what's eating my elegance?

[newreefinsc]

My elegance has been thriving for a year, but lately it has been drawn up. I checked all parameters and was fine. I've done 2 30% water changes. All of my other corals look great, but something is wrong with the elegance. I started looking last night, and in that corner of the tank, there are these very fine, tentacle looking things, all over the sand. They're extremely small, like hair, but there are a lot of them. They seem to just spring up from out of the sand, and they're only around the elegance. I don't have a camera good enough to take a picture of something that small. Any ideas?

 

[Bifferwine]

Do the small tentacle things seem alive, like they're living in the sand? Or do they seem like they are being dropped off of something?

 

[newreefinsc]

They're alive. Yesterday, I moved the elegance and vigorously vacuumed the area under and around it. There were a lot of tubes buried in the sand, presumably where the tentacles were coming from. I got a straining spoon and strained them out and got quite a few. 2 were even on the side of the elegance. It's opening a little more this morning. Maybe they were just irritating it?

 

[Awol]

Definitely a possibility. Do you have any flat rocks that the elegance could go on temporarily to see if that improves? Otherwise a small piece of acrylic set underneath it on the sand might do the trick to ward them off if they are in the sand only...

 

[yote]

Are the tenticles kind of a brownish green color?
I've got quiet a few spegitti worms that live in the sand.The usually eat detritus.
I wouldnt think they bother your elegance coral.

 

[newreefinsc]

The tentacles are opaque to white. Awol, that acrylic sounds like a really good idea. I've got some other tubes on my rocks that some on here said were probably snails, and these look very similar, but they don't emit the "webs" that the snails do, and there are a lot more of the ones in the sand than there are on the rocks.

 

[Bifferwine]

They sound like spaghetti worms to me. Spaghetti worms are usually harmless, but if you get enough of them, they can become a nuisance. Ive had zoanthid colonies die off because there were spaghetti worms growing among the polyps, and when the worms were extended, they'd irritate the polyps and keep them from opening. You might want to look into getting a reef-safe wrasse, they tend to eat those types of worms.

 

[newreefinsc]

I'm always afraid to buy something to eat something else. Seems like they always end up eating the wrong thing.

 

[yote]

You'd be alright with a wrasse though.They pretty much perfer worms to eat.

 

[newreefinsc]

I ws reading about wrasses in "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" last night, and a six-line sounds perfect. My only reservation is that I already have a significant bio-load. Would a meat-eater put too much on my 55? I have a yellow tang, flame angel, ocellaris, mandarin, 2 fire-fish, 3 skunk cleaners, and a fire shrimp, along with several LPS. My skimmer does a great job keeping up, and my water quality is good, but would another fish overwhelm the system? Also, would it compete with the mandarin for food?

 

[yote]

I doubt a sixline would push the load too much,but it would compete with the mandrine for pods.

 

[Picasso]

I was thinking, gosh, what a poetic question! Then I googled and realized that elegance is a coral. Sigh, still a newbie!

catherine

 

[Bifferwine]

I think the sixline would be fine. They are small.

 

[newreefinsc]

OK, my LFS has a sixline. I'm going to get it tonight. If my tank crashes, my mandarin starves, or if Benjamin Linus doesn't die next week, I'm holding Yote and Biff totally responsible!

... if you get it, it could start a lively discussion. If not, I'm a dork, and I'm sorry...

 

[newreefinsc]

I was thinking, gosh, what a poetic question! Then I googled and realized that elegance is a coral. Sigh, still a newbie!

catherine

Hahahahaha

 

[newreefinsc]

...aaaaahhahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Still laughing!
That is sooooo funny!