Zoos just disappeared!

[Octupus]

i had a beatiful metalic blue zoos with about 6-7 heads. i had it set inside a rock and all of the sudden it is gone. No trace! i almost crashed the tank looking for it... but did not find it... i am so pissed... i can't find any trace of it. Any ideas what could have happened?

 

[reef18ster]

2 guesses, either something ate them or they died and melted away. When was the last time you saw them all opened up?

 

[Dr. Dee]

Hi,do you have a Blue regal tang in the tank? Because lately me tang just could not stop eating my blue steel's until they where all gone.

 

[Octupus]

i have a blue hippo but he never bothered them (not that i know) and i had them for over 3 months.. i can't even find the rock that they were attached to it. i am going to miss these zoos!

 

[JasonD]

I lost almost all of my zoanthids to a blue hippo tang. Never had any problems, then suddenly the tang took a liking to zoanthids.

 

[mfinn]

hippo tangs will eat zoanthids, but sometimes so will some crabs.
See any unexplained crab shells?

 

[Octupus]

finn are you saying crabs would eat zoos? or hippo eat the crabs? i know there is a hitchicker crab .. i spotted him few times. could he be hte culprit?
i have plenty of brown/orange zoos and they look good

 

[DonW]

If you can't find the rock they are on then they probably didn't get munched on. Find the rock and chances are pretty good you will find the zoa's

Don

 

[treehugger]

i warned you about that hippo before i gave it to you...he's a muncher...i bet he had something to do with it

 

[mfinn]

finn are you saying crabs would eat zoos? or hippo eat the crabs? i know there is a hitchicker crab .. i spotted him few times. could he be hte culprit?
i have plenty of brown/orange zoos and they look good

Without knowing any other circumstances or conditions, I would place a bet on the crab. Hitchiker crabs will learn to eat anything they have to, to survive.
Many times I have had small frags dragged back under the rock work by a hitchiker crab and eaten.


Plus the hippo is a suspect, if he is a know zoanthid eater.

But as DonW said find the rock, find the zoanthids first.

 

[Sascha D]

I dont see any reason why the rock would be missing. A hitch hiker wouldn't take the whole rock, he would eat a few and then go back to his hideout until he was hungry again. Unless something is using it as a trapdoor to their burrow.

How big is the rock? Could be a mantis. Possibly a decorator crab or a tarantula. Seems fishy to me because you should have noticed something that large in the tank but unlikely someone broke into your house just to steal one coral rock. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[mfinn]

Hitchhiker crabs will drag small rocks back under cover to eat. I have seen this in my tanks several times.