justonwo
Active Member
Here is a mystery that has been dogging me for over a year. Every once in a while, and for no apparent reason, a mysterious, white, cottony substance pretty much dissolves a section of my acropora valida. I mean, in a matter of 12 hours it it will eat through the flesh of this perfectly healthy coral and right down to the skeleton. If I don't pull this material/creature/whatever-it-is off my acro, it will spread and destroy large sections of the acro.
The thing is, it doesn't seem to have any substance. It looks like a translucent, cottony substance - sort of with a tube structure, usually with what look like grains of sand in it. But it pulls away almost as if it's made of nothing. It doesn't quite look like a sponge. And it doesn't move around or behave like a creature. It just pops up on the fringes of my acro and starts to destroy everything in its path.
If I pull it away (and it will pull away easily in little tufts), it goes away for a while. Maybe weeks or months. But it always crops back up and ONLY on this acro. I've posted on other forums, and no one has ever been able to come close to identifying it. I've posted close-up pictures and photos as best I can.
What on earth is this deranged, mutant, killer monster acro eater?
Here's a picture of the damage on the base of my acro from last year.
Here's another picture of a section that was eaten away. You can just barely make out the faint outlines of the translucent material sitting in the skeleton. Never mind the acoel flatworm.
Here's a picture of the stuff that gets pulled away.
Here's the stuff under magnification. After photographing it, I rubbed it between my fingers to get a feel for the texture. After rolling it around, I was basically left with what felt like very fine sand. It's similar to a sponge in a way. Hopefully, these photos will help.
The thing is, it doesn't seem to have any substance. It looks like a translucent, cottony substance - sort of with a tube structure, usually with what look like grains of sand in it. But it pulls away almost as if it's made of nothing. It doesn't quite look like a sponge. And it doesn't move around or behave like a creature. It just pops up on the fringes of my acro and starts to destroy everything in its path.
If I pull it away (and it will pull away easily in little tufts), it goes away for a while. Maybe weeks or months. But it always crops back up and ONLY on this acro. I've posted on other forums, and no one has ever been able to come close to identifying it. I've posted close-up pictures and photos as best I can.
What on earth is this deranged, mutant, killer monster acro eater?
Here's a picture of the damage on the base of my acro from last year.
Here's another picture of a section that was eaten away. You can just barely make out the faint outlines of the translucent material sitting in the skeleton. Never mind the acoel flatworm.
Here's a picture of the stuff that gets pulled away.
Here's the stuff under magnification. After photographing it, I rubbed it between my fingers to get a feel for the texture. After rolling it around, I was basically left with what felt like very fine sand. It's similar to a sponge in a way. Hopefully, these photos will help.
