Reef nutrition

Paly skirts being eaten….what does that?

GDawson

GDawson

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Over the last couple of weeks the skirts of one set of palys have been eaten. Whatever it is does not eat the polyp/oral disk, just the skirt. Does anyone know what finds these tasty? Rasndom flashlight hunts haven’t revealed anything yet. There are a couple of 5 to 6 inch bristle worms in the tank I’ve seen scavenging around for food but never near this bunch of palys. I like them for clean up but if they have a taste for palys they got to go.

Ideas?

-Gregory
 
Check around the body of the polyps for signs of eggs of something; if you spot a 5" or 6" bristle worm I'd suggest taking it out, there should be plenty of small ones to take its place.
Sometimes fish grabbing a pellet or piece of other food off the polyps, might nip the skirt/lashes off.
 
treylane said:
I've seen emerald crabs pull all the tentacles off zoas...
Click to expand...

Interesting......I just added an emerald crab a couple of week ago to deal with some valonia. Hmmmmm........

Just to be safe I'll bannish the worms to the sump.

-Gregory
 
Not much in the tank.......

An orchid dottyback, a black osc clown, 4 small blue hermits and an emerald crab round it out. Some Pods not a ton. Lots of small brittle/serpant stars.


-Gregory
 
Found it (them)..........small, 1/64th to 1/32nd of an inch, rectangular, olive green?, with a dark red/orange spot at the rear critters/nudies/flatworms. Really hard to see if your not looking for them specifically. Have to do research to see what they are. Not sure how they got in as there's been really no new additions and I use Coral Rx for everything.

Ideas/Opinions?

-Gregory
 
GDawson said:
Found it (them)..........small, 1/64th to 1/32nd of an inch, rectangular, olive green?, with a dark red/orange spot at the rear critters/nudies/flatworms. Really hard to see if your not looking for them specifically. Have to do research to see what they are. Not sure how they got in as there's been really no new additions and I use Coral Rx for everything.

Ideas/Opinions?

-Gregory
Click to expand...


Look like these guys?
 
Found the pic below.........says they are Convolutriloba retrogemma or the red acoel flatworm. It also says there are leopard wrasses, Macropharyngodon sp., that will feed on them. Chemicals are discouraged(?) because they release toxins in death that are fatal to fish.

So anyone have leopard wrasses? A couple of them, the black leopard wrasse (Macropharyngodon negrosensis), or Kuiter's Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon kuiteri) look pretty cool and seem small enough for a 34gal nano. They are flagged as "Expert Only" on Live Aquaria.

Any other ideas out there?

If not it's DVT for awhile (Dip, Vacuum, Tweeze).

-Grergory


Attached files /attachments/sites/default/files/scan0001_1.jpg
 
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