Something ate some of my Palys

Oldsalt01 · Mar 6, 2018

I'm not sure limpets are the culprit. I suppose it depends on the species, but I have some and they've been model citizens, cleaning up algae but leaving my zoas alone.

John3 · Mar 6, 2018

Hard to see in the pic but I believe they were keyhole limpets. Can’t say for certain but it’s a start. I’m gonna get a good look in the morning again before the light comes on.

John3 · Mar 7, 2018

I have another pretty large colony of zoas that are on a old mussel shell that only half have been opening. I decided to pull it and do a peroxide and iodine dip. Low and behold 3 more keyhole limpets fell off. Not even sure where they were in the colony. These guys have all been small so far. I’m guessing I will be dealing with them for s while again.

TinyChocobo · Mar 7, 2018

John3 said:
I have another pretty large colony of zoas that are on a old mussel shell that only half have been opening. I decided to pull it and do a peroxide and iodine dip. Low and behold 3 more keyhole limpets fell off. Not even sure where they were in the colony. These guys have all been small so far. I’m guessing I will be dealing with them for s while again.

It's my understanding they don't really reproduce much in an aquarium - so physical removal should work.

John3 · Mar 7, 2018

I’m thinking these must have hatched. 7 so far all about the same size. There’s almost no way they came in on anything unless they were eggs at that point.

I had some come in with my live rock and I picked out the bigger ones. I had a 6 line wrasse back then and he ate all kinds of stuff off the rock. I haven’t seen a limpet for 8 months until just recently.

John3 · Mar 31, 2018

Bringing this thread back up with an update.

I believe the culprit the whole time was an emerald crab. After removing all the limpets things seemed to be fine for a couple weeks. Then yesterday I noticed the same patch of Palys has a couple chewed polyps. I also had a small 2 polyp patch go missing a week ago. Then last night before bed I took a look in the tank and sure enough there was the crab picking off chunks of the paly.

I’ve been feeding a lot more pellets lately versus frozen food like I used too. I’m thinking between less food and very little algae he’s starving and turning in the corals. Regardless he’s now heading to another tank.

trajik · Mar 31, 2018

If you keep palys, I would still plan to eradicate those asterina as you see them. They like to smother zoas and nibble a bit. Never completely lost any due to asterina, but I’ve been diligent to keep an eye. They multiply extremely fast, so if you catch them early you’re much better off.