The case of the missing Zoas

[Thisisfine]

If I have an inhabitant potentially munching on Zoa's - what other coral are out of the question?

I recently started adding coral to a tank I somewhat let go on autopilot for a while. I noticed the plug was empty the next day. Spoke with a worker at another LFS and he wanted to chalk it up to possible poor job gluing down the polyps or melting.

Weeks later, I ended up snagging a mystery box from a relatively local (shipped) store that had 3 polyps of magicians on it. Not even five minutes later the plug was empty, so the poor glue/melting theory is out the window.

I'm guessing someone from the list below just has a fix for zoa polyps. No other coral seems to be bothered. (GSP, Mushrooms, xenia, Acro, Monti, Acans, Torches, Hammer etc.).

Inhabitants:
Indian Black Trigger
Purple Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Foxface
Leopard Wrasse
Blue Chromis

 

[keagan]

I would never believe a trigger fish is reef safe even "with caution." With luck, like this site says sums it up well.

https://reefapp.net/en/encyclopedia/melichthys-indicus

 

[Thisisfine]

I would never believe a trigger fish is reef safe even "with caution." With luck, like this site says sums it up well.

https://reefapp.net/en/encyclopedia/melichthys-indicus

That site is shockingly spot on about a lot of things.

Nips at rubber - check
Splashes water out ... frequently /sigh - check
moves small rocks - check

Begs for food all the time but really pays zero attention to the other fish lest it's food aggression. Will go to town on green nori and chase others away until it's had its fill. It's really the only thing big enough, save for the foxface, that I could see taking down those polyps that quick if that's what happened. Hasn't touched anything else frag-wise that I can tell. Only other soft coral is mushrooms/gsp/clove polyps/xenia and all seem untouched.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

You didn't list inverts but there are several inverts I know of that will eat zoa's, IME, sexy shrimp, emerald crabs, cowrie snails. I don't have this experience but I have heard that some asterina's will eat zoa's. But I guess inverts are slow eaters, if yours are disappearing overnight then maybe not inverts.

 

[Thisisfine]

You didn't list inverts but there are several inverts I know of that will eat zoa's, IME, sexy shrimp, emerald crabs, cowrie snails. I don't have this experience but I have heard that some asterina's will eat zoa's. But I guess inverts are slow eaters, if yours are disappearing overnight then maybe not inverts.

Don't have a ton due to the trigger. And yeah, those magicians were gone in the time it took to rinse my arms off, clean up the floor then come back to check on the new frags...lol

Hermits
Astras
Nassarius
Tiger conchs
sand sifting star
brittle star, maybe? never see it

 

[keagan]

Don't have a ton due to the trigger. And yeah, those magicians were gone in the time it took to rinse my arms off, clean up the floor then come back to check on the new frags...lol

Hermits
Astras
Nassarius
Tiger conchs
sand sifting star
brittle star, maybe? never see it

That stinks nothing worse than getting excited over a cool new frag and losing it. Can't imagine one disappearing that must be frustrating and confusing. I've never had a triggerfish but when you see them while diving natural reefs they're pretty indiscriminate eaters chowing down most stuff on the rock.