Who is eating my torches?

[thrillreefer]

Elevate torch on a frag stand like these sand ones - they don’t topple over and keep items elevated and away from crabs


Or put on a magnetic frag shelf like these

That is a sweet gold torch! I have a giant zebra turbo snail which is very likely to topple one of those unfortunately. But I did do roughly this putting my Knicks torch up on a high frag rack when it was struggling. Way happier now. Although it also has more light and better flow, plus I’ve been feeding it almost daily.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Noticed this morning that a head of my DS torch is missing! By evening, it’s actually just half missing and partially reopened. But it was whole yesterday when I did a water change, and all other Euphyllias look healthy. This is after I spotted a small emerald crab eating my Knicks torch a few weeks ago. I caught that one and banished it to another tank, plus moved the Knicks to a high frag rack away from crab access. It has not lost any more heads since… The DS torch lost one head around the same time so I suspected that crab was also to blame.

I have a second emerald crab, who I have seen eating algae, but I suspect now has a taste for coral. I set a mysis-baited jar trap tonight, hoping to catch it.

I also have a Pitho crab, numerous hermits, a peppermint shrimp, and skunk cleaner shrimp. Should I suspect any of the other inverts?

Fish are not suspected of torch eating: Anthias, clowns and Banggai cardinals, all well fed.

It’s likely the emerald crab, right? Any tips to catch it would be welcome!

Butterflies and crabs often culprits but looks polyp bailout. If eaten, peppermint and pitho also suspects

 

[thrillreefer]

I don’t think bailout since a part of that polyp was still limping along for a few days before disappearing. Maybe it got stung? But the only coral close enough to bother the torch is a hammer. I would expect the torch to win that fight but it's possible

 

[thrillreefer]

Well I’ll be danged! Went to go double check who else is nearby and that hammer has a big old sweeper just swinging around! Mystery solved? Does hammer beat torch?? Will have to start calling that one Warhammer! (No damage to neighboring hammer or octo.)

 

[VintageReefer]

That is a sweet gold torch! I have a giant zebra turbo snail which is very likely to topple one of those unfortunately. But I did do roughly this putting my Knicks torch up on a high frag rack when it was struggling. Way happier now. Although it also has more light and better flow, plus I’ve been feeding it almost daily.

Thanks for the compliment! I

The frag stand has a big base that goes under the sand. I have a few large mexican turbos, a big fighting conch + lots of large nassarius snails that all go under the sand and come out random places, I’ve seen this leaning a little but it hasn’t been knocked over once.