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what is eating my softies?


Mido

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hey Guys

was wonder if anyone has any thoughts of what is eating my zoas

water parameters are perfect and my SPS, Duncans, hammer, plays, mushrooms are doing great

but......weird things started to happen three weeks ago after i added a few zoo frags and a skunk cleaner shrimp

there is something bothering my zoas, and they are not always fully open as they used to be

in one colony noticed one skirt was eaten from one side (regenerating now) my favourite and healthiest colony was all closed up for two days then slowly recovering

i had a japanese leather frag attached with a toothpick/glue to a frag completely eaten up from the plug and floated away and today came from work after a 24 hrs shift a two weeks old frag of zoa is gone!!!!!! like nothing on it except glue! it had three small heads but was very securely glued and was starting to heal and doing great but there is no sign of it at all...I noticed most this happen when i don't feed for a day ( away for work) 

my livestock are 2 clowns 

tailspot blenny

2 nassarius snails

countless torchus snails as they are having a party all the time may 4 big ones and hundred small ones

i also noticed some big pods like 3-4 mm and they everywhere including these colonies...

i do have an algae problem but not too  too bad, hair algae and sea lettuce 

red sea max 34 gl AIO rebuilt

i feed Mysis/ LS pellets/ reefroids...

thoughts on skunk shrimp and or pods eating softies?

looked for nudis and zoa pox, zoo eating spider and couldn't see anything,,, just pods some are tiny and dark in color some are big almost like a small ant 

should i get a wrasse to eat the pods? if so which wrasse is suitable for a 34 gl with crushed corals?

 

 

 

 

 

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jamescstein
14 minutes ago, Mido said:

weird things started to happen three weeks ago after i added a few zoo frags and a skunk cleaner shrimp

My first guess, especially since you haven't found any pests that came in on the new zoo's.. is the shrimp. They are scavangers and will eat corals if they are not well fed.

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5 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I've never seen a cleaner shrimp eat coral but peppermint shrimp do.

 

Have you checked for nudi's or zoa pox?

 

 

haven't seen either, 

pods eating zoas? i have a lot of them some of them are very big and they r the only thing i can see all over the zoas at night ( and morning BTW) 

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I would spend a few nights with the lights out and a flash light hunting.  You will most likely catch the culprit then.  There are some snails that eat coral as well, but nudi's and flat worms are notoriously good at hiding in plain sight.

 

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MainelyReefer

I'm suspect of the pods! I have some in my pico jar that when left unfed will eat either zoas, acans, or even blastos.  They are larger pods that look similar to little shrimp.  During night the pods in question are very visible on the reef and can be seen eating the corals.  Beyond adding a predator via pistol/goby to reduce their numbers I haven't figured out a way to finish them off.  I now have a moonlight on for 4 hours after 1 hour of full darkness to try and coax the pods out for the night then offer enough light for predators to see them but not enough light to scare pods away.  Seems to be working.  The corals never just disappeared though, a half eaten Coral was always left, the blasto and Zoa healed back up but the acans that have been eaten have all died.  Good luck 

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CarolinaShoreReef

Check for nudis. They look like this but take on the color of your zoa. 

 

Look for spiraled egg masses at the bases of colonies too. 

B8E2123E-566F-4FD4-BF97-622B037FFB42.jpeg

F856A805-D8BB-424B-A862-9885135F5040.jpeg

452A8F73-F92C-44DF-9F68-2197F806A515.jpeg

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I had a cleaner shrimp that ate the skirts off zoas, and I’m sure the zoa itself. Caught it one night picking apart a healthy one. They were disappearing one by one. And they weren’t dying or dead, and the shrimp wasn’t just ‘cleaning up’, it was putting its back into it. 

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The shrimp is a suspect.

 

The flashlight trick will work better with red plastic or red cellophane over the light. Many fish and inverts can't see red spectrum light.

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