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Coral Destruction?

theredben

Hatchling
Registered
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5
I have had my cuttlefish for about a month or so and e everything has been going fine, but last night I found one of my mushrooms had been severed. It looked like someone had come in with a razor blade and cut it in half. Since this is a cuttle tank there are no other livestock so I am just wondering if any of you guys have had this happen.
I am just hoping I don't have something crazy hiding in the LR.
 
The "cut" look is worrisome. Do you have any urchins in the tank? I know my pencil urchins will start looking for stationary soft meat if I don't have plants for them (my pin cushions don't show this behavior but I don't keep them in a ceph tank). I have never had mine to split (a red I have in my reef tank is about 6 inches in diameter with a large variety of clean-up crew that have never bothered it) but I have read of people propagating them this way. If you only have half a mushroom, I doubt it was natural. There are some types of snails that might eat mushrooms (as well as other corals) but I don't know their names. If I get an odd snail I put it in a separate pico tank because of this concern. Other than that and the unmentioned dreaded hitch hiking mantis (purchased are no longer dreaded creatures thanks with a lot of help from Roy :wink:), I can't think what might sever a mushroom.
 
it was like someone had cut if off at the base, I have no urchins and i don't think it just split that way. I have not seen any damage since so I will just hope that it was a chance occurence.

I was basically just wondering if anyone else had any experience of cephs destroying corals. But I guess not.
 
I'd like to be a little clearer about what happened - it was sliced through the "stem" where it holds onto the rock? I assumed the mushroom had been sliced down the middle, so you had two half circles, but I guess this is not the case.

I would think that any destruction caused by an octopus would be more like tearing.

Nancy
 
Octos might uproot or try to move just about anything but I have not read any records of cuttles rearranging. You might PM Thales to see if he has observed something similar (but I don't think he keeps anything in the cuttle tanks except cuttles) or Cuttlegirl as they may have missed your post.
 
I have mushrooms in with my cuttles - they do just fine.
it sounds like the shroom detatched which is quite common, though a pic is always helpful in these instances.
 

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