Emergency! Some thing is boring into my coral!

[mushrommy]

Ahh! There's a hole in my toadstool coral and something is sticking its annoying little head out!

 

[paintman]

Yup, had the same thing happen to my sinularia. I ended up doing a little bit of exploratory surgery and ended up finding some kind of crab or whelk. it was definately in a hard shell. I fragged what I could but ended up losing the main stalk eventually.

 

[mushrommy]

Yup, had the same thing happen to my sinularia. I ended up doing a little bit of exploratory surgery and ended up finding some kind of crab or whelk. it was definately in a hard shell. I fragged what I could but ended up losing the main stalk eventually.

how do I remove it? it kinda has shrimp eyes in my opinion. I hope when I get home it hasn't gotten worse.

 

[Tim'sReef]

If it's not to big yet, (which I think it isn't cause I can see the end of the crown in the top right) and you want to be sure you get it out of there. I would cut the stalk above where you think the crab is. Put it in a container with rubble rocks and in low flow and let it attach again. Then remove all the leftover parts on the scape and be sure to remove the crab.

You can try to get the crab out of the hole but I think you could do more harm than good very quickly.

 

[mushrommy]

If it's not to big yet, (which I think it isn't cause I can see the end of the crown in the top right) and you want to be sure you get it out of there. I would cut the stalk above where you think the crab is. Put it in a container with rubble rocks and in low flow and let it attach again. Then remove all the leftover parts on the scape and be sure to remove the crab.

You can try to get the crab out of the hole but I think you could do more harm than good very quickly.

oh no. so I have to frag it? do I just cut the stalk?
Thanks for the reply.

 

[Tim'sReef]

oh no. so I have to frag it? do I just cut the stalk?
Thanks for the reply.

You can try to get it out. But if it was one of my leathers I would have just cut it. In my experience leathers are very tough. But maybe wait for others to chime in. I have no experience with those boring critters so maybe there is a simple trick you could do.

 

[mushrommy]

You can try to get it out. But if it was one of my leathers I would have just cut it. In my experience leathers are very tough. But maybe wait for others to chime in. I have no experience with those boring critters so maybe there is a simple trick you could do.

ok, thanks! If it comes to that I will frag it.

 

[Tim'sReef]

And if you do cut the stalk be careful how you put it in the rubble rock container. It will attach in the easiest way for the coral to do. So if it's laying on its side it will just attach that way and than you have a weird foot attachment thing hanging off.

 

[mushrommy]

Are there any predators to this thing? I highly doubt it and I may have to frag the toadstool but I just to make sure there are any other ways.

 

[mushrommy]

And if you do cut the stalk be careful how you put it in the rubble rock container. It will attach in the easiest way for the coral to do. So if it's laying on its side it will just attach that way and than you have a weird foot attachment thing hanging off.

lol, its already kinda like that but it just made a new foot and slid to the side.

 

[formallydehyde]

Would it be possible to get the whole rock the coral is attached to out and dip it in something irritating but not fatal to whatever the little thing is? Like maybe a little iodine or dilute Revive to get it to panic and seek new shelter? Note: I don't know anything about specifics of toadstool corals so grain of salt here.

 

[mushrommy]

Would it be possible to get the whole rock the coral is attached to out and dip it in something irritating but not fatal to whatever the little thing is? Like maybe a little iodine or dilute Revive to get it to panic and seek new shelter? Note: I don't know anything about specifics of toadstool corals so grain of salt here.

Ok I'll try that first and if it doesn't work I'll frag and remove. I'll let you know what I find.

 

[formallydehyde]

Ok I'll try that first and if it doesn't work I'll frag and remove. I'll let you know what I find.

I'm kind of excited to find out what this thing is.

 

[Tim'sReef]

I'm kind of excited to find out what this thing is.

Same here. Try and take a picture if you get it out.

 

[mushrommy]

They're amphipods in there. They're walking in and out. And there's holes forming in my other toadstool coral. I think this may be a disease. Anyone know what this is?

 

[formallydehyde]

They're amphipods in there. They're walking in and out. And there's holes forming in my other toadstool coral. I think this may be a disease. Anyone know what this is?

There's allegedly a snail species (Rapa rapa) that bores pretty deep into leather corals and eats them from the inside out but I can't find much about it other than that, and have no idea if that's even the right species or just what someone thought it kind of looked like.