New casualties

[danny zubot]

Ok, in the past 6 months I've lost the following corals, all at different times and exclusively. (meaning it was the only thing that died)

First: Blue zoo Colony. (100+ polyps)

Second: Orange mushroom colonies (15-20 heads scattered through out tank)

Third: Squamosa clam

Fourth: My favorite colony of dragon eyes zoos (100+ polyps)

What the heck is going on in my tank. At the times these corals were dying off, no other coral exibits any stress at all, in fact everythig else is extreamly healthy. Do I have a really picky phantom menace that is travelling from one colony to the next irradicating it entirely, then laying dormant for a month or so before moving on to the next unlucky coral?

Tank peramiters and chemistry are consistant with optimal ranges 90% of the time. The only thing I can think of now is that this all started happening around the time I started using Ocean Pure Pro salt. Has anyone else experienced this strange occurance that can shed some light for me?

Danny.

[krisalexander]

what livestock is in the tank? could something be nibbling at the corals??

Kris

[danny zubot]

Live stock over the past 6 months.

1x 6 line wrasse (gone now)
2x false percs with seabae anemone (gone now)

Current residents:

1x Bi-color angel
1x blue striped rabbit fish (acquired around the same time as the first casualty, hmmm)
1x red cheek anthias
1x YWG with pistol shrimp
1x regal tang
1x Gold striped maroon clown (had for 3 months now)
1x Diamond Goby (had for 2 weeks now)
4x green chromis (had for 2 weeks now)

Cerith snails, turbos, blue leg and brown leg hermits, olive snail, fighting conch, plenty of small bristle stars.

[danny zubot]

I just found this...
http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=1426

Not all Asterina Starfish are Zoanthid predators. In fact, as a whole, Asterinas are generally considered Reef Safe. However, the Asterina family is HUGE and there **are** types that **do** eat/kill Zoanthids!


And from the same sight....
http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=3332

IRRITATER (http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?name=FAQ&id_cat=3#q16) - Foraminiferan (Note: this is currently classified as an Irritater. However it is currently up for debate if it is an actual Predator! It is recommended to not take chances and pull them out of your system if you have them at this time.)

I have Asternina snails, everyone has asterina snails. I'm going to get every last one of them out of my tank. As for Foraminiferan, thinking back I may have seen something like this near my recently lost colony. I'll be keeping a close watch on my remaining colonies for a while.

[Beverly]

I have Asternina snails, everyone has asterina snails.

You mean asterina starfish ;)

A few months back, many of the zoo frags we got shrivelled up and died. We found the same link to the asterina starfish, and did an iodine dip on the remaining frags and on the colony that also seemed to be going downhill. We also too the reef apart and found about 30 asterinas on about 85 lbs of LR. All that we found, we killed.

Anyway, we also changed the circulation in the tank when we put it back together, increasing the flow to the zoos areas. Haven't lost any zoos since then. However, we still see asterinas from time to time. They don't seem to be near the zoos when we find them, so I'm thinking the lack of proper circulation to the zoos was the culprit in our case.

How's the flow in your tank, Danny?

[danny zubot]

Well, the flow to the very top and bottom of the tank is good. 4 powerheads create flow to the SPS up top, and my return comes from a spray bar across the length of the bottom back of the tank. All of my zoos are in the middle regions of the rockwork and get residual flow from the various pumps.

I have one aternina star that is quite a bit larger (1") than the rest. I wondered how it could have grown so big?

[Beverly]

Maybe it's a different species than the rest and could be your culprit. Mine are all about 1/4", give or take. All seem to be oddly shaped and are kind of a light-grey-white colour.

[KrazyKuch]

blue striped rabbit fish

Thats yor culprite garunteed....I had one and it ate all my zoos!!!!!
He also ate all my feather dusters!

[Chaloupa]

My "reef safe" golden spotted rabbit ate all my zoos.....after he'd been in the tank with them for a while....he also liked to take chunks off my yellow toadstool and my kenya trees and it eats my GSP covered rock quite often so it looks all scraggly then it grows back and it makes short work of it again, so I think your rabbit would be to blame...I can't put anything in the tank except the button polyp colony that has been in there for a long time and is pretty bland...

[danny zubot]

Thanks for all your help. I suspected the rabbit fish but have never actually seen it nip at anything. I did pull out a few stars and even a Foraminiferan (I think). I'll have to work on catching the rabbit fish next, hopefully I can find it a new home.

Danny

[EmilyB]

Hey Danny, what is the species name of that fish ? I can't find much using that common name.

[danny zubot]

I'm having trouble findng the exact species but it does fall under the family Siganus. Here's a picture.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/3214dannyzubot/IMGP0982.jpg

[Delphinus]

FWIW, I think that's Siganus puellus.