Xavier Posted April 16, 2003 Share Posted April 16, 2003 It was a dark and stormy night... or so the story goes... 4 months ago I added a small frag of bluish/white pulsing Xenia to the tank.. and it was good... It lived peacefully for several days pulsing as happily as it could.. until I came home one fateful evening to find it had been eaten, and subsiquently eaten further the next night, down to the mat... It was moved to the hospital tank and recovered moderately quickly (from nothing more then Xenia mat)... and it was good... I decided two days ago that it was time to move it back into the main tank... it was doing well, until tonight when I got home tonight... gone.. eaten down to the mat yet again... and it was NOT good... Needless to say, I'm furious... if any of you have Xenia control problems, I have a mysterious Xenia chowing critter in the tank that would put a dent in your Xenia woes... unfortunately, the mystery attacker has yet to come forward and admit the crime... The line up of critters that were in the tank at BOTH instances are as follows: 1 - Blue damsel (I KNOW you all are gonna point fingers here) 1 - False perc 12 - Misc sized hermits (2 rather large) 1 - Tiger Tail cuke (Definately not the guilty party) Bazillion - Snails (Trochus, Margarita, Stomella) countless worms and baby stars.. I, myself, tend to believe the damsel is guilty, but I have no evidence, and know of no other precidence for this behavior (which is why I pose this to the community). The initial time this happened, I had a peppermint shrimp which was suspect, but he no longer lives, and has therefore, been ruled out due to the reoccurrence of the issue a second time after his passing... The worms I highly doubt as I've never seen them in the higher levels of the rock work, AND the initial time this occurred, it seemed to be eaten top down (the polyps were eaten, then the stalk, down to the mat)... I'm about |-| this close to banishing the damsel to the hospital tank, but not until the Xenia regrows... I'd like to gain some closure to this incident, before I condem the fish to a life of certain boredom... Any feedback? Link to comment
R*Frost* Posted April 16, 2003 Share Posted April 16, 2003 I cant remember but did you produce a thread title sumthing like "Is this a chiton". If you didnt produce something like that dont worry i will lay down the facts i know: 1. active at night 2. some species have been seen eating coral tissue 3. reproduce EXTREMLY fast possible crimal : unlikley though Asterina very small sea star grow in numbers quickly by fission. are known to be destructive to corals and are not reef safe. Some species are ok though I think these may have been overlooked if you have them possiblity If you could name some of the species you have or stars and worms i could check up for ya p.s the CRIMINAL will be brought to justice Link to comment
Xavier Posted April 16, 2003 Author Share Posted April 16, 2003 I did not post on the chiton but what's interesting is that I have no issues with my other corals or zoos (which are not all that plentiful at the moment, but consist of a GOB, GSP, candycane, misc zoos and shrooms) As for the worms and stars.. I'm not sure of ALL the varieties I have... but that which I do know of are baby brittle stars (the pacific variety I believe - pink with brown/black bands), and some monster sized bristle worms... my hermits consist of blue legs, red legged reef hermits, and two good sized red hermits Nothing else has ever been attacked like this... it seems something has a specific taste for Xenia... maybe I should dress up like a stalk of Xenia, and stand next to the tank, and see who tries to attack me through the glass... Link to comment
R*Frost* Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 I have a bit more info/evidence on the little starfish i was talking about that eat certin types of corals Several people have argued that these starfish are harmless, but we have yet to find any that will not eat coral polyps. It is our recommendation that if you discover this type of starfish in your reef aquarium that you remove it as soon as possible. We have documented these type of starfish eating small polyp stony corals, XENIA , green stars, and several types of soft leather corals. the link GO to bottem of the tree menu under aquarium pests, SPS eating stafish and update page. hope this helps Simon, lets get the Xenia destroyer Link to comment
Xavier Posted April 18, 2003 Author Share Posted April 18, 2003 That's very interesting.. I'll have to try to look close, but I have yet to see any stars matching that description... Mine are VERY small, and I've only seen the legs of them (as they stick them out of their hole to catch passing food)... they tend to look more like the pacific brittle stars Now, of course, there may be a star I'm not aware of in the tank.. I'll keep a VERY close eye on my GSP.. I added a frag a few weeks ago and have had no problems, but I moved my main GSP cluster back in last week.. Link to comment
deacon hemp Posted April 24, 2003 Share Posted April 24, 2003 hey xavier i just had a situation just like yours a week ago exept the only things in the tank were 2 hitchhicker crabs,a big left hand hermit,astreas,and 1 tiny frag of xenia.Everything was fine for a week and then the xenia was eaten to nuthin one morning,i'd say one of your big hermit's or a crab if you got em.your tank is farther along that the one i'm talking about so that's just my 2 cents. Link to comment
DeskJockey Posted April 24, 2003 Share Posted April 24, 2003 hmmm I know asterina stars eat coraline and the tissue from stony corals but never knew they'll eat softies ??? .....Im with the crab hypothesis though. Do you have an emerald crab? A crab can tear it down to nothing in no time. I had one who ate my capnella down to thimble size in 2 nights. Link to comment
R*Frost* Posted April 24, 2003 Share Posted April 24, 2003 Ill explain better , asterina stars love the taste of SPS/coralline before most things but in the absance of these or the critters personal taste they will start munching on softies. But by now i would go with hemps info (first hand experiance and more likely).We all no what hermits are like lol:P Link to comment
Xavier Posted April 24, 2003 Author Share Posted April 24, 2003 Could be.. I've tried to attach this freakin' image about a dozen times now.. says I've attached it before (even after renaming it).. we'll just pull it from my server then.. I've had to retype this post each time... yeesh.. This is one of my two large red hermits.. shell diameter about the size of a half dollar.. look similar? (crosses fingers and prays this works because I will NOT try and attach this image EVER again otherwise) Link to comment
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