Khemul's 120 Gallon Tank

Ohhhhhhh :). Ya, don't cut it :laugh:

A pic would help but if it seems to be mostly in tact, I might be inclined to leave it be.
 
Well someone in the tank solved that problem. A bit harshly though.

Polyp looked like it was hanging in there before I went to work today. Got home tonight to find a bare skeleton. :eek:


Not sure if an urchin walked across it by accident or if it got eaten, but no sign of the polyp left in the tank. So recovery is probably not very likely.
 
Before
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After
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Ah well. Gonna have to keep a close eye on things but I'm noticing a pattern. Whoever is eating corals (and I'm 99% certain it is an urchin) only goes after heavily stressed corals. I put two zoanthid frags in a few weeks ago. One medium-sized black and green and one small-sized tan and yellow. The medium-sized zoanthid settled in very nicely. The mini zoanthids didn't open up for about 4-5 days, then the rock was striped bare. Same thing with Yellow Polyps and Green-Star Polyps. They partially open or don't open at all, then 4-5 days later the rock they are on is striped bare. Anything that opens up and thrives though is left alone.

My old Poly/Zoa frag is getting a VERY weird combo of this effect. The frag apparently went to war with itself. One week the Poly's would be open and happy and the Zoas would be stressed, the next it'd be the opposite. Looks like it ended with the survivors being a couple of happy Poly's. The rest, striped off. :nilly:



Guess that is the CUC doing its job. I just wish they'd give things a slight chance. I have an aunt that lives on the other half of the house that is like that. If a flower droops or a leaf turns brown the plant gets declared dead and ripped out of the ground (lost a thriving Orchid that way, because the roots appeared "dead" :irked:). :laugh:
 
Isn't this a tux urchin? If so, I seriously doubt he is the culprit. You could very easily tear off a week polyp like the euphyllia but not with the intent of eating it. Not sure what else you have in terms of a CUC but snails and hermits often get blamed for just cleaning up the remains of a dead/dying coral. Euphyllia polyps are also known to "bail out" when under distress. Sorry you lost it :(.
 
They are pincushion urchins (there are three of them - purple, green and white w/ pink tips).

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure they ate it. I could easily see one walking across it and grabbing on (either intentionally or unintentionally) and pealing the rest off. I had considered bailout also but there are some signs that the urchins were moving around that rock during the time also.
 
Okay, well it wasn't eaten. :laugh:

Got home tonight and I guess one of the burrowers had done housecleaning since the head was tumbling along the sand. Not sure if there is any chance of recovery but I stuck it on a rock in the refugium.

So I guess either it got torn off accidently or it bailed. Any chance of the head growing a new skeleton or is being disconnected from the skeleton basically a death sentence?
 
From my research it looks like survival is very unlikely. But for now it appears to be hanging in there in the refugium. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I came down with a touch of insanity and am currently transitioning the refugium from Caulerpa to Hair Algae. :nilly:
Figure it'll be more useful in the long-run since the grazers prefer it to Caulerpa. And while it grows a little slower, it should have just as much filtration potential given the amount of space available. Haven't seen the Morio Sea Hare down there lately, but I am planning on moving him up top if I catch him out some time soon.

Also ended with a population boom of...something. Not sure if they are bristleworms or something related. They look like mini-bristleworms at least. White and a range of rather small fractions of an inch in length (think the biggest was 1/4"). Not sure if the bristleworms were breeding or what but the little white critters were suddenly all over the glass in the refugium. Then an hour later they were all back into hiding.
 
Did they have red bands down the center of them?
 
greech said:
Did they have red bands down the center of them?
Click to expand...

Not that I can tell. Just white. Would need some magnifying to get anymore details. 1/4 or smaller bristleworm-like body. Which means width-wise they are about as thick as a strand of hair algae. :laugh:

They hang out around the waters edge. They don't seem to be hurting anything. Think they may be eating the muck that builds at the surface (no surface agitation down there).
 
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The tank looks amazing, Khem!
 
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