Did something munch on my Xenia?

Sushiboy225 · Sep 27, 2020

I just woke up today and found a chunk is missing from my Xenia. Did something bite it or is it melting?

no parameters have changed. I did recently change to Red Sea coral pro salt and all my corals have been much happier.

yes I know about the red Cyanobacteria. I am currently trying to get rid of it naturally and it is slowly decreasing.

MERKEY · Sep 28, 2020

Yes it looks as if something has....

What inverts do you have?

Sushiboy225 · Sep 28, 2020

Right now a tuxedo urchin, Trochus snails, banded coral shrimp, pistol shrimp, nassarius snails, and fighting conch.

will this be survivable if it doesn’t happen again. I have plenty of algae in my tank at the moment. There was algae near the base where it was eaten. Would it be possible it just got carried away?

Snoopdog · Sep 28, 2020

Sushiboy225 said:
Right now a tuxedo urchin, Trochus snails, banded coral shrimp, pistol shrimp, nassarius snails, and fighting conch.

will this be survivable if it doesn’t happen again. I have plenty of algae in my tank at the moment. There was algae near the base where it was eaten. Would it be possible it just got carried away?

If no more damage is done, sure it will survive. Short of nuking xenia from space, that is about the only thing that will kill it.

Tired · Sep 28, 2020

You could chop that thing up with a chef's knife, and if you put all the pieces back in the tank, a lot of the pieces would probably survive. Xenia is very hardy.

My guess would be the urchin got carried away on some algae, yes. Or the banded coral shrimp, maybe? They can be general trouble. Usually they're reef-safe, but when they get big, they sometimes try to eat fish.

Sushiboy225 · Sep 28, 2020

Tired said:
You could chop that thing up with a chef's knife, and if you put all the pieces back in the tank, a lot of the pieces would probably survive. Xenia is very hardy.

My guess would be the urchin got carried away on some algae, yes. Or the banded coral shrimp, maybe? They can be general trouble. Usually they're reef-safe, but when they get big, they sometimes try to eat fish.

Thanks! I have seen my urchin there a lot before. My banded coral shrimp so far has been friendly. He does wave his arms at my fish but the ones I have are fast swimmers. I also feed him meaty mysid shrimp to supplement his diet

Sushiboy225 · Sep 28, 2020

Snoopdog said:
If no more damage is done, sure it will survive. Short of nuking xenia from space, that is about the only thing that will kill it.

Haha that’s what I’ve heard. Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t dying and wasn’t melting

Tired · Sep 28, 2020

The problem with banded coral shrimp is, they have their entire lifetime in which to be a problem. They don't have to be starving to be a threat. If they happen to come across a sleeping fish, or something goes into the same cave with them, that's an opportunity. And anything with claws like that is an opportunist. There isn't a guarantee he'll eat your fish, but there's definitely no guarantee he won't. Even if they're fast. Fast fish get eaten too.
For the record, waving his claws at your fish isn't friendly- at the very least, it's an intimidation gesture. At most, he's trying to grab one. They're really fun shrimp, but not reef-inhabitant-safe. Maybe look into blue coral banded shrimp instead? They stay much smaller, and therefore have a harder time killing anything.

Sushiboy225 · Sep 28, 2020

Tired said:
The problem with banded coral shrimp is, they have their entire lifetime in which to be a problem. They don't have to be starving to be a threat. If they happen to come across a sleeping fish, or something goes into the same cave with them, that's an opportunity. And anything with claws like that is an opportunist. There isn't a guarantee he'll eat your fish, but there's definitely no guarantee he won't. Even if they're fast. Fast fish get eaten too.
For the record, waving his claws at your fish isn't friendly- at the very least, it's an intimidation gesture. At most, he's trying to grab one. They're really fun shrimp, but not reef-inhabitant-safe. Maybe look into blue coral banded shrimp instead? They stay much smaller, and therefore have a harder time killing anything.

He really only waves his arms when they swim in his personal space. As of right now I wouldn’t know how to get him out of my tank. Unfortunately I will assume the risk