Is this a new head forming?

[fishguy242]

i see it if verm,can break out and super glue closed ,but not entirely sure what this is ,but def following along

 

[fishguy242]

is it poss a tunicate ??

 

[terraincognita]

is it poss a tunicate ??

idk man.... idk....

I hope it's something cool.

I'm not a fan of killing. but don't mess with my coral.....

 

[Bleigh]

Does it ever have mucous strings? I had something like that on my acan, and I ended up taking it out and stabbing it/scraping it off. I assumed it was just a vermitid that got really big. Can’t wait to find out if it was something else.

 

[fnlyreefready]

if its not something put in the tank then stab it with some iodine and forget about it man idk what it is and the pictures make it very hard to tell. id cook that bas**** and it be settled.

 

[fishguy242]

have you poked it ?is it hard or soft?

 

[Anubisxii]

I'm curious as to what this turns out to be.

 

[terraincognita]

Does it ever have mucous strings? I had something like that on my acan, and I ended up taking it out and stabbing it/scraping it off. I assumed it was just a vermitid that got really big. Can’t wait to find out if it was something else.

Nothing else I can notice besides really what it looks like in the photos.

I feel like it’s some type of cousin to the vermitid

 

[terraincognita]

if its not something put in the tank then stab it with some iodine and forget about it man idk what it is and the pictures make it very hard to tell. id cook that bas**** and it be settled.

I agree with this mindset 100%

but I’d like to see if someone knows across the World Wide Web .

I’ll probably end up just super gluing him. Shut and covering up the whole with the red tubes also.

I just don’t want to do anything that’s gonna harm the coral.

don’t wanna poke or cut it cuz I don’t know what it is.

Don’t want to release any toxins I’m unaware of.

 

[terraincognita]

have you poked it ?is it hard or soft?

The outside is def hard. Whatever it is blends in with the skeleton of the coral really well.

I didn’t touch the filament part or the tubes Incase it leaks something, it’s right on my hammer and I don’t wanna kill it. Waste of $100 if I error :-(.

 

[fnlyreefready]

I agree with this mindset 100%

but I’d like to see if someone knows across the World Wide Web .

I’ll probably end up just super gluing him. Shut and covering up the whole with the red tubes also.

I just don’t want to do anything that’s gonna harm the coral.

don’t wanna poke or cut it cuz I don’t know what it is.

Don’t want to release any toxins I’m unaware of.

i poke iodine around my corals all the time. some people even use lemon juice... personally i just dont like the acid. i regularly sift threw zoas to find apistasia with the needle and have never lost any. catch it when its open and stick it dead center and give it about .2 ml it will mess its chemistry up and it will die in seconds without adding any harsh chemicals to your tank like glues.

 

[terraincognita]

i poke iodine around my corals all the time. some people even use lemon juice... personally i just dont like the acid. i regularly sift threw zoas to find apistasia with the needle and have never lost any. catch it when its open and stick it dead center and give it about .2 ml it will mess its chemistry up and it will die in seconds without adding any harsh chemicals to your tank like glues.

I’ll keep that in mind.

yeah good point actually on the leaking chemicals. Was talking about the creature leaking some kind of toxin into the hammer. But true on the glue.

I realized while it is on a frag plug I glued that plug down. Was planning to take it out and glue it, but that’s gonna be too hard.

 

[KJ]

Google Bivalve.

 

[terraincognita]

Google Bivalve.

Thanks KJ..

You sent me down the right path.

I think i'd need a Marine Biologist to give me the exact ID, but I've gotten the idea of what it is.

If none of you want to open any of the links below to read a bit more, seems there are thousands of species of nuisance clam/mollusk family bivalves, that can attach themselves onto corals or rock etc.

They can literally embed into the coral, basically giving you almost no idea they are there.

Some focus on just using the coral/rock as a host, others feed off them as a host once established.

Either way, its a nuisance item in the tank. The only good thing about it is they say since they're "delicate filter feeders" they're not commonly long survived in tanks.

Seeing as I can keep a few other filter feeders, good to know I can keep nuisance bivalve/mollusk/mussel/clam family pests alive too :mad:.

Now how to kill it?

I'm not sure if the tube is connected to it, the two little red tubes could be a SEPARATE animal as well.... Might be a vermitid in the whole, and a nuisance bivalve on the side.

any suggestions are helpful. If Iodine works on clams and inverts like that too I can try, but I don't want to harm my hammer for sure, it might go inside the skeleton structure then poisoning my hammer if that makes sense.

Please let me know anyone's suggestions or help.

whats on my hammer coral?

Hope you can see on the pic. The stem on my hammer frag has what I thought was the skeleton of a dead head or something on it. Its full length, top to bottom. However, I have now noticed it opens and closes. Is it some kind of bivalve? You can (hopefully) see the wiggly opening? I Just to add, I ...

www.nano-reef.com

BivIDFAQs

www.wetwebmedia.com

Aquarium Invertebrates: A Look at Some Azooxanthellate Epifaunal Bivalves

James Fatherree explores the biology of non-photosynthetic clams, scallops, and oysters commonly encountered by reefkeepers. While most of these bivalves are not impossible to keep with advances in captive reef nutrition, their surprisingly high dietary requirements make their husbandry difficult.

reefs.com

Boring Bivalves Can Eat Corals from the Inside! | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

During our stay with the UCA team, and the few diving we made with them, we noticed that many corals, and especially Lobophyllia were showing weird holes on their polyps. After investigation…

reefbuilders.com

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10402381.2020.1756008

Some also claim they're harmless and just use the coral for hosts, so maybe the red tubes are a vermetid but the bivalve is separate and harmless.

Also don't want to kill something I don't have to.

But one of those things has to die, something is stopping my hammer from growing i'm sure of it now.

 

[KJ]

Thanks KJ..

YW.

 

[terraincognita]

Well.

I've decided I'm going to just use ICE Reef glue over the little hole next to the bivalve, and see what happens with the hammer.

If after a month or so I don't notice any slight growth or improvement in the hammer. I'll figure out what to do with the bivalve.

 

[Bleigh]

Well.

I've decided I'm going to just use ICE Reef glue over the little hole next to the bivalve, and see what happens with the hammer.

If after a month or so I don't notice any slight growth or improvement in the hammer. I'll figure out what to do with the bivalve.

Yeah. Fingers crossed that dealing with the creature will improve the growth of the hammer for you. Craziness.