Button Polyps Missing Skirt!!

[bigbris1]

I have one small colony (joined at the base) of buttn polyps that seem to be getting eaten. It looks as if one side of the skirt (the tentacles to the stalk) has been chewed off. The funny thing is I have a colony of green palythoa right next to it that is A-O-K.

I have a copperband (have never seen him even look at coral)
Potters angel (him either)
Regal tang (him either)
Tangorea goby
2 large cleaner shrimp (skunks)
Purple reef lobster
scarlet hermit (small)
white stripe hermit (small)
Mythrax crab

Has anyone experienced this & what could it be?

 

[Deanos]

I have experienced this with 2 colonies of pink zoanthids. My Hippo Tang developed a taste for the skirts of those 2 colonies. It never bothered any other coral. It took hours of staring to discover the culprit. In your tank, my guess would be the Regal (Hippo) Tang or the Potter's Angel.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

The tang is the top suspect in my eyes.

 

[inline6]

Wow who would've known :scratchch :scratchch

 

[bigbris1]

Wow we love our Regal tang sooooo much, I guess I'll just have to feed him more & get a Remora. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Second in line suspect is the angel.

 

[bigbris1]

If it's either the angel or the tang, they at least have the sense not to do it while we're watching. What can I do short of removing them? Will the buttons recover?

Also, my wife just alerted me that the buttons to the left of that colony have signs of nibbling too

 

[scarf_ace1981]

bristols that sucks. it's so hard to decide between a fish and a coral. actually there is no decision to be made. i'm sure you'll keep the fish. too bad they developed a taste for your coral. try feeding them more and hope they don't develop a taste for other coral.

 

[bigbris1]

I think the culprit was a mythrax emerald crab. He went belly up two weeks ago & no more signs of nibbling. The paylthoa colony is making a comeback.

 

[deelucky]

i had an emerald that would pull the heads off my pumping xenia and put them in his mouth,chew and then spit it out,had to send him to the sump.