zoanthid assassin?

[JTaylor420]

hey guys not sure where to begin over the last few months my zoa colonies seem to disappear over night colonies ranged in size from 20-50 heads i am keeping an extremely close eye on the remaining colonies but i am clueless as to how this is happening. I have an sps dominated tank and water parameters have been perfect since the start of the tank inverts i have a peppermint, cleaner, fire and coral banded shrimp a purple lobster and various hermit crabs. could this be a nudibranch problem if so anyone have any ideas? Or is there hermits out there that eat zoa's that i'm unaware of any info would be appreciated. thanks

[tlo]

could be a nudibranch problem. or sundial snails or zoa eating spiders. I would be suspicious of your peppermint shrimp though. Try watching your tank at night with a red light and see if you can see anything munching on them.

[JTaylor420]

ya i have a frag rack attached to a float magnet i'll try and isolate the remaining pieces to see if i can catch the culprit in action =/ might as well list my fish and i also have a decorator crab which may be a problem in the future but he is to recent of an addition to be the main problem.

- flame angel
- clown of some kind i forget the name
- blue spot jawfish
- orange spot goby
- 6 line wrasse
- lawnmower blenny

[justinl]

all dwarf angels have a risk of eating corals, including zoos. observe the flame carefully too.

[hockey nut]

I had a peppermint shrimp eat all my feather duster worms and when he was done with them he went after my zoas and did a pretty good job on them before something got him.

Keep an eye on him for sure.

hth

[Okguy]

Eunicid worm? They can lurk in your tank for years before they become large enough to have a noticable impact.

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

[fishytime]

+1 on the worms as a suspect. If they are disappearing overnight then it is unlikely(but not impossible)that shrimp, fish or nudis are doing the damage.

[pastout]

i had a tiger cowry wipe out all mine once i didnt find out it was him until halfway through my last colony

[christyf5]

+1 on the eunicid worm. I had one that mowed down colonies of zoos and ricordeas overnight. You'd have to have a lot of nudis to take down that many zoos overnight. And with that many you'd definitely see them IMO.

[TVR]

How about the hairy crab as mine? - It keep sitting on corals at nite and make me feel like the corals getting vanish afew pcs :cry:

[Red Coral Aquariums]

+2 on the eunicid worm.

[TVR]

I heard this kindda worm can grow to... 4 ft ? - Not really seen, but sound scary and sure I would jump outta there if seeing one in my tank :lol:

[JTaylor420]

Ya it is bizarre full healthy colonies disintegrate or something i had a colonie probably 300+ heads i fragged out 2 20-30 head colonies and still had probably 250+ left and now i have none =( any ideas on how to get a worm out or do i just camp out my tank at night and just rip him out on sight?

[Okguy]

any ideas on how to get a worm out or do i just camp out my tank at night and just rip him out on sight?

If it is a Eunicid worm, you will need to camp out and find out which rock it lives in and then your best bet is to remove the rock. If you try to rip him out you may end up with several worms as the segment relatively easily.

Good Luck!

[JTaylor420]

Ugh im gunna be some upset if theres a 2 foot long worm in my tank but after losing 400+ polyps of zoas the culprit is probably a decent size and now that i think about it they are disapearing way way to fast for it to be some tiny unit chowing on them

[xtreme]

Check your closed loop plumbing. They have been known to live in PVC pipe.

[christyf5]

Look for its hideout. It likes to build little forts with stray frags/rubble etc. If you find a pile wedged into the rock somewhere move the pile or move parts of it around to see the opening. If the pile is there again the next day or a few days after, you'll know where its hiding. Thats how I found mine.

[JTaylor420]

after staring at my tank for hours after work today i found this little unit hiding in some rock after ripping the rock out and breaking a frag in the process =( this is what i believe to be the problem i'll keep looking but thoughts and or id would be appreciated. http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww67/jtaylor420/IMG_1571.jpg

[christyf5]

with those pointy claws I would imagine he's the culprit. you may be able to find him somewhere in here:

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/reefs/guamimg/crustacea/xanthidae/index.html

[JTaylor420]

just for a size reference that thing is about 2-2 1/2 inch across