Who ate my Anthelia??

[jcm1229]

A friend gave me a small cutting of some anthelia. There were about 10-12 small stalks mounted to a small shell. I rubberbanded it onto a small rock in hopes that they would migrate there.

After 4-5 days, I notices a few were missing. Yesterday the last one disappeared. My livestock consists of:

2 perc clowns
royal gramma
firefish
trochus snails
nassarius snails
stomatella snails
handfull of scarlet red hermits
1 sally lightfoot

Additionally I have some bristleworms, mini brittles and microtars?

Any thoughts??

 

[Len]

No idea who may have eaten it. However, I've lost soft corals in the past when rubberbanding them when they detach on their own from the rubberband/rock. That might be what's reponsible for the missing polyps. FWIW, I superglue what I can now instead of rubberbands.

 

[jcm1229]

These polyps were attached to a shell. I rubberbanded the shell to a rock.

 

[Len]

Ah. They you've got me beat :wink:

 

[Anemone]

JCM,

Do your clowns host in anything? I've seen them rip out anything that "waves" if it was in their view from where they were hosting (in my case, I've seen them rip tentacles off Ancora, divisa, caulerpa, and even move rocks with thin, pointed Acro on it - I guess the acro offended their sense of decorum or something...).

You may also have a hitchhiker crab. Other folks have reported on hitchhikers mowing down xenia and anthelia.

All I can think of,

Kevin

 

[erasmu]

I had a small patch of Anthelia too. It was doing great until I added a pair of Percula Clowns and a tiny Hippo Tang at lunch one day. Next time I saw the tank that evening, the Anthelia was ripped out. I did not see the fish destroying it, but I thought it must have been the clowns. I had no crabs of any consequence.

 

[fishfarmer]

It could been done by a cowrie snail.