[dfurbee]

Came home from work and my xenia was eaten right off of the rock it was attached to All I have to do now is figure out who and why. I have 2 clarki clowns, one blue hippo tang, one yellow pygmy angel, and a yellow tail blue damsel (gift from dh), several snails and hermits, and 3 emerald crabs. Other corals are another xenia, green pollicora, large frogspawn, 4 different zoos, 2 ricordias, 2 sm. shrooms, colony of large rhodactis shrooms (about 7), cabbage coral, capnella, and kenya tree, and two anemone. (Wow, did't know I had so many corals). Does anyone have a clue?? What is chomping at the xenia?, and what is next? Please help. Thanks, Deb

[e_baer]

I would first take a guess at the angel or the mithrix crabs.

I HIGHLY doubt it was the clarkis or tang or snails or damsel.

[clown shrimp]

xenia is a very werid coral, it dies off but then come back in a matter of weeks. it does this because the colony is lacking iodine. how long have you had the xenia? and how much iodine do you use in the system? also when was the last time you added carbon?

[msbdiving]

Is the xenia pretty new? I had a white cauliflower xenia that got munced on. I found the culprit but too late. It was a small white crab that did a good job of camoflauge. Run your habd through the xenia and see if you feel something hard. If so it is probably the crab. If you don't find it you might have to pull night guard duty.

[c-c]

Debra,
While pulling "night guard duty" I found a pencil urchin sitting right over top of a stalk of my xenia with the base stuck in his mouth. He got plucked from the tank into a FOWLR tank, and I was able to salvage the xenia, which he had just plucked from the rock. Night duty may be necessary. I had some sally light foot crabs that one book "Reef Secrets" by Nilsen says was reef safe. Always good to get a second opinion, but I didn't. (Later I find that Shimek of "Marine Invertebrates" say NOT reef safe.)

I don't trust those emeralds of yours. Do you feed them? Is all of your xenia destroyed? or just one stalk. If you have more xenia thriving, then your nutrients are okay. I don't even keep hermits in my mixed reef any more because they would steal from my LPS corals after I fed them at night.
Let us know if you solve the mystery or if you have any other clues to help us solve it with you.

[dfurbee]

Thanks everyone, I am going to the LFS this morning and tanking the emeralds with. I have one xenia left, whatever ate the xenia also ate the two bright red zoos that were also on the same rock

[rlcline76]

I hope you get the madness to stop. I'll drink a beer for you.

[dfurbee]

Becky, you had better have 2

[rlcline76]

I'm on it. I'll drink one more than that, just in case you decide that it the 3 beer kind of situation. I do not need to fall behind.