What fish eat Zoanthids??

[returnofsid]

This is going to be a strange request but I need to know what fish are "guaranteed" to eat Zoanthids/Palys, WITHOUT eating any SPS, Clams or an RBTA.

In my 200, I have a major outbreak of UGLY Palys that seem to be toxic as heck! About a year ago, when it was a small outbreak, they were growing on the front glass. I scraped a medium sized patch of them off, with a razor and immediately netted them out, along with their very thick slime. The next morning, every Montipora in the tank was DEAD!

I do have some nice Zoanthids that I want to keep so I'd move them from the tank, into a different tank.

I want something that I know will eat these evil Palys that have taken over the entire bottom of the tank and are putting my SPS at risk!

If the fish eats mushrooms, NO Problem, I have some I need to get rid of anyway...lol.

I've planned to tear the entire tank down, putting all of the corals and fish into a couple 100 gallon stock tanks, while I remove all of the offending Palys and any rocks that have them attached. However, if I can find a fish that I'm sure will eat them, without bothering anything else, I'd be THRILLED!

 

[returnofsid]

I'm even willing to remove the clams but can't remove the RBTA. I can remove every LPS from the tank as well, leaving only SPS and the RBTA to worry about.

 

[Tenor]

I don't really know to this question. Most of the fish like Butterfly or angle will likely to eat your polyp but also like SPS and clam...Joe's juice will remove it as well

 

[Aquaph8]

Try a cowrie.

 

[returnofsid]

I don't really know to this question. Most of the fish like Butterfly or angle will likely to eat your polyp but also like SPS and clam...Joe's juice will remove it as well

They offending Palys are covering the entire front 1' of the bottom of a 200 DD, so we're talking about a 4 square foot area. I'd have to buy Joe's Juice in gallon jugs...lol. Not to mention that it'd probably crash my tank. I've considered a Raccoon Butterfly. I can remove the clams, putting them in another tank. I'm not able to remove the RBTA though.

Try a cowrie.

I'd never heard that they eat Zoanthids/Palys. I'll have to look into that!

 

[mfdrookie516]

I wonder if that laser idea would work for palys.. without nuking the tank.

 

[myzislow]

Good luck bro. I battled unsightly proto-palys forever in my old 29 gallon. I tried everything from kalk paste, scraping them off(same thing happened with my montis as well, they stressed bad every time I scraped the palys), aptasia X, super glue and puttying over them ETC...Nothing worked long term as they always made a comeback. Battling them was worse than ANY nuisance algae, byropsis included.

 

[laskopyre]

I had a racoon butterfly that ate all my zoas and xenia. Wish I still had it

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

I think your best bet is removing your sps, and running carbon while you kalk and scrape all of the polyps. Once you put a fish in, you may never get it out without tearing down the tank anyways, and if you plan on zoos sometime, that can be a problem. If your tank is sps dominant, I can see how you wouldn't want to do that.

 

[myzislow]

I think your best bet is removing your sps, and running carbon while you kalk and scrape all of the polyps. Once you put a fish in, you may never get it out without tearing down the tank anyways, and if you plan on zoos sometime, that can be a problem. If your tank is sps dominant, I can see how you wouldn't want to do that.

The problem with this is that scraping them off will never yield 100% success. Certain strains of prot-palys are so resilient it's not even funny. The smallest bit of flesh left behind will eventually regenerate...It was a revolving door battling those things in my tank cause even if there was fish out there, it would have been too big for my tank at the time.

 

[Nomadic1]

I can't say that it's guaranteed, but, I had a positively gorgeous blue spot rabbitfish that destroyed mushrooms and zoas. I had to get rid of him about 2 weeks after adding him (scary to try and catch an easily spooked, venomous fish like that!) else he would have wiped all the stuff I liked out.

Many of the larger angels will do it, as will butterflies, especially Klein's (they like SPS too though, in my experience with them).

 

[KoralKeith]

i bought aiptasia eating file fish and seemed to do the job. after all the aiptasia were eaten he started on my zoo/palys so might wanna look into that. but in reality buying a fish to eat them is just a bandaid because eventually they will come back the only thing the fish will do is keep them at bay. IMO the only way to 100% eradicate is to remove all ur rock and scrap them off / or completely kill the rock. there maybe a better method out there I'm just speaking of my own experience

ps. i took the fish back to the store and all the aiptasias are back in full force LOL

 

[MJNTWise]

Bump. Any new news on this. Would like to think mine out. Also. Any fish that will eat star polyps????
Thanks
Matt

 

[KMSReefer]

I second the comment above suggesting a cowrie. I had one in my tank early on and it ate zoas with a vengeance. I had an arabian cowrie btw.

 

[Maggie321]

Funny I'm not the only one looking for threads on this... will a cowrie eat anything else? As far as softies...
Zoas (this is what I want to remove)
Duncan's
Xenia
Leather
Candycane/trumpet coral
Florida ric Mushroom
Gsp
meteor shower
War coral
Torch
One other I can't recall the name of... pic attached.
I also have some sps.

 

[MJNTWise]

+1?????

Funny I'm not the only one looking for threads on this... will a cowrie eat anything else? As far as softies...
Zoas (this is what I want to remove)
Duncan's
Xenia
Leather
Candycane/trumpet coral
Florida ric Mushroom
Gsp
meteor shower
War coral
Torch
One other I can't recall the name of... pic attached.
I also have some sps.

 

[Ellery]

Hmm Old thread but wondering what the OP did to resolve his problem since I am at the same dilemma myself. Been told a Raccoon Butterfly or Chocolate chip star to remove these green Palythoas and alot of Discosoma mushrooms. I do have SPS in there as well but I have backup colonies so I am not too worried.

 

[C. Eymann]

Kliens butterfly!

 

[Ellery]

Thanks definitely an option but currently lower on the list if it also snacks on SPS.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Has anything changed in the last few years. Anyone ever find a fish orninvert rgat only eats zoas and palys but leaves everything else alone?