What the heck ate my zoanthid frag

[Juice780]

I was gone for a week. When I got back something ate one of the zoanthid frags I got during the wwc sale. The plug was picked clean. I don’t think I have anything in there that would eat any corals. I have an emerald crab. Few blue leg hermits and various snails.

 

[reefs4life]

Check for asterina stars, they're very notorious for picking on vulnerable polyps

 

[vetteguy53081]

Asterina and emerald both know to take Zoas down

 

[pcon]

+1 for the potential Cora eating asterina Emeralds also sometimes go rogue.
do you have any blennies? They sometimes develop a taste for corals. Any benthic feeder has the potential even tangs. Pacific blues are notorious for eating zoas

 

[tehmadreefer]

Emerald crab ate it, guaranteed.

 

[jurgenph]

you don't happen to have a peppermint shrimp as well, do you?

those things will eat all kinds of polyps, not just aiptasia.


J.

 

[Juice780]

I thought emerald crabs were safe. I have a skunk cleaner shrimp. I had some zoas I glued down before I left and they came unglued. Didn’t look like anything tried to eat them though.

 

[Jvesche20]

You sure it’s gone? Had this happen to me once. Had a zoa I accidentally knocked it off the frag and tried to glue it back. Didn’t do a good job. Few days later noticed the head was gone off the plug. Ended up finding it in the sand somehow and glued it back on for good this time

 

[tehmadreefer]

I dont trust any crab, but emeralds are certainly not 100% reef safe and there are plenty of threads on here about them eating coral if ya do a search.

 

[ZoWhat]

It could have MELTED away without a trace. I've seen zoas melt away with no sign they were there. In 2-3 days

Three biggest reasons zoas melt away:
* wrong light intensity..crazy thing about zoas is one species thrives in high PAR while others will absolutely melt away

* tooooo much flow. Some Zoa tissues cant take high direct flow and will melt away fairly quickly

* ULNS..... phosphates have NO place in ANY tank but most zoas like nitrates around 5, 10, 15ppm. It's a delicate balance to have zero PO4 and just enough NO3 where you're just shy of a GHA outbreak. If you can walk-the-line of having a good amt of NO3 without algae breaking out everywhere....that's the sweetspot for zoas (and mostly softies btw). . IMO zero-no3 in a ULNS will starve zoas into melting away.

Hth


.

 

[glagunda]

My blue hippo loves eating some zoas.