Someone's Eating My Corals

[deeron01]

My Star coral, Open brain coral and clam are being hit. They are all in generally the same area (not within stinging tentacle range of Star coral). I have a large number of what I think are copepods, that appear to be all over and/or around these. I also have thousands of small snails everywhere in the tank. I think I also see Scuds.

If I didn't hear and read that copepods are good, I would think it was them. They are the most abundant organism I see aound these corals. The snails don't appear to be attacking these areas, but they sure seem to be taking over the tank, as do the copepods.

I've got small black segmented worms, a few hermit crabs and a few larger snails, but I'm not seeing these around the corals, even at night.

I've never seen any of my three Tang's touch these.

Any suggestions on what it may be and what I can do to stop it?

120 gal reef tank

Thanks - you folks are much more knowledgeable than anyone in my LFS.

D

[Damon]

Use a red lens at watch the tank at night. Your culprit is probably attacking at night. May be a bad bristleworm or some other hitchhiker.

[flamingo]

Could you tell us what type of snails? There are some predatory snails, and are there just copepods on the clams. etc.? There are also predatory "bugs" that can eat away and eliminate clams and the like.

Could it be your tanks conditions? The water flow? Anything particular about that spot in the tank? A little more info may help us out, and of course definitely see if there are any "hitchhikers" that are mysteriously running around your tank.