Mesenterial filaments

[Fishfinder]

Are they good or bad? Do they come out when a coral is hungry or when a coral is stressed/upset?

 

[jda]

This depends on who you ask.

I have never had my corals show any, even when feeding, when they are healthy. This is just me, though. Others probably have. I do not let me corals get close enough to "fight."

The competing theories is that the corals will deploy them to feed when happy. The other is that they will only risk a deployment when they are stressed and in need of a life-line to survive... sort of a last-ditch kind of thing. They will certainly deploy them to fight with something nearby.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Definitely theories behind it.

Mine did this before it started stn'ing 2 weeks later.

 

[DSC reef]

I get them on certain SPS and LPS when feeding the tank. Some corals do it while others don't. Never experienced any bad from it unless a coral was throwing them to digest another coral.

 

[Krzydmnd]

This is my sunrise Mille. It does this every time I feed the tank...

 

[speedstar]

I think both cause it, I have scene it most when my corals have recovered from a bleach after a light change mishap in my case.

 

[Chris04]

Hungry [emoji39], what’s your nitrate and phos levels

 

[Scorpius]

They're bad news bears in my tank. I never want to see those filaments ever.

 

[bubbaque]

I prefer not to see them also. I do see those sometimes when nutrients are low.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Only see them on certain species when certain types of acropora if food is added, like pe mysis soaked in selcon, that will do it. Never seen them on a coral that's about to die. This year I have only fed pellet food, and haven't seen any filaments at all. Kinda sums it all up for me, but lots of people would disagree.
Why would it be using it's energy putting filaments out if it was struggling and about to die? That's my question.

 

[Christopher Aslett]

SPS may feed with slime nets. However, this is not what this is. It looks like mesenterial filaments. Does this occur when you simply feed fish or when you dump a considerable amount of protein into the water on a heavy coral feed? As I understand it, mesenterial filaments are a feeding response. They are trying to digest their opponent. I am trying to find out whether this is a response to a spike of ammonia and / or a sudden nosedive in ORP.

The water looks good and the other corals are okay. Pockets of H2S pockets would produce more at such times. Any cyanobacteria in the system?