Urchin eating zoas?

[Chris_Nicol]

I bought 2 zoa polyps to try them out yesterday. However I have woke up this morning and my long spined urchin was over them and now they are gone.

Is this normal? Live Aquaria website says they are reef safe

[Sniperhank]

I would be more inclined to think that they faded away due to not liking the parameters in the system. Some zoas are very finicky in regards to alkalinity levels.
Anytime you're putting a new frag or something into a system, the 'local' livestock is going to be interested in what all is growing on it. It's like being able to go to that expensive restaurant in town once a year.

[Chris_Nicol]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

I would be more inclined to think that they faded away due to not liking the parameters in the system. Some zoas are very finicky in regards to alkalinity levels.
Anytime you're putting a new frag or something into a system, the 'local' livestock is going to be interested in what all is growing on it. It's like being able to go to that expensive restaurant in town once a year.

Really? That quickly? They were in the system for around 10 hours and they opened up after being in the tank for around 30mins and stayed open until the lights went out

[Sniperhank]

Could also be something else that consumed them, but I'm not aware of any urchin in the hobby that consume zoas.

[coralbandit]

I had long spine [ black] and pencil urchins that both ate my xenia and other softies .
They were banned to sump until traded in.
My buddy had same experience in his reef tank with long spine also.

[Chris_Nicol]

Yeah it's a black one I have. It hasn't touched my acan, toadstool or monti. But he was on the zoa frag plug for about 2 hours then I noticed the polyps were gone.

Looks like he might be getting returned