impur Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Ok so i've been slowely watching one of my micromussa colonies receed polyp by polyp. Each morning there is sand particles on and around the missing polyp, or the new receding polyp, and the sand is held together by some type of mucus. Then just last week i noticed one of my acan lord frags with 4 polyps and a baby now has only 2 half polyps and 2 quarter polyps left. I did not find any of that sand this time. Then another acan lord has a spot about the size of a pencil eraser that does have the sand and mucus. I scrapped away the sand and there is only skeleton beneath it. This morning yet another one of my acan lord frags is missing a baby polyp, and a small piece of an adult polyp. I also notice missing zoa polyps on a few frags daily. Now i guess this could be a bacteria or something, but some days go by and I don't see any missing polyps or receding polyps. Then one morning i wake up and bam my fav lord frag is almost completely gone. So how do i catch it? I've got a jar with some silversides in the bottom propped up against one of the zoa frags that seems to be missing a polyp or 2 each morning. I have covered the opening with gutter guard to keep snails and hermits out. But its been in the tank for 4 days now and i haven't even caught a bristle worm. I've gone thru periods where zoa polyps seemed to disappear overnight. I'd remove those colonies to QT, thinking they had some sort of bacteria or fungus, and treat them there. Then back to the display and a few months later the same thing happens. Now i think there is something munching them. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I found an emerald crab eating my zoas one night. I removed it and the disappearing polyps stopped. I've read that hermits can develop the taste for corals also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewie Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 A case of beer and a red flashlight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 A case of beer and a red flashlight That doesn't sound so bad! I don't have any crabs other than hermits. I am going to start removing those this weekend to QT and see what happens. I have mainly scarlett hermits with a few blue legs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 I had a tiger cowrie that I caught munching on my acans. It almost wiped out two, and I caught it on a third on morning. Back to the LFS it went. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted January 10, 2009 Author Share Posted January 10, 2009 No cowries. I did notice a nassarius snail laying on the sand next to a rock this morning that is also near my acans and micro. It looked dead or at least stunned, just laying half out of its shell not moving. Now that i think of it i've noticed that more and more around this particular rock. So out it comes this weekend along with the other rocks near it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveweast Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 A case of beer and a red flashlight It took me several nights......and much beer.....before I finally spotted mine......and he was 7 feet long. Have the red flashlight as low as will still allow you to see. They can see the red ligt and will retreat. Look in holes and gaps in the rock and watch for motion....they don't come out into the open often. It's best to just keep things as dark as possible while viewing. No trap will work. They will not leave the safety of the rocks.....and certainly not in its entirity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 I am just queing in to see where this goes. I have Zoa's missing much like what you described. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdadof2 Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Mine lived in a cave at the bottom of the cave - there was a lot of carnage in the cave - shells - many empty shells. I saw him one night coming out of the rock and into the sand. I ended up taking the whole dang rock out - busted the rock up and found some of him. I never saw him completely come out of the rock...just partially. He had chased my large brittle star out of the cave - that is what tipped me off something was wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishiefish Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 wow thats intense ....I hope you dont have that miles, but I hope you find whatever is eating your babies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 That is crazy....I hope I don't have an experience like that.(scary) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted January 10, 2009 Author Share Posted January 10, 2009 Well i'm going to remove the rock that is near my acans first and just dip it in TMPCC. I don't have a ton of rock on that side of my tank luckily and i'm sure its on that side. I noticed an odd web looking thing on the side of the rock, didn't look like a sponge and it is right above where i saw that snail yesterday. That snail is gone now, donno where it went. Thanks for the advice Steve. I'm armed for the weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 geez....I hope all of this works out for you. Sorry to hear of the trouble you are going through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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