Whos eating my coral???????

[Cbray305]

As good as i can get with my phone

 

[Marsh980]

I certainly only have the L. wurdemanni species. I was very careful in buying only those and not the others. Especially the camel shrimps. I will start looking out for them at night and see if they show a liking to my softies and LPS

 

[Cbray305]

Im leaning toward c or e. No way an a

 

[Uncle99]

Do you target feed your Acans.
If so the pep will dig out the food at the demise of the coral.
Goes the same with all meat eating LPS.
These days I just broadcast the food, this seems to correct this problem.

 

[Cbray305]

Well well well

 

[35ppt]

Redacted

 

[Cbray305]

Appreciate all the input everyone. They will have to go. I have been bashing myself and my tank husbandry, without ever thinking things are being eaten. Lesson learned.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

Appreciate all the input everyone. They will have to go. I have been bashing myself and my tank husbandry, without ever thinking things are being eaten. Lesson learned.

I did the same thing... once I figured out that it was my peppermints eating (ultimately killing) my aussie torch coral. I then connected the dots and realized that they were also likely the culprits of eating/killing two other euphyllias, two ricordeas, and a blastomussa. Like, you, I questioned my husbandry and ultimately whether I was capable of keeping corals. Since figuring out that my peppermints had gone rogue, I haven't lost any additional corals. I caught one and the other keeps eluding me. Until I catch it, I've had to learn some self discipline with buying certain corals.

Good luck and hope you're able to easily work things out.

 

[Cbray305]

Thank You!

 

[Cbray305]

So the 2 acans each had 3 heads and they were onviously eaten. Do i just toss the frags or will they come back?

 

[Plunder]

I hear it depends on the actual species. That's why I want to see photos. Apparently Lysmata wurdemanni is the one that leaves coral alone and the one you want for aptasia control. The other members of the Lysmata genus are hit or miss on eating aptasia and can go after coral.

(A) Lysmata wurdemanni
(B) Lysmata rathbunae
(C) Lysmata ankeri
(D) Lysmata boggessi
(E) Lysmata pederseni
(F) Lysmata bahia

I picked one up just a week ago for my tank at LFS. Mine looks like (E) Lysmata pederseni. I picked the smallest one, hopefully they don't become a problem but it just seems to scavenge.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Well well well

Caught red handed! Ugh! I'm having flashbacks of watching mine eat my frogspawn.

Regarding your acans, if it looks like there is still any flesh remaining, you could give them a chance to try and recover. Corals are surprisingly resilient and can come back from death's door with even the smallest amount of flesh remaining. That one he's munching on in your pictures look like it still has plenty of flesh remaining, so I would definitely give that one a chance to recover.

 

[kjkaminski]

I hear it depends on the actual species. That's why I want to see photos. Apparently Lysmata wurdemanni is the one that leaves coral alone and the one you want for aptasia control. The other members of the Lysmata genus are hit or miss on eating aptasia and can go after coral.

(A) Lysmata wurdemanni
(B) Lysmata rathbunae
(C) Lysmata ankeri
(D) Lysmata boggessi
(E) Lysmata pederseni
(F) Lysmata bahia

And can you name one source of livestock that would truly sell you the correct one? I had 3 peppermints in my DT. One was a total beast. I dropped in a new frag of zoas and he couldn't wait more than a few seconds to start attacking it. Caught him a couple days later munching on my birdsnest coral. No, it was not a camelback. The other two seemed less aggressive, but couldn't take any chances. I also lost lots of snails and now realize it was the peppermints who were dining on them. They are all in jail in the fuge. Corals and snails in the DT are fine with no new casualties in a couple months. Those selling these need to be more honest that they are NOT reef safe and need to be watched!