas or not? I feed him 1-2 times per day.

gacolt · Jul 16, 2017

hippo's can eat corals and once they do they always will.but are you sure he's not eating algae off the rock?

leepink23 · Jul 16, 2017

Well that's what I was wondering. There is not algae on the bottom one and no matter where I place it he goes after it. Going to let them sit in quarantine for a few weeks then dip them in peroxide so there is no hair algae for sure.

Deniss · Jul 16, 2017

Heared a couple of stories with hippo's eating zoa's. Had a mate that had one for over a year and then suddenly started eating his zoa's.

leepink23 · Jul 16, 2017

Deniss said:
Heared a couple of stories with hippo's eating zoa's. Had a mate that had one for over a year and then suddenly started eating his zoa's.

I have had mine for about 2 years, never noticed him picking at my zoas until recently.

Jay11355 · Jul 16, 2017

Tang would eat zoa it happens , I have a hippo tang and a brown power tang eating my zao , once they get use to eat zao they will keep eating

RussiReef · Jul 17, 2017

I have Hippo tang for about 5 years. never seen him to eat zoos or other corals . do you offer him a nori?

eatbreakfast · Jul 17, 2017

In most cases hippo tangs are completely reef safe. However, there are some individuals that will nip/eat corals. Once they start, they are unlikely to stop.

leepink23 · Jul 17, 2017

RussiReef said:
I have Hippo tang for about 5 years. never seen him to eat zoos or other corals . do you offer him a nori?

Yeah I feed him nori 3x week, but increased to daily when he started this behavior.

leepink23 · Jul 17, 2017

eatbreakfast said:
In most cases hippo tangs are completely reef safe. However, there are some individuals that will nip/eat corals. Once they start, they are unlikely to stop.

That's what I am worried about, after removing the 2 zoa frags he was after, I haven't noticed him going for any other zoas yet.

leepink23 · Jul 17, 2017

Jay11355 said:
Tang would eat zoa it happens , I have a hippo tang and a brown power tang eating my zao , once they get use to eat zao they will keep eating

That's what I figured, may have to sale him unfortunately.

mfinn · Jul 17, 2017

I had a couple hippo tangs that would chow down on whole colonies like it was ice cream.
They were in a 180 gallon reef tank.
I had to completely remove everything out of the tank to get them in a net.
Once they realize it could be food, it's over for keeping zoanthids in the same tank.

leepink23 · Jul 17, 2017

He devoured a 10 polyp frag today, I had to tear my tank apart to get him out. Very frustrating to say the least.

Alexandru B · Mar 9, 2023

My blu tang also started to eat zoa... I just woke up today with 3 frag plugs with no polyps. He even gets the SPS from my frag rack and drops them in different places in the tank. So frustrating.

reefrun · Mar 13, 2023

I had mine for over a year before he decided he loved zoas.. wiped out whole colonies overnight before I finally caught him in the act (multiple times). He actually started grabbing polyps and shaking them like a dog with a toy.. even threw a couple frags across the tank right in front of my eyes. Bummer, loved that fish