Darth Maul Chalice sweepers....?

Edgecrusher28 · Apr 22, 2023

I have had a frag of WWC Darth Maul Chalice growing out for some time now on a frag disc. Oddly enough I lost a nice Frostbite Acan colony that was also on a frag disc that was growing nicely right next to the Chalice awhile ago that I chalked up to dosing error. Long story short, I came downstairs today to find what appeared to be a giant spit wad/loogie looking substance covering another frag that retracted back into the Chalice. I assume this was a sweeper type deal but it looked nothing like any other sweeper tentacle I have seen. Just curious to see what you all had to say about this? I had no idea Chalice could sit out alien like goo!

TIA.

Lost in the Sauce · Apr 22, 2023

Edgecrusher28 said:
I have had a frag of WWC Darth Maul Chalice growing out for some time now on a frag disc. Oddly enough I lost a nice Frostbite Acan colony that was also on a frag disc that was growing nicely right next to the Chalice awhile ago that I chalked up to dosing error. Long story short, I came downstairs today to find what appeared to be a giant spit wad/loogie looking substance covering another frag that retracted back into the Chalice. I assume this was a sweeper type deal but it looked nothing like any other sweeper tentacle I have seen. Just curious to see what you all had to say about this? I had no idea Chalice could sit out alien like goo!

TIA.

Yup. Chalices are MEAN. They can and will AT&T.

Some sweepers are long and skinny, some short and fat, but when they connect and they decide to play, they can wreck house.

JasonVH · Apr 22, 2023

Could have been mesenterial filaments. Basically 'guts' spilling out to attack by digesting other corals. To my understanding almost all if not all LPS and SPS are able to use those. The difference is more of 'how often/willing' a species deploys them.

Edgecrusher28 · Apr 22, 2023

JasonVH said:
Could have been mesenterial filaments. Basically 'guts' spilling out to attack by digesting other corals. To my understanding almost all if not all LPS and SPS are able to use those. The difference is more of 'how often/willing' a species deploys them.

I had to look that up, I had no idea what the heck that was or even that the coral could do that but that is exactly what was going on; so bizarre. It honestly looked like the Chalice was eating the Leptastrea frag, I wonder if it got my Acan as well!

Thanks for the info.

JasonVH · Apr 23, 2023

Edgecrusher28 said:
I had to look that up, I had no idea what the heck that was or even that the coral could do that but that is exactly what was going on; so bizarre. It honestly looked like the Chalice was eating the Leptastrea frag, I wonder if it got my Acan as well!

Thanks for the info.

Isn't it fun how something like a coral can continue to surprise us huh?

I'd bet on the chalice doing the same to the acan.

A branching cyphastrea frag fell down by a favia colony during the night. It was already 100% bare to the skeleton by the time I discovered it in the morning.. No other corals nearby- deliberately kept the favia well away from everyone else because of their reputation for being rather aggressive. That'll teach me I guess, ha!