Who is eating my torches?

[thrillreefer]

Noticed this morning that a head of my DS torch is missing! By evening, it’s actually just half missing and partially reopened. But it was whole yesterday when I did a water change, and all other Euphyllias look healthy. This is after I spotted a small emerald crab eating my Knicks torch a few weeks ago. I caught that one and banished it to another tank, plus moved the Knicks to a high frag rack away from crab access. It has not lost any more heads since… The DS torch lost one head around the same time so I suspected that crab was also to blame.

I have a second emerald crab, who I have seen eating algae, but I suspect now has a taste for coral. I set a mysis-baited jar trap tonight, hoping to catch it.

I also have a Pitho crab, numerous hermits, a peppermint shrimp, and skunk cleaner shrimp. Should I suspect any of the other inverts?

Fish are not suspected of torch eating: Anthias, clowns and Banggai cardinals, all well fed.

It’s likely the emerald crab, right? Any tips to catch it would be welcome!

 

[Seansea]

My emarald crab doesnt touch corals. If i was bettin man i woukd say peppermint shrimp.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Have you checked all of your torches for flat worms?

 

[VintageReefer]

PITHOS CRAB

I got 2 in January and they were doing great eating bubble algae and burrowing in sand. Then I caught one literally eating a healthy acan polyp and a few days later he was picking on a hammer. I moved it to a coral free tank. The other one I couldn’t find. These guys burrow and hide under shelter of coral so I figured it would turn up eventually on the sandbed wandering

One day my holy grail torch was completely closed up. It’s never closed. Even at night. I looked and found the other pithos climbed into the branches trying to eat the torch. He wouldn’t come out. I had to remove the entire coral from the tank to get the crab to come out

Look how high my grail is. That is a magnetic floating branch with two shelves. It doesn’t touch anything below it, it comes straight out from the rear glass. You have to climb the glass to get to the attachment point for the branch. Somehow the pithos got up here and to the grail. I do have coralline and thick algae film on the back so I think he was able to climb that

 

[VintageReefer]

I have also caught 2 of my 3 pajama cardinals nipping torch and hammers. One cardinal killed a 5 yr old gold hammer colony.

I had the cardinals 1.5 years before they decided to eat euphyllia. They had to be moved out. Feeding them extra didn’t matter. It became like a uncontrollable urge/curiosity.

One of the cardinals also ate and killed a new 3 head Duncan. And that is when it figured out it likes the taste of Duncan and then I caught him biting the polyps of a 25+ head Duncan colony I had for 2 years. I was able to save the colony

All three cardinals are now removed from the tank.

 

[twentyleagues]

Pretty much all the inverts you listed are the usual suspects in coral munching/irritation. Top contenders pitho, emerald, and peppermints. Cleaner shrimp and hermits are typically just irritants.

 

[thrillreefer]

Great, so basically everyone in my tank is a suspect. A real murder mystery developing here...

I don't suspect any of my fish, I've had them all 6+ plus months and the issues started after adding the Pithos, Emeralds and Peppermint about 2 months ago. The pep is still really small, so the amount of damage it could do in one night doesn't seem the best fit. The crabs are both large and look guilty, always hiding! However, both crabs have been doing a great job getting rid of my bubble algae infestation... I need herbivores! Why can't they eat a Duncan or zoas - something cheap??

Nothing caught in my jar trap last night, but someone ate the mysis. Probably one of the shrimp

 

[thrillreefer]

Have you checked all of your torches for flat worms?

I have not... how would I check, dip them and see what falls off? My understanding of EEFW is the corals would look unhappy/closed up? These go from healthy and open to gone in a night, seems more like a big predator taking bites. But maybe I'm wrong.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

oh great. following! i just ordered a bunch of peppermint shrimp for my aiptasias. didnt know they could go after torches!

 

[Kzang]

I had peppermint when I first started in a bio cube and they would snip off the tentacles one by one

 

[Outlaw Corals]

I have not... how would I check, dip them and see what falls off? My understanding of EEFW is the corals would look unhappy/closed up? These go from healthy and open to gone in a night, seems more like a big predator taking bites. But maybe I'm wrong.

Look on the flesh of the torch that’s where they will be, if you see any just dab them off with a paper towel then dip the torch, look hard they blend right in

 

[thrillreefer]

A couple of updates:

1. So I finally caught a crab messing with my torch! Emerald was climbing and picking all over it yesterday evening. But as I ran to grab my tiny pitchfork to skewer it... I noticed it seemed to be carefully eating algae amongst the heads, and any contact with the polyps looked incidental and gentle. No obvious eating of the coral tissue at all, and it had opportunity. However the head which was half eaten a few days ago, and was last night still half open, in now basically gone.

2. I just noticed my jar trap caught the Pitho crab at some point today! Do I pull it out to my other tank, and see if that helps the torch to avoid any more predation? I haven't seen the Pitho near the torch at all, and the one time I saw it feeding near an LPS, it was picking algae from around an Acan. It was touching the heads and irritating them a bit, but no damage made. Do I pull out the Pitho for now? I think I should but I could also wait and see.

 

[thrillreefer]

Trapped!

 

[thrillreefer]

The other tank is just a 13 gal, and has just softies and anemones, and has plenty of other algae for the crab to eat so I think I'm leaning towards moving it.

 

[VintageReefer]

I moved my pitho into a 1.1g pico reef and he’s been doing good and not bothering those corals

 

[thrillreefer]

Good to hear. I just don't really suspect the Pitho, based on every observation of it. Always eating algae! But I'll move it, and see if that helps the torch situation.

I realized the salinity of the smaller tank is about 1.0275, versus 1.025, so I’m spending today lowering the salinity before I move the crab. Hopefully I’ll in the jar for a day. I threw some food in and it ate hungrily

 

[thrillreefer]

In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to move the Pitho. It’s just been such a tireless algae machine, it earned a spot here. And no more torch death in the past two weeks. Still watching nervously

 

[Spare time]

Why does it have to be that something ate it?

 

[VintageReefer]

Elevate torch on a frag stand like these sand ones - they don’t topple over and keep items elevated and away from crabs


Or put on a magnetic frag shelf like these

 

[thrillreefer]

Why does it have to be that something ate it?

Just my hunch, given that I was working in the tank the day before, and no signs of disease or distress. Plus all other Euphyllias are unbothered. If it was a pathogen or water quality issue I would expect more systemic issues. But who knows