Eaten acanthastrea corals

[Flynxter]

I've recently introduced some Acans to my tank and I'm seeking some advice. Here's what's happened so far: they've been in the tank for about a week, and I had them dipped and settled in by lunchtime. However, when the lights went out around 2030, I noticed one of the polyps was gone. I found a few suspects lurking nearby - a gorilla crab, a mithrax crab, a peppermint shrimp, and my cleaner shrimp - but none of them were actively eating the polyp at the time, so I'm still unsure who the culprit is.

I have a couple of questions to help me address the situation:

1. What are the potential long-term effects of keeping the Acans under a plastic container to help them recover? I've been using a plastic fruit container to provide some protection.

2. How long can I expect it to take for the missing polyp to regrow? I've already noticed some tissue regrowth on one edge of the skeleton, which is encouraging.

[_frostbite]

I once fragged an Acan and cut a head in half - it took about a month to grow back, though I'm sure that can vary. I had to remove my peppermint shrimp from the tank because they'd try to pull the Acan apart when I fed it. I've heard a lot of people have issues with them and LPS, and mine even destroyed my feather duster. As for the mithrax crab, I've had emerald crabs in the past - I think they're similar, but red? I caught them one night eating an SPS and pulled them, though I never saw them go after any other SPS. I've got two more mithrax in my tank now, but no LPS, so I'm not sure if they'd be a problem or not.

[Flynxter]

Yeah, the mithrax I have are definitely red, and they came in as live rock hitchhikers. They're a breeding pair, which is kinda cool - nothing's survived yet, but I'm sure the eggs are a nice snack for something. They haven't shown any interest in my fish, SPS, Zoas, or LPS so far. This is my first Acan, though. The male's gotten pretty big, almost too big - his appetite might change at this rate.

[_frostbite]

Had mine for months, no issues, then one day I noticed some skin was missing on my green stag SPS. Caught him in the act one night after lights out, munching away. Grabbed the net, snagged him - easy catch - and rehomed him the next day.

[northbay]

I had a similar nightmare with my peppermint shrimp. They ravaged my Zoanthid colonies, ripping the skirt off over 15 polyps right before my eyes. Initially, I thought they were just helping with the cleaning, but it quickly became apparent that the large chunks they were tearing off were not part of any cleaning process. It was months before my Zoas were able to recover from the damage.

[Flynxter]

It seems like peppermint shrimp can be pretty inconsistent. My main suspects are still the peppermint and that gorilla crab I caught. Luckily, my zoas have been left alone, but it's clear that different people's peppermints have varying tastes for causing trouble.

[Aurorax]

I woke up to a nightmare - my beautiful LPS being ravaged. Peppermint shrimp were the culprits. I had introduced an army of them to tackle an aptasia issue and they did their job in just two days. I guess they got bored with the lack of food and decided to try something new - my Acans. Over the next week, I noticed they were looking worse and worse. That's when I caught the little critters in the act, ripping chunks off my poor Acans. I felt helpless, watching my colonies disappear one by one.

[Flynxter]

I've got a single peppermint that might be the guilty party. Still trying to catch that sneaky gorilla crab, though - my bottle trap has snagged every detritivore in the tank except that one. Came down one morning to find my cleaner shrimp stuck in there, looking pretty bashful.

On a more positive note, I've got the Acans covered with a food-grade pflintix9tic berry container (plenty of holes for flow) and they've had a snack. The exposed skeleton's now completely covered in flesh, and it looks like a polyp is growing back - progress!