Which fish have been eating my xenia ?

[littlevietnam]

I have a 180 gal tank with lot of fish and corals. For the last 3 weeks I have a little problem with adding xenia into my tank.

The xenia will not last for 1-2 days, all other corals are doing fine. All xenia frags kept inside a in-tank fuge are fine and growing.

Just the xenia colony....sign of it been picking and eating off the rock. I just put a colony into my tank, this morning it was beautiful and healthy. Just checked it again and gone..gone, only the base left. Again sign of it been eaten and fish picking.

Fish:

angel fish
blue tang
naso tang -- suspected
damsel
purple tang
blenny

if you have any similar problem please help. I will be putting a fish camera tomorrow to catch this xenia killer.

[reefshadow]

personally i would suspect the angel first, is it a centropyge or a 'large' angel? like you suspect, some tangs have also been known to pick on corals too.

[lws]

Powder blue tang! I've heard a few people on here say and watched it myself, something in xenia must be tasty to them. I had a few colonys which came in on some live rock and it was doing fine till my cheeky pbt started nibbling them to death.

[eliteaqua]

I had my turbo snails eat my xenia . They made quick work of it!

[boxfishpooalot]

my boxfish ate all my xenia. I heard powder blues may eat them too. I think Weatherman stated that his pb ate his xenia.

I also would suspec the angelfish.

[falconut]

My Foxface niped mine in the beginning, and it's a cousin of the Tangs, so it could be possible. Now, I had a peppermint shrimp (not a camel) that was eating my Xenia. I don't know if you have any shrimp, but it could be a possiblity. HTH

[littlevietnam]

I will be setting a camera for 24 hours and I will put a small frag of xenia out there to see...

I have 2 cleaner shrimps and 3 banded shrimps. About 50-75 turbo snails, I bought 2-3 large rocks fill about 15-20 large heads of xenia...with in 1-2 days, they are all gone, looking at the base left on the rocks, 99% some fish have been eaten and picked on it. There are also small small bubs of xenia between the rocks or inside small gaps. They are okay and fine. So I am suspecting the large naso tang.

I will keep all of you posted or if you have any suggestion please let me know.